Jerusalem

  Jerusalem, Israel
Saturday, November 18, 2006

We worked hard this week. Some of us have been perpetually jet lagged, some have had issues with the food and some just want to have swine with their breakfast. There have been days that we've pulled together and worked through he night to get the project back on track. So, to reward ourselves, today we embarked on a journey to the city that Jesus himself was crucified, died and buried.

The group, Ruth, Laurent, Bill, JY and myself started the day off early. We met for breakfast at 7:30AM UTC and departed around 8:00. We hired a tour guide for the entire day and arranged a tour for just the five of us. I was anticipating reading the newspaper and taking a short nap before our arrival but Daniel, our tour guide, promptly began laying the foundation for our day's journey to the old city. He began by giving us an overall view of Israel. Officially the "State of Israel", is a country in western Asia on the southeastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Lebanon in the north Syria and Jordan in the east and Egypt in the southwest and has a population of over seven million people. Israel proclaimed its independence in 1948 and is the world's only Jewish state.

Daniel talked to us of the many wars and conflicts his nation has been involved in such as the Lavon Affair in the early 1950's when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and Israel, with the help of the UK and France, invaded the Sinai Peninsula. The Peninsula was given back to the Egyptians shortly afterwards, only due to international condemnation. He talked about Operation Opera in the 80's when Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear base. And of course the constant battling between Lebanon and Israel.

By this time we were driving down Israeli secured roads that are flanked by PLO occupied areas in the West Bank. Things can get very confusing in Israel. There are huge settlements of Palestinians living in the middle of a country that seems to be at constant battle with them. On the other side if this, Israel provides these vast settlements with food, water, electricity, public roads and military protection. All of the roads to the PLO occupied territories are blocked off with huge boulders and military personnel. Israelis are not allowed to travel inside of these areas and Palestinians are only allowed to exit the areas for exceptional circumstances such as work. Furthermore, there are duplicated highways and roads so both groups of people can travel without sharing roadways. Huge concrete walls separate miles of these roads but a simple fence only separates most. It all looks like a security nightmare.

Once we arrived in Jerusalem we drove to the top of mount olive. From here we were able to look upon the entirety of the old city and its surroundings. A huge wall with eight different entry points surrounds the old city. The entry points are referred to as gates. They are named: The New Gate, The Damascus Gate, Herod's Gate, The Lions' Gate, The Dung Gate, The Zion Gate and The Jaffa Gate. I only remember stories of two of these gates and will share these with you here. The Golden Gate is the gate that Christians believe was the gate used by Jesus when entering the city of Jerusalem and will be the gate the messiah walks through upon his return to earth. Muslims sealed off The Golden Gate in 1541, allegedly to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, allegedly in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through since he is a Kohen. The second gate I know a little about is the Zion gate. The Zion Gate is located in the South of the Old City and faces towards Mount Zion. It leads to the Armenian and Jewish Quarters of the old city. In 1948 During the War of Independence, the Palmach (the original Israeli Defense Force) unsuccessfully battled for control of the Jewish quarter at the entrance of the Zion gate, this left the stones surrounding the gate pockmarked by weapons fire and riddled with bullet holes which can still be seen today. Both pedestrians and vehicles presently use the gate, though navigation is made awkward by a very narrow L-shaped turn inside the gate. Zion Gate is also known as David's Gate, because Mount Zion is believed by some to be the burial place of King David.

The walls seen today surrounding the old city were built by the Turks between 1535 and 1538 and are significantly further north than the original city walls of Jerusalem were. Over the years the city have moved further north than where it was originally located and has grown to roughly one square kilometer. Since the Israeli's gained control of the entire city of Jerusalem in 1967 there has been a lot of excavation done here. Throughout the city there are areas where sections of the original wall of Jerusalem is exposed. During these digs many Roman artifacts including gold coins, columns, pottery and domiciles were discovered from the roman occupation of Israel during the sixth century.

While on Mount Olive we journeyed through a Palestinian neighborhood. While driving our Volkswagen minivan was struck in the windshield by a soccer ball. Daniel immediately stopped the van, as any might do, but he surprisingly began glaring at the children playing and cursing at them calling them little sons of bitches and sons of whores over and over. I am sure that if we were not with him that there would have been more than words said. This is a real world example of the deep-rooted hate that these two factions have for each other.

We continued on and ended up at a medium sized church with an olive garden to the left of it. This is the supposed spot that Judas, one of Jesus' disciples, kissed Jesus on the cheek identifying him to the Roman Guards, which eventually lead to his execution. We were standing in the garden of Gethsemane.

From here we walked to a nearby church called the grotto of Gethsemane. There is a long dark stairwell that leads down to a cold dimly lit basement with hundreds of silver and gold incense burners hanging from the ceiling and a monk sitting quietly in a corner watching. We were alone in this place and it was kind of spooky. On the walk down the stairwell leading to this area there are two openings on either side of the stairway. These are tombs, which supposedly contain the remains of Mary's, Jesus' mother, mother and father.

