First Impressions of the Holy City

Jerusalem certainly didn't disappoint. Like any city it has multiple layers and I feel like I only began to work away at the outer rind of the city during my two and half day stay.

The corner of Hanevi'im and Jaffa

The Abraham Hostel was my home base for the weekend. It's a relatively new hostel about 15 minutes away from the Old City, at the intersection of Hanevi'im and Jaffa streets. It's a great place, very clean, friendly staff and close to the old city. 

Every Friday night the hostel puts on a Shabbat dinner for the guests. It was wonderful. Everyone helps cook and everyone eats together. 

The hostel if four floors with a rooftop lounge area, a shared kitchen and dining room where we all ate and shared drinks and stories.

The Common Room

The Lobby

The Dining Room and Kitchen where we have Shabbat

There were a lot of very interesting people from around the world staying at the hostel. My dorm-buddy was from South Africa. He had come to Israel through birthright and had fast tracked his citizenship by joining the IDF and was currently undergoing training in the Negev. Others had come from the US and New Zealand to volunteer with an organization called Sar-El which provides non-combatant logistics support to the IDF. Those stories made me uncomfortable to say the least. I had come seeking to help in whatever way I could to help bring about a lasting peace. These people had come to either volunteer directly with the armed forces or volunteer to support the armed forces. It was certainly conflicting to me. As much as I can appreciate a sense of patriotism and service. But, it certainly felt like people coming directly to participate in the violence and all were very supportive of the Israeli state in all things. 

I felt vindicated when everyone agreed that NSWAS School for Peace was an inspirational community and intuitionist and I even convinced the South African IDF Zionist to come and visit NSWAS and experience the other side. He agreed that there were many wrongs happening in Israel and Palestine, of which many resemble apartheid in his own country. We also both agreed that federal service has the potential to create responsible and committed citizens and he said that if, as a soldier in the IDF, he can serve to protect Israel and also keep the IDF an honest and respectable armed forces by keeping an open mind and committing his peers to moral and ethical conduct, then so much the better. 

Many had also come to tour Israel and the Palestinian territories and I was able to get some good travel advice for when I get more time off. 

Jaffa Street

I decided to take experience Jerusalem in stages, leaving a few things out so I can come back and experience new things in the future.

I spent my first two and half days in Jerusalem walking around the old city on my own. The Old City is divided into four quarters, the Armenian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, the Islamic Quarter and the Christian Quarter. The Old City is about a 20 minute walk from the hostel heading east.

The Damascus Gate

I entered Jerusalem for the first time through the Damascus gate and spent my first few hours wondering around the Christian and Islamic Quarters. The streets were packed with people, trinket and souvenirs stalls, kebab stands and restaurants. I try and touch everything, see everything, smell everything, feel and breath in the history and the stor

I spend lunch time at a small kebab shop facing station V of the stations of the cross, marking key points along the street where Jesus walked to his Crucifixion. Station V marks the spot where Simon helps Jesus carry the cross.

At least seven tour groups tumbled in and crowded around as I ate lunch with a young Palestinian man who I invited to sit with me. We tell him about Canada, the snow, the people, the food and the culture. He tells me about the occupation which we'll get to later. 

Exterior of the Church, you can see the ladder in the bottom left of the frame.

After lunch he gives me directions to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which sits upon the place where Jesus is said to have been crucified and eventually buried. 

Although the Church has been held in common between various monks representing different sects of Christianity, the status quo of the church is incredible fragile. I remember learning that the exact positioning of objects within the church itself have to remain in exact in order to ensure peace between the various custodians. On several occasions fists fights have broken out between groups over chairs being moved or doors being left ajar. 

One of the most interesting and, in my opinion, hilarious stories of the status quo is the "immovable ladder" which was placed on one of the windows in order to do some maintenance on the facade. The terms of the status quo were re-negotiated and no one was allowed to access that point, so the ladder has remained untouched by time for decades.

The Catholican (I think)

Another shot of the Catholican and Roof

The Dome

I didn't spend too much time in the interior of the church. My weekend in Jerusalem was more of reconnaissance mission for adventures in the future. 

Here are few snap shots from inside. 

The Jaffa Gate

On my second day I feel like a pro. Feel like I know my way around the city pretty well and know how to ask the right questions to the right people. A quick Salaam-Alaykum and the store keeper sits you down for some juice, tea and pastry.

"What do you think of my country?"
"Beautiful, the city, the olive trees, the people!"
and wait for it, I whisper, "the occupation seems difficult." and BAM! I'm in. Everyone had a story to tell. Everyone I talked to was also optimistic.  The stories really move me. The amount of hardship, but also the amount of hope.

The Ramparts

I spend most of my second day walking around the exterior battlements of the city.

 
 I also find myself at the Western Wall, representing one of the remaining parts of the Jewish Temple. It's a Saturday which means the wall is packed with people praying. No pictures either on the weekend, which I learn the hard way as an ultra-orthodox man screams at me in Hebrew when he sees my camera in hand. I come back on Sunday morning and get the okay from a police office and I snap off a photo from a distance. "click" 

Al-Aqsa

I also walk around the exterior wall and look up the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (Also closed on the weekend, and I miss getting up there later, good reason to come back.)

The Al-Aqsa Mosque marks the spot where it is said Muhammad undertook the Night Journey. 

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a highly contested spot. It sits upon the location where the original Temple was constructed. 



In September 2000, after negotiations was again broke down during the peace process, Ariel Sharon visited the site, sparking violence between Palestinians and the IDF and led to the 2nd Intifada, known as the Al-Aqsa intifada.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3677206.stm

Saladin and Balian of Ibelin negotiating the surrender of Jerusalem

My last few hours in Jerusalem I spend outside the wall. walking around, thinking and praying, I mean really praying. It was an interesting and enlightening few days to be sure. 

I can't wait to go back.

For now, back to work.