Al-Arab Youth Hostel

The Al-Arab Youth Hostel in the Old City of Jerusalem has a poor reputation for its rather basic creature comforts abnd amenities. To be frank, this place is pretty spartan, and more than one traveller has called it a "dive", a place to be avoided at all cost. This was the opinion of more than one person who stayed at the hostel and didn't enjoy it. However, while the Al-Arab Youth Hostel in Jerusalem can seem scuzzy to some people who stay there -- the dirty rough blankets on the bleak cot-like beds in its windy dormitories must be enough to give some people panic attacks -- this is an amazing hostel with a hearty atmosphere which is 100 percent Arab. For all its aesthetic crudeness, there is something fascinating in the Al-Arab's basicness -- it has a kind of authentic Holy Land, Baby Jesus-in-the-manger kind of appeal. The building seems literally hundreds of years old, and that is a real thrill for the more adventurous backpacker. As one visitor has described "it's run down but full of atmosphere."

This is the real Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate in the bustling Arab Market, and you can hear the sounds of the streets wafting up when you wake in the morning -- the braying crowds and the donkey carts, the calls of the falafel vendors, the confrontations between Palestinians and young Israeli Army conscripts. It has to be set in the one of the most exotic locations in the world, with the holy sites of three major world religions literally "up the road", some of them (like the gold-roofed mosque, the Dome of the Rock) visible from the upper dormitories. Jerusalem is packed with narrow alleys, steps, twists and turns, markets, suicide bombers, would-be prophets, and tourists in search of the plethora of religious sites and sights. Al-Arab Youth Hostel on Khan el-Zeit St is in the thick of it, not far from the Holy Jewish Wailing Wall, and surrounded by attractive shops and restaurants. For this and other reasons, the hostel is to be recommended -- it has location, it has character, and it has something else, something they don't usually talk about in the tourist guide books -- it has politics.

Perhaps the most compelling attraction for visitors to the Al-Arab Youth Hostel is its educational agenda. The staff at Al-Arab make no apologies about their commitment to the Palestinian Intifada and their resistance against Israeli rule. The walls of the youth hostel are adorned with the portraits of martyrs -- Palestinians either imprisoned or killed by the Israeli Occupation. Staff regularly show anti-Jewish, anti-American propaganda which would put even Michael Moore to shame. If you can take it all with a grain of salt, this is will give you an invaluable insight into the politics of the Middle East. This place will give you the Palestinian side of the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. The hostel staff also organise tours of the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, taking in refugee camps of displaced Palestinians, universities with bullet holes in the walls, and some truly magical old mosques and churches.

Al-Arab Youth Hostel is a cheerful place, despite the rather bleak decor -- and the even bleaker politics being discussed over small Turkish glasses of tea and Arabian checker boards in the common room. Going to this hostel makes you feel like you have gone a thousands years back in time, and that is an experience that money can't buy.

How to get there: Al-Arab Hostel is located on Khan el-Zeit Street in the Arab Market. If you enter the famous Damascus Gate from the New City, take the steps down until you reach a fork. One road heads left, towards the Muslim Quarter and the Wailing Wall, the holiest site in the world for the Jewish Faith. The road forking off to the right is Khan el-Zeit St, and that is the one you want to follow. Walk a couple of hundred yards and you will see Al-Arab Youth Hostel on your left. Be prepared: Khan el-Zeit St can be pretty crowded, especially after Muslim prayer time, and this walk can take some time. Outside the Al-Arab premises, a sign proclaims: "Internet Cafe". Walk up some small stairs, cut like a passage-way through rock up to the first floor reception.