This past week, people around us have been concerned about the tension building between the Israeli forces and the Palestinians. Thursday evening we heard sirens, loud bangs and people shouting. Immediately, our security guards at the Jerusalem Center notified us that we would not be allowed to leave the Jerusalem Center and said that all of the gates to the Old City would be closed. The protest was mounting because Friday is the Sabbath for the Palestinians and the day Muslims go to pray at the Temple Mount. Men over age 50 would be allowed but nobody any younger.
Looking out through the arches of our beautiful auditorium the next day one would think that everything looks peaceful in Jerusalem. You can see the golden Dome of the Rock in the background and the area of the Temple Mount. However, Friday morning crowds were gathering and you could hear them shouting. They wanted to pray and since they were not allowed to venture past the road blocks, they bowed down in the street by the hundreds. In the effort to make them leave, the fire department began spraying water on them.
The Al Asqa Mosque where Muslims pray on Fridays, their Sabbath.
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| Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount in Jerusalem |
The protest continued all morning. Then a group of 4 Israeli residents came in for a tour and I noticed one very tall man who shuffled as he walked. It was obvious that both of his lower extremities were impaired. The minute he came into the auditorium he said with a smile, "You are going to play Bach? Right?" I smiled back and confirmed his request.
I welcome people on tour and always try to learn a little about them and where there are from. This gentlemen had worked in the Dept. of Education for Israel. He was accompanied by his wife and another couple but he was particularly interested in the organ. He sat and listened intently as I played and clapped loudly when I had finished the "D Minor Toccata" by Bach. Then he asked if I could one more tune. I asked, "What would you like me to play?" He didn't know the name of tune so I asked, "If you can hum it, then I can play it." He began to hum "How Great Thou Art" and immediately I went to the organ and played a variation of that wonderful old melody that many people love so much. He turned from his seat and said with emotion, "We have protests going on outside but in here angels are singing! God has given you a special talent. Thank you . . . we want to come back!"
To say the least, my heart swelled and I thought it interesting that a Christian tune would touch this Jewish man's heart. I was grateful for experiences like this that make our service in Israel so meaningful. We sit in a beautiful structure on the seam of Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives and look down on a city in turmoil. My heart aches and I wish there was a way we could help.
I learned later from Carol C. who was leading the tour, that during the 2nd Intifada (2000), this man was on a bus when it was hit with a fire bomb. He said that people were on fire and burning and in his effort to escape, he jumped through the bus window and both his legs were injured. She also said as she escorted them out to the gate one said, "The air is even different here."
Yes, we are surrounded by beautiful landscaping of trees and flowers that make this place feel like a peaceful oasis. The previous day another man said, "We came for the Film Festival in Jerusalem but this is more important." Another tourist said, "There is a feeling of serenity here."
Yes, we are surrounded by beautiful landscaping of trees and flowers that make this place feel like a peaceful oasis. The previous day another man said, "We came for the Film Festival in Jerusalem but this is more important." Another tourist said, "There is a feeling of serenity here."
This past Monday, we sat and talked with a vendor in the Old City for quite some time. His heart was heavy when he said that rebel Palestinian teenagers are martyring themselves because they have no hope for the future. They would rather die than live here. They are fully aware that if they are going to attack any type of Israeli force, they WILL be shot in the head. (As I sit and type this entry, I heard yet another loud bang outside.)
I am thankful to be here and wouldn't trade this experience for the world. The security in the Jerusalem Center is tight and we are given continual updates of places we can and cannot go. The students are in Galilee until July 27 so they are not around. I just wanted to share what happened here recently and this article is more for Garth and me as we are wrapping up life in Israel. When you read this article and see the photos, you will and see the JC in the distance on the hill and it's a bit unnerving.
Here is a recent article published by the New York Times.
JERUSALEM — Six people were killed on Friday in an outbreak of violence that erupted over Israel’s placement of metal detectors at entrances to the sacred Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and spread to the West Bank. Three Israelis were killed in what appeared to be a terrorist attack in a West Bank settlement hours after three Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.
According to the Israelie authorities, a Palestinian entered a home in the Halamish settlement on Friday night, fatally stabbed three civilians - two men and a woman - and wounded another woman, before being shot at the scene. The names of the Israeli victims were not immediately made public.
