July 12, 2001

Our weekend began after class today (we're relishing these three-day weekends while we can get them), and so we headed to Jerusalem for a few days. Marthame is preaching at St. Andrew's Church of Scotland on Sunday, and we'll take the opportunity to visit with friends who live near the Old City. We caught a ride to Ramallah with one of the students in our class, a Belgian who is married to a Palestinian. They have two kids and are living in Ramallah for the foreseeable future, but has to renew her tourist visa every three months (there is no permanent resident status granted to non-Jewish foreigners in the Occupied Territories, even if they have family obligations there). Her husband was originally from the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, but had to flee in 1948. "You know where the zoo is? That's where his family lived. And he can't even get over to see the zoo!"

Fireworks above the Old City walls of Jerusalem.

Our drive was fairly inconsequential, with a short wait for a temporarily-closed checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem and a quick check of our taxi upon entering Jerusalem (the young Palestinian man was asked for his ID). We realized upon our arrival that we are in Jerusalem for their annual film festival - hopefully our weekend will give us time to go. We did get a chance to see the opening night fireworks over the Old City walls.