Safety Tips in Jerusalem

There is a neighborhood in Jerusalem called Me'a She'arim (100 gates in english).

The residents of this neighborhood are ultra orthodox jews.
If you will enter this neighborhood try to wear long clothes (or not too short) , don't take their pictures because most of them don't like it and you don't know how they will react and if you want to visit on friday or saturday you should know that you cannot enter with a vehicle only by foot , because it is forbidden.

Jerusalem is a holy city for the 3 religions - Judaism , Christianity and Islam.
There are a lot of holy places for those religions so try to respect the place - wear clothes that are not too short , be quiet in those places.

jerusalem shuts down like the whole city is in mourning around four or five on friday afternoon until saturday night. about 85% of the restaurants are closed and all the shops and stores are closed. there's noticably very few people on the streets and worst of all, there are no busses in the city or out of the city. you will have a lot more fun if you spend friday night somewhere other than jerusalem. on the other hand, jerusalem has a different feeling about it on saturdays when there's no one about.

Well, I guess there are many subjects that can be written about safety in Jerusalem, but I am not the right person to tell you about it, my self, I never had any problems in Jerusalem, in the west side, east side or the old city. The only problems my Finnish friend has was with the women soldiers of course, they are so beautiful that he was in shocked and did not knew with whom to speak first.

Ok, this is a important tip.

As soon as I told everyone that we were going to Israel, everyone got worried about us, some call us crazy and other just told us to be careful (well that is good, it means they really care about us and appreciate us hehehe) but seriously I never felt so safe (except on the road driving, not sure who learn to drive here, if people of Madrid teached them or Madrilians learned from them hehehehe just kidding lol)

The imagines we see on Tv are from certain areas that most of the tourist do not reach (Palestine occupied territory), I am not going to makes comments of who is right or wrong, as for any history there are always two sides of the history. And with the years we all know, that nothing is white or black, and none of us is right 100% ...

Tourist have never been targeted by terrorism here, and I found that most of the places I had been were very safe.

So I really recommend people to visit this country.

By sure I will be back (yes Martin, I have to try your wonderful bbq lol)

Of course common sense is important be careful of your belongs, do not accept anything from strangers, etc...

Everything owned or operated by jews in Jerusalem closes at sundown on Friday and doesn't open again until Saturday after sundown, as this is the Jewish day of rest (Shabbat). Even the buses stop running as well as the sheruts from the airport so make sure you are settled in during this time as transportation, shopping, and dining are at a minimum.

Its a medically recognised illness! Overwhelmed by the proximity of the Christian and Biblical references, approx 200 people per year suffer from Jerusalem Syndrome! In a nutshell, they believe they are a biblical character (Jesus is the favourite, but the Virgin Mary and Samson have been known to traipse the streets). It is more common among men and tend to be between the ages of 20-35 (and usually from a strong religious background). Luckily it tends to be temporary! Usual treatment is to leave the country.....Israel was on high alert for the year 2000 and the feared (many) 2nd (or in Jewish terms, the 1st) coming of the Saviour. It never materialised.

Israel and the Palestinians will likely not see the billions in tourism revenue they had expected as violence plagues the Holy Land in what should have been a banner year — the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ birth was suppose to kick the tourism to top levels, but the hotels are nearly empty and flights out of the country is full. This picture was taken in June 2000 before the riots started and pilgrims where going wild visiting the holy sites in Jerusalem.