Old City of Jerusalem - June 24, 2010, part 2

I then descended, and finally went into the Jewish Quarter. Last year, when I was living in Jerusalem for the summer, I never went into the Jewish Quarter itself (although I went to the Kotel [Western Wall] several times).

Chabad St. in the Jewish Quarter

I took a few photos to give the students in my fall course on Jerusalem an idea of what it looks like, tried (but failed) to get into the rebuilt Hurva synagogue, and then went into a fantastic museum which is called the “Herodian quarter.” It consists of several connected buildings from the Second Temple period. It was uncovered by Israeli archaeologists after the Old City was conquered in 1967, and over a period of several years they discovered these houses and many fine artifacts. One especially interesting feature of the houses is that there are many mikvehs [Jewish ritual baths] in them – indicating that the houses may have belonged to priestly families, who would have needed easy access to mikvehs in order to go up to the Temple.

The first photo below shows a map of the Jewish Quarter, identifying where the Herodian houses are located. They are called “Herodian” because they were built and stood during the time of the Herodian dynasty. (Herod the Great was a vassal king of the Roman occupiers from 37 BCE to 4 BCE and his descendants ruled various parts of the land of Israel after that). Subsequent photos show rooms in the Herodian buildings with artifacts found at the site.

Earthenware pots and stone table.

Stone table in room with mosaic floor.

Mosaic carpet in large room.

Part of the scale model of the Herodian Quarter.















I came out eventually, and then went down the stairs that lead to the Kotel, but instead of turning in that direction, I went right and into the Davidson Center – a visitor center for the excavations at the southeast corner below the Temple Mount. I bought a ticket and went into the visitor center itself. There was a small exhibit of coins from various periods found in Jerusalem, and a propagandistic movie that the center screens about a supposed pilgrim of the second Temple period bringing his sacrifice to the Temple.

Coin from 70 CE, struck by the Jewish rebels in Jerusalem.

After that I went to walk around the archaeological park itself, first going to see Robinson’s Arch and the “springer” from which the arch to the Temple Mount rose in the first century.

Various tour groups were walking around, but at the end of the first century street, after all the huge stones thrown down by the Romans upon the destruction of the Temple, there was a bar mitzvah ceremony – a small family hovering fondly over a boy reading from the Torah. It was really quite sweet. I took a few pictures of them, and then went up some stairs and walked around the back of the site.

I started to hear loud booms – like gunshots – only later did it transpire that they were probably people shooting at an Arab wedding, and not, as I feared, some violent encounter in Silwan between Arabs and the Border Police.

After some wandering around the archaeological site, I went out through the Dung Gate and sat there for a while, just watching people go in and out – tourists going out to their buses, which were parked all along the road, a whole big group of Haredi kids going out to their buses, the Arab shopkeepers selling drinks and snacks to whoever wandered out, the cabs going by, the couple of Border Policemen stopping every Israeli bus and getting on it for a security check, etc. I finally got a cab ride home with an Arab guy who came over and offered me a ride. We sat in the front of his cab and ate artikim (one of those frozen ice cream cones) and I went home.

No. 2 bus, on its way into the Jewish Quarter.

Old City of Jerusalem - June 24, 2010, part 1

My record of a trip I took Thursday to the Old City, complete with photos.

I began the day by eating breakfast with an old friend whom I had not really talked to for about ten years. (I still have friends in Jerusalem that I met when I lived here in the late 1980s). From her house, I went to the Old City, via Jaffa Road. I took the #18 bus along Emek Refaim, up King David St., and then and got off at the stop in front of the Iriya (the Jerusalem Municipality or town hall). Downtown Jerusalem is a mess because there is lots of construction for a light rail system that is being built very slowly. The main streets are all torn up and laying the tracks is going torturously slowly.

On Jaffa Rd., I stopped at the Bible Society and bought 20 copies of the National Geographic Jerusalem map from 1996 that I had tried to get from NG itself last year, without success, for my Jerusalem class. I don’t understand why the Bible Society here managed to get so many copies while NG itself possesses none. I Had a pleasant conversation with two women working there, one from Denmark, one from Finland. [The Bible Society is worldwide – they translate the Bible into as many languages as possible for purposes of proselytization. The Bible Society store in Jerusalem has lots of good scholarly books] on the Bible.

 Google Map of Kikar Zahal (Army square)

I then set out for the Old City – I crossed the street at Kikar Zahal [Zahal Square], and walked down the way to Jaffa Gate. They are actually renovating the park at Zahal Square – it’s been a mess for quite a while, but today workers were not only mowing the grass, but even edging it to make it look neater! 

 Archaeological garden at Kikar Zahal.

The walkway has been improved by the addition of several large trees to give additional shade. It’s actually quite handsome now.

As I got closer to Jaffa Gate itself I saw that the gate itself has been renovated – it’s been cleaned up and looks much nicer. Then I realized that I had to walk through the gate itself – the road into Umar ibn Al-Khattab Square has been blocked off because they’re doing construction in the square, so it’s a hideous mess. 

