Leaving Jerusalem

At the Western Wall - Monday morning

Sunday ended with an evening walking tour through the old city – very quiet in some spots, but in others enlivened by Jewish Purim celebrations. At the Western Wall we could watch a fascinating mixture of spirituality, as Hassidim prayed and chanted right against the stones, while a little further back young men jumped around in fancy dress and with multi-coloured wigs. In the streets of the Jewish quarter we ran into groups and small processions who were clearly having a good time, whether or not embracing the traditional bounds of spiritual exaltation.

The Dome of the Rock

First thing Monday morning we were back in nearly the same place: Amir drove us back to the dung gate and we joined the long queue for the Temple Mount. Eventually we were through the security gates and looking down on the Jewish worshippers at the Wall as we climbed the covered wooden ramp (we noticed the riot shields stored near the top) and found ourselves in front of the Al Aqsa Mosque. Sadly neither the mosque nor the Dome of the Rock can be visited now (I’m glad I’ve done so in the past) but it’s still a splendid experience to walk around this area, and particularly to be able to see close up the tiles on the Dome of the Rock and on the various small shrines and buildings around.

From that point on, it was free time: some went shopping, while others of us found ourselves still doing serious stuff. Phil and I spent a couple of hours in the Citadel of David, having an English  guided tour by an Israeli volunteer. The views from the top were splendid – and it was interesting to hear about “new neighbourhoods” rather than what we now knew to be illegal Jewish settlements, and to hear the modern parts of the story told from a very different perspective from that shared with us over recent days.  But to be fair most of the 4,000 year story told through the museum exhibits was put across with humour and I think no obvious bias – and the Biblical narrative, while respected, was viewed with a degree of scepticism from time to time.

Back at the hotel we left Brian, who is staying on for a few days for various meetings, and said our heartfelt thank yous to Amir, who then drove us to the airport. The challenges of Ben Gurion security surmounted, and the one hour’s delay endured, we were eventually on our way home.

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I don’t feel ready yet to reflect more deeply on these past ten days than I have already done on a daily basis in this blog – where I appreciate I have often shied away from doing much more than simply recording the bare bones of our encounters. Many of them have been deeply moving, and nearly all of them have been deeply troubling. As we are brought face to face with the plight of the Palestinian people, we not only see one of the great fault lines in the contemporary world, but are also challenged in terms of our own human response. Do we care enough to act on their behalf? And if so, how are we to act?

I’m wanting more time for reflection, but meanwhile sign off this blog with the offer to come and talk to anyone who wants to hear more about our experiences and whatever might flow from them – and that’s an offer which I am sure will come equally from every member of the group.

Linda posted her final reflection on the URC blog yesterday:-

The question hangs in the air, What can we do? Every place we visited we heard the same five cries:

1.       Tell others of our stories

2.       Read and understand more about the situation

3.       Pray

4.       Bring others to visit

5.       Help financially

I think that provides at least the beginning of an answer to my questions.

 

 

Bridges and Barriers - our final day

It’s our final full day, and I’m feeling as confused and conflicted as when we first arrived.

St George's

Sunday is different here – even more than in deregulated Britain, it’s a normal working day, at least for the Muslim majority here in East Jerusalem. Weekends are basically Friday and Saturday. How the Christian community manages I don’t really know – but I suppose that is just a further aspect of the cry we continually hear, lamenting over the dwindling Christian population.

We attended the main service at St George’s Anglican Cathedral – an Arabic service, as we chose to be with the local congregation rather than the pilgrims and ex-pats who come to the later English language service. In fact, there were a number of English-speaking groups there, so a good deal of the service was translated, including the sermon which was preached twice. And the service book helped us to know exactly what was being said for much of the rest of the time. As ever, I found particularly moving the reference in the Eucharistic prayer to Jesus being “crucified here in Jerusalem”.

Brian with Bishop Suheil

After the service we had half an hour with Bishop Suheil, who reminded us once more of the plight of the Christian church in the region. His Anglican diocese includes Syria, as well as Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. He has been unable to visit Syria for over a year, and is fearful for the future of Christians there. Over two thirds of Iraqi Christians have fled their country in recent years, and much the same is very likely to happen in Syria. As for Jerusalem itself, in 1948 27% of the population was Christian: now the figure is around 1%.

Later we were back on the bus, with Amir driving us to Ramallah. Progress through the checkpoint was not too bad, and we were on time for our session with Addameer, where Gavin outlined for us his organisation’s support for Palestinians political prisoners, stressing that the Israeli government has used imprisonment as a policy since 1948, and particularly since 1967 has used it as a means to destroy Palestinian society. Much of what is happening is in clear breach of international law (eg only one of the 17 prisons used is in the West Bank: thus the occupying power is taking prisoners out of their country), but particularly concerning is the way in which there seems to be a deliberate targeting of children.

We were given so much information to process that it is hard to say much about it all so soon – and indeed I suspect we all will need quite some time to reflect properly on all that we have learned over this past week or so. But in the mean time, everything that Addameer does (other than its case notes and histories) is on their website – http://www.addameer.org.  As Gavin stressed, they have nothing to hide.

On the way home, progress through the checkpoint was slower. The IDF soldiers had their visors, and a shot of some kind of fired as we passed – probably a baton round. No doubt there had been some stone-throwing going on – the most common charge laid against Israeli children.

When we were with Bishop Suheil this morning he commented that not only is the wall ugly, but it does nothing to help bring people together. As the young soldiers boarded our bus and checked our passports, we could only begin to imagine what their continual presence must mean to the Palestinian people who have to undertake journeys through these  check points day after day – and bear much  more besides.

It’s now late afternoon, and this time tomorrow we will be getting ready to fly back home. Later this evening we hope to have a brief walking tour of the old city; and then in the morning, when we have some time to spare, we hope to get up on to the Temple Mount. But that will depend on the authorities – and in this case both Israelis and Palestinians have it in their power to deny access. The area was closed off because of incidents on Friday afternoon, and there seems to be a perception round that, especially because of the hunger strikers, the whole situation is hotting up again.

In a land of walls and barriers, peacemakers should surely be blessed, and Christians be ready to learn to build bridges.