The Isralie police said rioters threw rocks and firebombs and set off fireworks in the direction of the security forces, endangering them.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who had cut short a trip to China to handle the spiraling crisis over the metal detectors, announced late Friday that he was freezing contacts with Israel at all levels until it canceled the new measures around the Jerusalem holy site. It was not immediately clear if the suspension included the Palestinian Authority’s security coordination with Israel, a crucial vestige of the relationship between the two sides. Peace talks have been at an impasse for years.
The victims of the attack at the settlement were members of a family who had gathered for a traditional Sabbath eve meal. A neighbor, a soldier on furlough, heard the family’s cries for help and shot the assailant through a window, according to reports in the Israeli news media. The authorities identified the attacker as Omar al-Abed, 19, from a nearby village in the Ramallah district. He posted a final message on Facebook a couple of hours before the attack.
“I am a young man who has not yet reached the age of 20, I have many dreams and ambitions!!” he wrote. “I loved life — to draw the smile on people’s faces. But what life is this when our women and young men are killed unjustly and our Aqsa is facing desecration.”
He said he had a sharp knife, begged forgiveness from his family and signed off with emojis including hearts. The Israeli military distributed a graphic image from the site of the attack, showing a kitchen floor awash in blood.
Other images circulating on Palestinian news sites included a video purporting to show the body of one of the dead protesters, wrapped in a bloody sheet, being passed over the wall of an East Jerusalem hospital for a quick burial, apparently for fear the corpse would be seized by the Israeli police.
The clashes came as thousands of Palestinian Muslims prayed in front of police barricades in the streets around the Old City of Jerusalem after a tense, weeklong standoff over the metal detectors and other restrictions.
The metal detectors were introduced after a brazen attack on the morning of July 14, when three armed Arab citizens of Israel emerged from Al Aqsa Mosque and fatally shot two Israeli Druze police officers who were guarding an entrance to the compound. The assailants ran back inside the courtyard and were killed after an exchange of fire with other officers, who had pursued them.
After the attack, in a rare move, Israel temporarily closed the contested and volatile holy site — which is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — and emptied it of all workers while the police conducted searches.
The Israeli government’s decision to introduce metal detectors when the site reopened rapidly became a source of friction and a symbolic rallying cry in the contest for control and sovereignty over the sacred compound. In an extraordinary turn, members of the Waqf, the Muslim trust that administers the site, called for a boycott of prayers there for as long as the metal detectors remained in place. According to the Israeli police, only a few dozen worshipers entered the compound for prayers on Friday. Earlier in the day, bracing for a possible eruption of violence, the police announced that only men over the age of 50 would be allowed access. (Women of all ages were permitted.)
On a regular Friday, the number of Muslims entering the site can reach tens of thousands. This week, the police turned back busloads of worshipers heading to the city from other parts of the country.
“The metal detectors are a political issue,” said Jamal Zahalka, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, outside the Old City on Friday. “They have them all over the world, in supermarkets, shopping malls, everywhere. But they are there by consensus, not imposed by somebody else.”
As tension built, the Israeli cabinet met into the night on Thursday. Ministers decided to leave the metal detectors in place, despite recommendations to remove them by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and by other security organizations.
“Israel is committed to preserving the status quo at the Temple Mount and the freedom of access to the holy places,” Israeli officials said in a statement after the cabinet meeting.
Critics said that the government was evading responsibility for keeping the metal detectors in place by leaving the ultimate decision up to the police. The police issued a statement in the morning clarifying that entry to the site through metal detectors was “according to the decision of the highest political echelon,” and that the police would decide how strict the security checks would be based on assessments of the situation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has come under pressure from right-wing members of his coalition, who urged him not to “cave in” to Palestinian protest and who said that removing the metal detectors would send a message of weakness and lack of resolve regarding Israeli control of the area.
“The decision to leave the metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount is the right decision,” Tzipi Hotovely, a deputy foreign minister from Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud Party, wrote on Twitter on Friday. “The prime minister defended the national interest.”
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with its holy sites, from Jordan in the 1967 war and then annexed the area in a move that was never internationally recognized. Aware of the potentially explosive religious and political sensitivities, Israel allowed the Waqf to remain in charge of day-to-day affairs inside the mosque compound under the aegis of Jordan. Jordan’s special role in administering the site was reaffirmed in its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
It's so interesting that in the midst of all this violence you have had some of the most spiritual experiences of all with tours. It's touching to see the violence in contrast to the serenity at the JC.
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