Jaffa Gate

I skirted around the construction, saying no to several shopkeepers who wanted me to come into their shops and buy something. One of them poked me on the shoulder to get my attention, which really pissed me off. I guess my patience level has been pretty low recently.

I walked along Armenian Patriarchate Road, past some Armenian shops, and turned into the area of the Armenian quarter occupied by an Armenian seminary. I walked around some, but it wasn’t very interesting. The Armenian museum was closed. There has been an Armenian community in Jerusalem for a very long time, but the community increased in size in the early twentieth century with refugees who came to Jerusalem after escaping from the genocide inflicted by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Garden next to the Armenian Seminary.

I continued down this road and arrived at Zion Gate, where I exited and went into Mt. Zion. I went into a church that I don’t think I’ve been into before, the Church of the Dormition. It’s modern but has some nice mosaics. (“Dormition” means “Sleep” and refers to the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus).

Church of the Dormition - notice the mosaic on the ceiling of the apse of Mary and Jesus.

I then went into the room of the Last Supper (or the supposed room – I don’t see how it could actually have been the room, since from the architectural details it’s from the Crusader period; then during the Ottoman period it was turned into a mosque – the niche pointing to the qibla [direction to Mecca] is still there).

It was too full of tourists, so I left, and found some stairs going up to the roof. I cannot resist going up stairs to roofs in the Old City because the views tend to be so interesting. This one was too, giving a great view of the valley between the Old City and the Tayelet [the Promenade].

It also gives quite a view of part of the Separation Wall, cutting through the Arab suburb of Abu Dis.

View from the roof of the room of the Last Supper. We are looking across the valley to the Tayelet.

Roof of the room of the Last Supper

The Separation Wall at Abu Dis, an Arab suburb of Jerusalem.

The Next Lebanon War

Someone else who thinks there is going to be another Lebanon war: The Next Lebanon War - by Lee Smith.

Bitterness

This is an email that I sent to some friends about my feelings during this visit to Israel:

I know I haven't written anything to people about Israel, other than a few Facebook updates (all they said was that I had arrived and have watched some soccer games - the World Cup is definitely the most important public event going on now). I guess I've been feeling a bit depressed about the situation here. It just seems like such a mess.

When I arrived the immediate issue was of a court case involving a Haredi community in the West Bank where they were accused of discriminating against Sephardi girls in admission to the local school (state-funded by the way). The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the discrimination was illegal, and then took the further step to order the Haredi Ashkenazi parents who had taken their daughters out of the school (in protest of the order to integrate it) - to go to jail for two weeks, both mothers and fathers. That happened a week ago. Most of the fathers went to jail, but none of the mothers, and today the court ruled that most of the mothers won't have to go to jail. In reaction to the ruling, there were extraordinarily large Haredi demonstrations all over Israel, including one of 100,000 people in Jerusalem! (Fortunately, I was nowhere near it).

And then there's the whole business with the flotilla and its aftermath. Everything I've read in the Israeli press about the makeup of the Israeli inquiry commission suggests that it's a joke, that the government set up this commission simply to mollify the U.S. (which actually isn't working, since the U.S. is still calling for an international inquiry). Israel has now been forced to lighten the blockade on Gaza because of international pressure, which is obviously better for the people of Gaza but makes the Israeli government look weak, which it is. And more flotillas are on their way, from Lebanon and Iran. Who knows how the incompetent Israeli government will deal with them - not well, I imagine.

See these articles on the planned flotillas: Lebanon has just told Israel that it will be "fully responsible" if Israel attacks the boats that will be coming from there. Iran is also sending a boat to break the blockade.

Iran said Tuesday it would send a blockade-busting ship carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza, fueling concern in Israel, where commandos were training for another possible confrontation at sea.

Israel warned archenemy Iran to drop the plan. The Iranian announcement came days after Israel eased its three-year-old blockade of Gaza under international pressure following its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last month.

"No one in their right mind can believe that a ship sent by the ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guards has anything to do with humanitarian aid," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. "I don't think there is one single country in this region and beyond that would let such an ayatollah ship come near its coasts."

Security officials said the prospect of an Iranian boat headed for Gaza had Israel deeply worried, and that naval commandos were training for the possibility of taking on a vessel with a suicide bomber on board. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose operational details.

Maybe I'm just being negative, but it certainly seems to me that if there is an armed encounter with the Iranian ship, it could be the beginning of a war.

From here it seems that Iran, Hizbollah, and Hamas are just getting stronger politically (and militarily). Honestly, I think a war with one or all of them is inevitable - I don't know when or how it will begin, but I think there will soon be a pretty terrible war. I was hoping that my anxious feelings about war were just projections from far away, but the reality here is bad, and it doesn't seem to me that the current government has the wisdom to deal with a real war.

From here it also seems that Israel is getting more and more isolated politically, in part due to the stupid right-wing government which can't even manage not to antagonize the U.S. government (today the Jerusalem municipality just announced its plans to tear down 22 Palestinian homes in Silwan, which is just down the hill from the Dung Gate, and build an archaeological park there - the U.S. government immediately protested).

