Now you will finally be able to read about my days in Jerusalem and not only see the pictures. I try to keep it short and spare you with details... I did not have enough time and then I has problems with internet access.
I spent four days in Jerusalem, of which I spent two half days for excursions to the Palestinian territories. Three days is however by far not enough to discover the city and its many places of interest. I visited the major religious sites of the three religions all on the first day: the Tempel Mountain with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall (also called “wailing wall”) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (with the presumed tombs of Jesus and the calvary mountain / mount Golgotha). It is incredible how close to each other these are. The old city of Jerusalem is divided into quarters according to the different religions: Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian quarters, with completely different lifestyles in them. There is plenty of police and military to avoid any kind of confrontation. I did not sense any problems, except on Jerusalem day, when the Israelis commemorate the birthday of the “reunification” of Jerusalem as the result of the 6-Day-War in 1967. There were buses full of young people, who were probably brought in from the settlements (that is at least the theory I heard from some people I had spoken with). They waved huge Israeli flags and sang Israeli songs. Prime Minister Netanjahu, after just having returned from the US and the meeting with Obama, clearly stated that Jerusalem would never be divided again and thus clearly send the wrong signal to all those hoping for a two-state-solution with Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. This provoked reactions on the Palestinian side in East Jerusalem and the situation in the city was quite tense. I was also surprised to see that the Israeli army organised its recruitment ceremony for the new soldiers on the square right in front of the Western Wall: Each soldier got its weapon and they sung the national anthem. On the Friday evening, Jews from the whole city – all dressed up – came to the Western Wall to pray for the arrival of “Shabbat” and the square in front of the Wall was packed with people. While the orthodox men were standing closest to the “Holy of the Holies” on the left side of the wall, lots of young people gathered a little bit more behind to the right to sing and dance.
On the second day, I made the walk all around the city on the city wall (ramparts), which offered very nice views inside and outside the city (the wall is still entirely preserved) and I walked down the “Via Dolorosa” with its different stations, Christ’s presumed last walk from the spot where he was sentenced by Pontius Pilatus up to the Mount Golgotha where he was crucified.
The third day, I visited Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial, which was really impressive. The museum is really well done and the whole site, a little bit outside Jerusalem, on a green hill, is well chosen. It was a very intense experience. I won’t say more than that.
In general, it was very impressive for me to experience the mix of religions and even the diversity within the Christian Church, which is very visible in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is divided up in different sections so that the different communities within the Christian Church get their share: Catholics, Greek orthodox, Armenians and Ethiopians.
On one night, I went to a student concert I had heard of by coincidence from a guy I had talked to with lots of Israeli singers and – as a guest star – with Macy Gray. I could not get in, because I do not live in Jerusalem, but I found a perfect spot outside from which I could see and hear everything. The atmosphere was great, but the concert went on forever: Macy Gray finished around 2h30 only and the concert still continued afterwards, but I was too tired to stay. I also met Thijs, a guy who studied with me in Bruges and who is now a Dutch diplomat in Ramallah. It was good to catch up after 10 years... ;-)
For the 4 nights, I stayed in the Lutheran guest house, managed by the German Lutheran Church, which is in an old building in middle of the old city and offers very comfortable rooms in a very relaxing environment with a nice and green garden for a good price. I could not ask for more…
Pictures at the following address:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best?authkey=Gv1sRgCJWE0oKnlb-WQA&feat=directlink
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