JERUSALEM BLOG # 10

JERUSALEM ~ A CITY OF RELIGIOUS IMPORTANCE AND SO MUCH UNRESOLVED CONFLICT 

Bog # 10

I enter Jerusalem with many conflicting thoughts and a sense of embarrassment regarding how little I know about the history of a city that has such religious importance and is sacred to so many Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and Christian people. While I am not a religious person I am curious and intrigued to know more about why there is so much unresolved conflict here and why history has not taught about the importance of compassion and tolerance? I wonder about basic things such as whether Palestinian people are Arabs and why they don’t have their own country after living here for so many generations? 

I try to understand the underlying problem between the Jewish  and Arab people and think about possible solutions that are fair, safe and lead to good feelings. This is what Wally Problem Solver (the puppet character in my Dinosaur School social skills and problem solving curriculum) would teach children to think about. I wonder about the building of a wall between the West Bank and Jerusalem, done initially for safety, but question whether it is lessening the chances of peace? I wonder why the Palestinians who have lived and worked in Jerusalem for generations are not able to get permits to work here, denied access at checkpoints, need to show identity cards, not given citizenship and discriminated against in so many ways? Why do Palestinians in West Bank only get water twice a month while Jewish people living in the settlements there have unlimited access? Why is there such unequitable distribution of resources and why does racism still exist after all that has been learned about the value of tolerance and acceptance? Although these measures that affect all Palestinians are perhaps justified for security reasons, they have more than a tinge of racism and make me thing about the 50's in United States. None of these solutions meet Wally’s criteria for effective solutions that lead to fair, safe or good feelings as outcomes. I can empathize with the Israeli fear of Palestinian suicide bombers but is it reasonable to blame all the Palestinians for a small group of terrorists?  Is building the wall and creating hardships for the Palestinians a justified way to reduce terrorist activity? I think it is more likely to do the opposite. 

Surely there are more effective ways to problem solve.  I think about sending Wally to Israel to teach the seven problem solving steps. Perhaps if we start with teaching children anger management and conflict resolution it will be different in the next generation for helping people accept and respect each other’s differences. Perhaps if we offer parenting groups including parents from different religious backgrounds we can help with reconciliation and understanding of their similarities in their hopes for their children's future.  For now it seems the possibility of forgiveness of past mistakes is not in people's emotional vocabulary or thoughts. 

School in Old City 

When we check into the American Colony Hotel we visit the bookstore to buy a book on this topic. We meet the owner of the book store, a Palestinian man named Munther M. Fahmi who was educated and worked in US for 20 years and had become an American citizen. He decided to set up a bookstore at the American Colony Hotel some years ago but was denied Israeli citizenship even though he was born and grew up here. His Israeli citizenship had lapsed. So he essentially ran the store as a tourist for a few years while he tried to regain his citizenship. He told us that in 2011 he had been given a 2-year temporary permit to run the store and this year the authorities will decide whether he will be given citizenship. He waits.  In contrast, an American citizen who has a great grandparent who is Jewish can automatically gain Israeli citizenship?  On the other hand, this man who was born here  as was his family is denied? Munther recommends we read the book entitled Holy Land, Unholy Wars and John immediately becomes engrossed with the book for the next few hours. I am still reading about the New Zealand woman who fell in love with and married a Bedouin man at Petra, Jordan and wonder what made her so accepting of cultural differences ~ or did she just find all the similarities and universal hopes and dreams of all mankind?

We hire a guide who turns out to be Christian Palestinian to give us a tour of the Old City.  He starts by asking us what church we go to and when John tells him we don’t go to church, he grunts and changes the subject. We walk the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Sorrows), the route that Jesus is believed to have taken as he carried the cross to Calvary. However, others have proposed alternative routes and places for his burial and resurrection. John asks our guide for proof of these happenings and our guide tries to transform John’s thinking and they are actively engaged in debate. We see the key historical sites such as the Chapel of the Flagellation, where Jesus is said to have been flogged and stop at other sites where Jesus is said to have fallen or faced his mother or had his face wiped and finally end at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church is where it is said that Jesus was nailed to the cross, died and rose from the dead.  This place also has the burial site of Adam (of Adam and Eve fame). The city is crowded with hundreds if not thousands of tourists and huge numbers are waiting in line to see Jesus’s burial place. 

Every street and church has videotape cameras monitoring all activities. To my surprise this place does not feel inspirational or meditative and reflective as I expected. Rather the whole walk down the Via Dolorosa left me with a feeling of religious marketing and tension. Every building was a store or was a restaurant.

The stores were filled with crosses, Jesus statues, t-shirts, and other religious artifacts and trinkets. You could even buy a replica of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore on this trip. I wondered why this Old City was not a Heritage Site that would prohibit such marketing and left as a meditative and spiritual place something like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone Park?  This city has many religious sites sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews.  Although this city sets many souls of these many different religions resonating with spiritual energy, we both feel unsettled.  Has the net effect of all this religious fervor been positive?

Wailing Wall 

We reach the 2000-year-old Western retaining Wall of the Temple Mount that for Jews is the holiest of all shrines. For centuries Jews have come here to search for a connection with God and mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples, therefore it is often called the Wailing Wall. The area in front of the wall has a section for women and another section for men. 

John must wear a kippa to enter the male section.  Here black garbed Hasidic men rock backwards and forwards in their heels, bobbing their heads in prayer and sometimes pressing themselves against the wall to kiss the stones. 

I am on the women’s side and notice wads of paper stuffed into the rock cracks and some women inserting more. I feel guilty at intruding on this place of prayer but still I take a picture. It is felt that these prayers and petitions inserted in the cracks will be answered. You can even email your prayers for insertion into the Wall. Our guide tells us that he has guided couples unable to conceive babies here to pray and afterwards he has heard from them that they have had a child. 

The minarets with speakers and programmed songs begin the noon call for prayers as we leave. Our guide tells us there has been unrest or protests at the Dome of the Rock so we don’t go there on this day. 

Our Guide instructs Carolyn 

Our tour is up and our guide takes us into a store where he tries to sell us the book he has written about the old city – a small paper book costing over $30. We politely decline and he is disappointed but calls a taxi driver for us. We get in the cab and when we notice there is no meter he tells what the price will be to take us to the hotel. We decline and get out.  We haven’t bought anything and are hungry and decide now that we are on our own we will explore and find a restaurant for some healing hummus and pita bread. Then we go back to the hotel and buy another book about religion and healing olive trees. Tomorrow I will go to West Bank with Diane to learn about the Holy Child Program and John will do a self-catering tour to the Holocaust Museum and the Dome of the Rock. I hope none of my dear readers (if there are any!) won’t find this offensive ~ I am still wrestling with conflicting thoughts.  

Love Carolyn