November 23, 2002

The oil lamps that hang above the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre.

Today, Elizabeth spent quietly, mostly at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, praying and watching the small influx of pilgrims/tourists. Chatting with a gentleman in the Coptic chapel, she learned that Saturdays always have more visitors because it is Shabbat, and Israel's foreign (largely domestic) workers, many of whom are Christians, have a day off. However, there were also a number of groups, mostly eastern European. The man said that now tour agencies are so desperate for visitors that their rates have plummeted. So people who normally couldn't afford to come are here. Some he said are so poor that they bring all their food with them, suitcases stuffed with cans and jars. A slice of old-time pilgrimage with a modern flavor. With tight schedules dominated by the religious highlights and almost exclusively Israeli tour guides, these pilgrims are guaranteed not to have much exposure to the living stones, the breathing Church in the Holy Land. And the sad part of that is that they probably don't mind; they're coming to see the holy sites, and not to engage with their co-religionists or hear about their predicament. Later, Elizabeth shared supper with a few friends and called it an early night.

Meanwhile, Marthame and Deacon Homam left the Old City at 6:30 am, hoping to get back for a few classes at school. After the taxi filled up at Qalandia, it made its way up the road. The first checkpoint was not far outside of Qalandia, at an intersection where a small group of settlers have decided to build. The seizure of land continues. As the taxi left the intersection, we could look back and see a Palestinian truck that had been stopped - not by the soldiers manning the checkpoint, but by a settler. The soldiers were walking away as the settler appeared more and more angry. No telling what the final result was.

The taxi eventually arrived at the Hamra junction. The driver handed the IDs over to the soldier, and everyone descended from the vehicle. One by one, people were called over to take their IDs, each having to lift their shirts to show they had no explosives strapped to them. Deacon Homam refused, but wearing a collar (and having an international passport), his refusal didn't seem to bother the soldiers. As he told Marthame, this practice is not so much for security as for humiliation.

After Hamra, there are no checkpoints, but Tubas is closed - full curfew in effect - so the taxi took the long journey around that city, via the village of Jdeideh. Along the way, we learned that the Zababdeh taxi driver who had been arrested was now free, freed after five days. The story that emerged is that he was made to wait at another checkpoint for five hours. Losing his patience, he yelled at the soldier and was immediately arrested for two weeks. His lawyer was able to get him out in five days, but the Red Cross had to intervene at one point because of his heart condition.

Marthame and Deacon Homam arrived in time to see the school being dismissed. Eleven teachers, a third of the faculty, are absent (Jenin, Qabatia, and Tubas are closed off), and thus there are not enough people to teach (and enough students absent that a delay is advisable).

The news is full of the British national killed in Jenin Camp. After initial denials, the Israeli army admitted to shooting him, thinking he was carrying a weapon (a UN flag, it turned out). He had had extensive international experience, having worked war zones in the Balkans and Afghanistan. He was trying to send children home from an inoculation program. After he was shot, the army prevented UN ambulances from getting him to the hospital. An apology along the lines of "this kind of stuff happens in war" was issued.

An Irish national running ahead of a tank in Jenin Camp.

Also, an Irish national whom we know was shot in the leg. She's part of the International Solidarity Movement, a group of folks tired of waiting for peacekeepers and also sick of the constant bloodletting. Hoping to spur a nonviolent peace movement, they have placed themselves in places of danger. The circumstances of her shooting are unlikely to be investigated, but her story is of being targeted as she tried to evacuate children from in front of a tank. Her picture is all over the papers. Between these two incidents, as well as that of the taxi driver, and being in Jerusalem during the latest suicide bombing, it's been a bad week that has felt more personal than usual.