• GOD STOPS AT THE BORDER


    AN ADVENTURE IN THE SINAI DESERT

    Israeli Independence Day, by Gideon Lichfield

    Gideon Lichfield goes in search of a messianic settler, who is giving safe haven to Sudanese refugees in a desert kibbutz, hard by Israel's border with Egypt. Not strictly travel writing, but try beating this for a sense of place ...

    From our travel blog, FURTHERMORE


    KIBBUTZ Kadesh Barnea is literally the last stop before Egypt. About 50 yards after the turn-off to the kibbutz is a decrepit military observation tower and a sign saying “Official Vehicles Only”. The border fence runs alongside the road. We didn’t think it could be the border fence, until I switched off the car engine and we heard Egyptian music issuing from a tinny radio in a hut on the other side. The Egyptians helpfully waved their torches at the Israeli soldiers patrolling somewhere down the road to warn them that someone might be trying to trespass.

    It is an incongruous part of the country. As you drive down from Jerusalem, the towns give way to sprawling Bedouin villages that are fighting a losing battle for recognition and state services. Then the encampments thin out, and for a while there is nothing but army bases, prisons and war memorials, whose very remoteness seems itself a form of mourning. There are also some really weird road signs. As we approached the border, with the sun about to set, the slight background claustrophobia that accompanies wherever I go in this tiny country fell away, and I became suddenly aware of the immensity of the Sinai desert opening up ahead.  read more »


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