Going to Jerusalem

I made it through the infamous checkpoint at Qalandia on Wednesday. I try to wear my cross to try and keep them from treating me badly. My friends and I were sent through this tunnel that literally looked like something from a slaughterhouse. We walked through the tunnel like cattle and were caged in together until the soldiers gave us permission to go through the chamber where they scan you, one by one. I started singing a song to myself, which confused them. I went through the iron doors and was scanned and asked for my passport and visa. I don't need a visa since I am not Arabic, and so they let me go. Apparently for Americans with Palestinian origin they lose their American rights in the eyes of Israelis. They are treated very differently, which is something that smacks of the Jim Crow laws of the Southern US.

We made it to Eastern Jerusalem, which is supposed to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. We were greeted by actors from each period of the city's rule, who explained how life was for the people under that period. Now in East Jerusalem, there are numerous settlers who have taken over 4 Arab neighborhoods for their own housing. We got to see many of them walking on the streets. It seems like the relationship between the orthodox Jews and the Arabs is a little better than that of the more ideological Zionists from Hebron.

The best part of the day was when we got to see the place where many people claim Jesus was crucified. No one knows for sure, and the way some of the Orthodox Christians claim that so many of the stations of the cross like the burial, embalming, and tomb were right next to each other seems a little doubtful, but it was a wonderful experience. I prayed for the time that I had, and then got to go see a rooftop view of the city. If the saying is that every street corner in the south has a church, then every ten feet there is a church or mosque or synagogue in Jerusalem. I counted i think like nine or ten churches in the immediate vicinity of me. One moving story was when we went to the church of the holy sepulcher, we saw a mosque right next door, which was named after the man that went to pray next to the church, and not inside it, for fear that his actions might encourage his Muslim followers to take the church for themselves.

Most of the mosques and churches here seem to be right next to each other. There is a level of comfort between Muslim and Christian communities that I have never seen between people of two faiths. The vast majority of the Muslims I meet tell me that they respect Jews and Jewish people. They call Jews people of the book, and emphasize in their holy texts that they are one of the three base religions that all Muslims should respect. They mention that the people they do not like are Zionists. They emphasize that any beef they have with Israel is not religious in nature, it is political. Even the hardest core Palestinian supporters say that there are many many Jewish people that have an inalienable right to live in Palestine.