Now that I'm thinking about this - there isn't any mention of Joseph in this city. What ever happened to that guy's legacy? I mean the kid that he raised was the Son of God who is remembered by millions of faithful people every day. Sure, he never had to get busy with Mary to produce the rug-rat, but technically it's not like the messiah was the fruit of her loins either since he was immaculately conceived. Right? So why does Mary and her family get all the glory? Where's the Dan Brown novel that focuses on Joe? Why don't Catholics say ten hail Joseph's for repentance? Maybe everyone just felt so bad about calling Mary Magdalene, quite possibly the thirteenth disciple, a whore in the good book that they thought they would give the virgin a double share of the glory and just exclude poor Joseph? If you have the answers to my questions please enlighten me.

Back on topic - We left Gethsemane, stopped at another lookout point on the mountain, were harassed by people selling trinkets, books, camel rides, donkey rides and post cards and made our way to the old city.

There are roughly 80,000 people living within the confines of the old city. These 80k break down into 60k Jews, 10k Muslims and 10k Christians. The city itself is physically divided by living quarters for each of these sects.

The city is filled with life and is dirty and crowded and, as with any city, has terrible traffic. Luckily most of the sights and markets are only accessible by foot. There are thousands of markets with bright and colorful shawls, scarves, saris and Kafkas on display. There are beautiful chessboards, knives, jewelry and trinkets in giant baskets lining the streets. There are men sitting in front of shops smoking large hookahs conversing in Hebrew or Arabic, both of which are the country's national languages. And there are hundreds of shop owners cajoling tourists walking down the street. They will yell at you, bump into you, grab you by the arm and step directly in your path asking in thick mid-eastern accents, "I would like for you to come enjoy your eyes upon the luxurious items in my shop." or "Please come and take a look at my merchandise as I will charge you nothing for looking." There are markets with huge bowls of spices mounded up in small hills of every color and baskets of fresh herbs and strange plants. There are men pushing small carts with goods in them up and down the street. The streets are narrow, about eight to ten feet wide. Each shop is approximately 10ftx20ft in size and 1ft wide walls divide them. Many of these streets feel as if you are walking through a fabric jungle with silky vines and bells hanging from the sky.

We spent some time shopping. Everything is negotiable and will start out roughly 400% above what you can actually buy something for. Afterwards we sat in an open market square and had lunch. Falafels, hummus and thick black coffee are what I chose. Since Jerusalem is high in the mountains of Israel it is significantly cooler than Tel Aviv is. So, we spent our lunchtime warming in the sun and watching the foot traffic pass.

Afterwards we went to the Western Wall, sometime referred to as the Wailing Wall. This is the sight where two Jewish temples once stood, Solomon's Temple and Herod's Temple. These, I believe, were destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. Some people are told that this wall is the last remaining wall of once of these temples, but this is a farce. The wall is the wall I described previously and was not even standing at the time that these two temples were standing. However, the site is the place that the temples stood. People from all over the world come to this place to pray and morn got the loss of the holy temples.

To enter this site you must pass through a security checkpoint where your bags are x-rayed and you must walk through a metal detector. Once inside, the wall is divided into two sections, one for men and one for women. It is an important part of Jewish religion to separate when praying so that you're not distracted. Also, you must cover your head to go near the wall. There is a small cart with disposable paper yarmulkes for those who do not have one.

From here we went to the Virgin Mary's final resting place, the hall the last supper was served in and King David's tomb. We stopped in many churches and visited a number of temples with amazing stories and beautiful artwork and fantastic architecture. Unfortunately, I do not remember all of their names. Furthermore, I'm sure you're getting as tired of reading this as I am of writing it.

After a full day of walking we were beat and fell asleep on the drive home.

I ended up going out for the second night in a row to a little restaurant named Boya located in the old port section of Tel Aviv. Only JY and I went as the rest of the crew wanted to relax. We had a wonderful meal and a bottle of terrific Israeli wine. Then we walked it off along the deck that butts up to the Mediterranean. We meandered into a great little wine shop and finished the night off with a bottle of light Israeli Shiraz.

I'm now sitting on a plane and preparing to complete the first twelve-hour leg of my return. We will be touching down in Newark, NJ and will catch a connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale. I really hope I make it as this plane is about 20 minutes behind schedule and I want to be home.

I've really enjoyed my time in Israel. This trip has disproved a lot of ideas I had about the region. It's not all war-torn, there are not bombs exploding everywhere, there are not armed guards on every corner and the people here are just like the rest of us.

The trip also confirmed some things for me. Pork cannot be found here in any shape or form, Jews are loud and pushy no matter where they are, and Jerusalem is nothing more than a stage for the faithful.

None of the events that are described in the bible actually happened where many of us visit today in this "Old City". The city has moved north, changed sizes and shapes and has been destroyed and re-built multiple times over the past 2000 years. But, this is a place for reflection. For those with faith, Jerusalem is a magical place and all that is needed is a little imagination and knowledge of scripture to make it come alive. For those without faith, this place is still an awe-inspiring city filled with wonderful stories and deep-rooted history.