The right-wing government also seems to view the simple exercise of certain civil rights as anti-Israel (or maybe the exercise by certain people of those civil rights). I was watching the news last night, and one of the stories was about a conference at Ben Gurion University in the Negev held to deal with the legal problems of the Bedouin in the Negev - many of their villages are unrecognized by the state and therefore get no state services, including running water and electricity. The conference was intended to help people learn about the relevant laws and how to file court cases. The local prosecutor's office accused Ben Gurion of anti-state activity and threatened legal action against the university for doing something entirely legal!

A few thoughts

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

On Friday night, I went to Kol Haneshama for Shabbat services, and then over to a friend's house for dinner. After dinner, we sat and watched the England vs. Algeria soccer game (this is a very hiloni [secular] Israeli thing to do on a Friday night....). I had never watched a soccer game before in my life, and found that I enjoyed it!

Earlier this week I went to the last night of the Festival of Light that was held in the Old City. This was an exhibit of light installations held mostly in the Jewish and Armenian quarters, and along the northern wall of the Old City - at the Damascus Gate and then inside Zedekiah's Cave (actually probably an ancient rock quarry). It was beautiful, especially the one at the Damascus Gate. Below is a photo I took last summer of the Damascus Gate, which gives the basic scene, but not an appreciation of all the people going in and out of it all the time. It's the main entrance to the Old City from Arab east Jerusalem.

From East Jerusalem

As I was watching the light show against the walls, along with a variety of Israeli and foreign tourists, there were others also participating in the scene - sometimes watching the light show, sometimes simply participating in their own lives. To my right there was an Arab family - a couple of women in long dresses and hijab, with a couple of children around them, chatting. To my left, an Arab family sat on the stairs, watching the light show - two kids, including one boy who was very restless. The boy ran down a couple of times into the center of the square before the gate, and bought two little plastic lights. At the stand before the gate, the teenagers who were selling them kept throwing them up into the air as the light show went on. Orthodox Jewish men periodically walked down the stairs and into the Damascus Gate, or came out of it and went up the stairs.

Rain in the Galilee

This NEVER happens!! I only wish we would get a thunderstorm in Jerusalem! We're in the middle of a sharav (heat wave).

Upper Galilee stunned by rare summer storm

The Upper Galilee was stunned yesterday by an extremely rare summer storm, with rain, hail and thunderstorms pummeling the region for an hour in the middle of the heavy heat of June.

Such storms occur regularly in tropical regions and sometimes in Europe, but atmospheric conditions make them extremely rare in Israel. [Also in the United States!]

Yesterday's rain storm was the result of cold air which had seeped from Turkey to the upper layer of air above the northeastern Galilee. Humidity in the middle layers and warm air rising off the ground combined to create the conditions needed for rain.

The Israeli meteorological service was largely caught off guard, with its Website stating the rain radar had been shut down for lack of active clouds.

Residents of Kibbutz Gonen said yesterday that because warm temperatures persisted through the storm, bathers continued swimming in the local pool.

"I thought everyone would run off to their cabins, but instead parents and children started dancing in the rain. The day was very warm so the rain was cool and surprising," Meir Levi, a local resort director, said.

Amri Lavron of Hulata described the scene as a monsoon, with steam rising from the asphalt roads.

The sharav conditions are set to continue today and grow warmer still tomorrow and Tuesday, with temperatures only beginning to ease up on Wednesday.

IHH Leader Urges Men to Throw Israelis Overboard 30 May 2010

On the front page of the Haaretz website, a new video from the Israeli foreign ministry about the preparations made on the Mavi Marmara for the Israeli commandos: YouTube - Evidence: IHH Leader Urges Men to Throw Israelis Overboard 30 May 2010.



So much for peaceful humanitarians.

The Foreign Ministry released a new video on Friday in which the leader of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, Bulent Yildirim, is seen on board the Gaza flotilla's ship the Mavi Marmara, telling dozens of activists to throw Israeli commandos overboard if they attempt to board the ship.

"If they board our ship, we will throw them into the sea, Allah willing!" says Yildirim, the head of the Turkish pro-Palestinian group that sent an aid flotilla to Gaza last month.
The video was shot on board the Mavi Marmara on May 30 by one of the passengers before the Israel Defense Forces raided the ship and killed nine Turkish activists during clashes.

"If we show fear, they will win once again….we don't want to be recorded in Allah's book as cowards," says Yildirim in the video, as dozens of passengers are seen chanting ""millions of martyrs marching to Gaza!"

"They (Israel) are so weak that for 4-5 days they have been engaging in propaganda (against us)…they have been humiliated in front of the whole world… now they are saying that they will launch a fleet (against us)… that they will send the commandos here (to the ship)."

"And we say: 'If you send the commandos, we will throw you down from here and you will be humiliated in front of the whole world," Yildirim tells the passengers.

On Wednesday, Israel added the IHH to its terror watch list following the events of the Gaza-bound flotilla.

IHH told members of the European Parliament it has assembled six ships for its next flotilla and asked others to join its effort to break through Israel's blockade of Gaza.