Ideals and Ordeals: Orienting, East Jerusalem

Jan at the Pool of Absalom in Silwan

It has been over a year since I blogged, but another trip to Israel/Palestine is a great reason to start up again. Here I sit in my room at the Jerusalem Hotel, near the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem after a great day of walking, absorbing the sun, and getting reacclimated to this beautiful, spiritual and tortured city. Today was a day just for me, to wander, discover what there was to discover, and to relax.

I arrived here yesterday. This time I flew through Ben Gurion. Although I love to start my trip in Amman, Jordan, my schedule did not permit a stop in Amman this year. This entry was easy for me. A few quick questions at passport control, a stamp, and then I jumped a shared taxi to Jerusalem and my hotel - The Jerusalem Hotel.

The Jerusalem Hotel is an oasis in the city - a short walking distance from the Damascus Gate. At the entry is outside courtyard dining, complete with traditional Arabic dishes, nargila, and nighttime entertainment (a traditional oud and tabla duo). The building is an older, traditional building with high ceilings, stone inner walls, beautiful wooden doors, and displays of Palestinian embroidery on the walls. Yet WiFi, DSL, and flat screen tvs with a selection of AlJazeera, France 24, BBC, CCTV, Sky, CNN, Russian Today, and NHK meet all the modern needs of a news addict like myself.

As usual, I started my stay by getting my phone up and running, which meant buying a top-up card for my Israeli SIM card, and relearning how to pick up voicemails and check the balance. Then a stop at a local store for bottled water, a delicious dinner at my oasis, and off to sleep.

I had a fitful night of sleep, punctuated by reading, and finally arose at 10:30. I had missed the free breakfast, so I showered, dressed, and hit the road. I started on a long walk to reorient myself to Jerusalem. My goal was to put on miles and take my time. At the closest street stand I bought a bottle of water and Ka'ek - the traditional Palestinian circular bread coated with sesame seeds. The vendor included za'atar wrapped in white paper for the traditional dipping.

Dipping my Ka'ek in za-atar and munching, I went up through Sheikh Jarrah, one of the loveliest, old Palestinian sections of Jerusalem. For a few years now it has been under siege by settlers intent on displacing the Palestinians from their homes. A large contingent of Palestinians, internationals, and Israelis built a solidarity movement and have had some success in slowing down the movement of settlers into the area.

Being Shabbat, hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jews were heading to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Haredi (Ultra Orthodox Jews) heading through Sheikh Jarrah to the Old City for Shabbat Services

I continued on up to French Hill, a settlement built when Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. I lived there with my husband and daughter in 1996-1997 and it was there that I was rudely awakened to the systematic discrimination against and displacement of the Palestinians. French Hill remains as or more beautiful than I remember it. The yard of the school my daughter attended for 1st grade was beautifully landscaped, the terraced apartments built into the hill were attractive, my daughter's playground had been nicely updated, and the outside of our old apartment at 33 HaHayil St (HaHayil = "the soldier" in Hebrew; many of the streets on French Hill have military names) had been cared for and updated.

The entry walkway to the Frenkel School on French Hill

The Frenkel School, French Hill

Terraced apartments, French Hill

33 HaHayil Street, French Hill

Butterfly at work atop French Hill

I left French Hill feeling sad. Sad for my lost daughter. Sad for my lost illusions. Sad that as beautiful as it is I could not consider moving back there knowing what I know now.

I continued onward, past Hebrew University, past the entrance to the Palestinian Village of Issawiya, and into the Mount of Olives section of East Jerusalem, where I stopped for freshly squeezed orange juice. Note the incredible vistas along this route. The Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery takes up a large portion of the ridge down to the Old City of Jerusalem. Plots in the cemetery start at $8500 and some can cost $50,000 and up if near the grave of holy rabbis. Why so much? Orthodox Jews believe that on the Day of Judgment all bodies must travel under ground to the Mount of Olives from where they will ascend. If they are not close by, it could be a difficult and timely trip.

