November 10, 2000
Israeli military presence is everywhere.
Friday morning, the day to get our visas, we discovered that the Ministry of Interior is closed - extending our stay until Sunday, but that ain't bad. It gave us the opportunity to have coffee with the Patriarch. Security in the city was unbelievable in preparation for morning prayers at Al-Aqsa. This Friday, as the last few, Israeli security did not allow any Palestinian under the age of forty-five to enter Jerusalem. Consequently, hundreds of Muslims are stopped outside the city and prevented from attending their weekly worship.
Our guide from the Patriarchate took us from the Old City just to show us the location of the Ministry and was worried he couldn't get back into the Old City from the western part of the city - last week he had crossed the street to pick up the eucharistic bread for the Patriarch and was barred from re-entering the Old City. Fortunately, we were not stopped returning, and there were no incidents near us (though word spread of bombs at different Gates and the like, none of it apparently true).
The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic and Hebrew.
Our tour guide friend took us for another free tour. We visited the Mt. of Olives and the Latin Church of the Lord's Prayer (where you can see the Lord's Prayer in LOTS of different languages). We met up with a very good friend of ours at World Vision who is constantly encountered by border closures by the Israelis as he tries to get supplies into areas in desperate need. We also enjoyed coffee with an Old City rug and icon merchant, who doesn't even bother to go to work these days since the town is so still. Unemployment figures in the Old City are up around 70% - "the worst in my 38 years here," said our hotel manager.
We then headed for West Jerusalem and shabbat dinner with friends and family of our friend who works with Rabbis for Human Rights. Two of the young men there had trained as soldiers at the camp outside Zababdeh. It was a symbolic moment of reconciliation there at that banquet meal.