Palestine´s West Bank - a territory of just under 2,200 square miles with a population of 4.2 million, wedged betwen Israel and Jordan - has long been a trove of history and culture enjoyed by millions of visitors in recent decades, especially those attracted to biblical history (mostly but far from exclusively Christians from around the world). But beginning in the fall of 2023, Israel responded to the brutal murders and kidnappings of more than a thousand of its citizens by Gaza´s terrorist rulers Hamas by inflicting its own, vastly more massive, terroristic campaign of genocide, mass destruction, and mass starvation in Gaza, as well as ramping up attacks against Palestinians from Israeli settlers (which now number around 700,000), more seizures of their lands in the West Bank, and even plans by radical right-wing Israelis including politicians of outright annexation and removal of all Palestinians, whose history stretches back here for thousands of years. So naturally, thanks to all the uncertainty, unrest, and increasing violence on the part of the Israeli settlers and army, tourism to the West Bank has not merely declined but all but disappeared, now estimated at some two to three percent of prewar levels, with visitors in the mere hundreds.
But with all these burning issues so much in the headlines these days, it´s well worth taking a look at the remarkable sites and experiences the West Bank has to offer, with the hope that after all the death, destruction, and acrimony of the present day, tourism can return to this land. Unlike in Gaza, whose sites (covered on Tripatini here) have essentially been obliterated along with everything else, all of these seven key destinations still endure - for now:
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