Entrance to Hebrew University, Mount Scopus

Entrance to the Palestinian village of Issawiya, East Jerusalem

View of Palestinian East Jerusalem from Mount Scopus

Hebrew University, Mount Scopus

Israel's "Judea and Samaria" Police headquarters in area E-1
of the West Bank near Maaleh Adumim; another illegal territorial claim

Jewish Settlements in the West Bank as seen from Mount Scopus

The Lutheran church's Augusta Victoria Hospital

Fresh orange juice!

The Mount of Olives contains numerous Christian churches, caves of prophets, and other religious landmarks of meaning to all Abrahamic religions. I stopped to explore the Church of the Pater Noster and the Church at Gethsemane.

The custodian at the Church of the Pater Noster, a Palestinian Christian with French citizenship, snuck me in for free, since I had arrived late in the day, and remained patient while I toured and asked questions. He had spent some time in the US, so we chatted about that. He had traveled to Washington DC to marry his cousin - a practice common among Palestinians - only to find that she had a boyfriend. Shortly after, she and her boyfriend made plans to marry. It was then that the boyfriend told her that he was a Buddhist. She was grief-stricken and told him that she could not marry him, that she had to marry a Christian. She broke off the relationship. The boyfriend invited her back to his place for a drink and to say a friendly goodbye. When she went there he shot her and then shot himself. A modern day Romeo and Juliet story which exemplifies the determination of some of the Palestinian Christian community to stay faithful to their heritage.

Chapel of the Ascension

A tour bus driver takes a prayer break

A settler home on the Mount of Olives

The Church of the Pater Noster, believed to be on the traditional site where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer appears in 62 different languages at the Church of the Pater Noster

Some of the estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount of Olives

Dome of the Rock as seen from the Mount of Olives

Garden of Gethsemane - Jesus and his disciples are said to have
prayed here the night before his crucifixion

Church of All Nations or the Basilica of the Agony, enshrines a sheet
of bedrock on which it is said Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest

Franciscans leading service at Basilica of the Agony

Pilgrims touching their head and lips to the sheet of bedrock

I then headed down through the Valley of Kidron,considered to be the Valley of Judgment. Funny that I should accidentally find myself here on the date (May 21, 2011) that some offshoot Christian rapture believers claimed would be the Judgment Day...  Along the valley were the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir and the Tomb of Zechariah.    I then headed out of the valley into Silwan, a section of Jerusalem that is under siege by settlers who want to displace the Palestinian population so they can live close to the Old City.  It has been the site of resistance and bloody and fatal demonstrations as of late. I was pursued by two very young Palestinian boys (better known as "shabab") demanding one shekel. I said "no", remembering how many Palestinians have told me that they deplore this behavior and want it stopped. I continued to say "no" as they demanded again. They finally retracted, and threw a few stones at my legs from their property as I continued my walk.

At the next home I was greeted warmly by the residents sitting outside their home sipping coffee. One of them lives in both Minneapolis and Jerusalem. He studied in Minneapolis and works there, but must return to Jerusalem every three years and stay for a year in order to keep his Jerusalem residency. This is a very familiar story. The Palestinians of Jerusalem, although born in Jerusalem, can not return to Jerusalem if they leave  Jerusalem for more than three years. Their residency is retracted. This forces them to return every three years or lose the option to return to Jerusalem to live or visit relatives. The same does not apply for Jewish residents.

He offered to take me into the Pool of Absalom (Pool of Siloam) although it was afterhours. I took him up on his offer. He brought me to the entrance and then grabbed a friend to drive to the exit of the Pool, paid the guard some money to open the gate to the pool for me.  The Pool of Absalom was perhaps constructed as a reservoir to receive the water from the Spring of Gihon. Christians sayJesus took a blind man, put mud on his eyes, and told him to wash it off in the Pool of Absalom. The man's vision was restored.

We chatted about the history of the region, the adjacent Valley of Cheesemakers (which to this day still has cheesemakers), and then his friend, Shehadeh, dropped me off at the Philadelphia Restaurant for dinner, a short walk from the Jerusalem Hotel. I gave them some money for their services and said goodnight.