Army Base and Independence Hall

Today, we got to go to the army base where 5 of the Israeli soldier on our trip are stationed. We were able to see the barracks and mess hall, which were both fairly comparable to accommodations at university. After the brief tour, 2 of the soldiers from the K9 unit demonstrated 3 drills involving their attack dogs. Wearing a special suit, the soldier is protected from the dog. The dog was let loose to attack the ‘terrorist’. The dog jumped at him and bit onto his arm and did not let go. The dog is trained to keep hold of the suspect until the dog’s owner – and only the owner pries the dog off the person. In the second drill, the suspect was dressed as a civilian, and again the dog was sent to attack – only this time the dog had a muzzle on. The 125 pound dog jumped at the ‘civilian’ and knocked him over. The dog continued to harass the person by jumping at him and repeatedly knocking him over. The dog owner even had trouble wrestling the dog away from the suspect.
We learned about the 3 types of dogs used in the army (attack, bomb sniffing, and search and rescue). We were told about how the dog units are integrated into other units to assist with the mission at hand. We were also shown some vicious scars that were left on the soldiers during the dangerous training involved with the dogs.
Right as we left the base it started to rain heavily. This was the first time the entire trip where the weather has not been absolutely perfect. It kept raining for at least the next 12 hours which was when we boarded the plane. We had some time to eat and shop before we went for our last activity – a tour of independence hall, the place where Israel was declared a country on Friday May 14, 1948. We were able to sit in the preserved hall and after the brief history lesson; we listened to the audio recording of David Ben Gurion as he declared the establishment of the State of Israel. Following that declaration we all stood and sang Hatikva – Israel’s national anthem, just as the 400 observers did on that day. To stand there and imagine what it would have been like to have been there in person was a breathtaking experience.
One interesting thing that happened was that after the declaration was read aloud, the members of parliament that were supposed to sign it, ended up signing a blank document. There was not enough time for the document to be written on the piece of parchment before May 14th, so it was signed first. The original document is on display at Independence hall, and it written on 3 pieces of parchment which are sewn together. It is not known exactly the reason behind this, but it is said that either the writer spilt some ink on the document or he realized that he was going to run out of room on the paper and needed additional space.
Independence hall was the perfect conclusion to an amazing trip. To see the country then come back full circle to the place where Israel became internationally recognized as a country was the perfect ending.
After Independence Hall, we went for our last dinner together as a group, said goodbye and headed off to the airport.

The last meal :-(

CW starting with me: Me, Ronny, Josh, Michael, Mike, Shay