Return to Jerusalem

Trip Start Dec 16, 2004

Trip End Jan 17, 2005

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Flag of Israel Jerusalem, Israel
Friday, December 24, 2004

So much has happened in the past four days, so I'll try to break these emails up into a few so that you can read them at your leisure. So I left you last on Thursday in the afternoon. The evening turned out to be quite interesting. We had the evening free and so about 7 of us girls decided to make an improptu trip to Jerusalem. It was quite an adventure! First we had to take a taxi from the center of Jericho to the checkpoint of our city. Here we were interrogated by the Israeli soldiers. When let through, we
had to pick up another taxi. This one took us to a place called Abu Dis where we had to get out and walk through a small opening in a wall and barbed wire and up a hill to the other side. This is a prime example of how the IDF simply tries to make things difficult for everyone...it's pure humiliation to make people do these things just to live their daily lives. Once on the other side, we picked up another taxi to Jerusalem

Church in Muslim quarter

.

What can I say, Jerusalem was an entirely different city than when I last saw it just a week ago! First, it was amazing to see it at night...seeing the old city all lit up was just beautiful. We made our way to the courtyard where Jesus was condemned to be crucified by Pontius Pilot. Here there was a beauiful view of the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock--all back-lit by gorgeous lights. For those who don't know, this is the place to where the Prophet Mohammed came, led by the Angel Gabriel. He was in Mecca at the
time where he was facing persecution by those who thought he was a liar and thus the Angel Gabriel led him on a journy to Jerusalem. At the Dome of the Rock, he met with all of the past prophets and then ascended to heaven. I have yet to actually go inside to see it, but will try to get there next week. We made our way to the Western or Wailing wall which I have already written to you about. What a difference, as it was not the Sabbath (Jewish holy day) any longer and there were hundreds of Jewish people there praying and touring the area. The Jewish quarter was just abuzz with people--so
different from my last visit when everything was closed. Unfortunately, we did have a negative experience. Many of us have purchased a khufia (the white and black head scarf worn by Arafat) to use a scarf as it's very cold here

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

. Well, we don't think anything of it...it's just a scarf to us. Well, a young (about 16) Jewish kid on a bike started to follow us and circle around us and just generally bother us. He was speaking in Hebrew and we told him we didn't understand, hoping he'd go away. Well, we stopped in a store for a few minutes and a few girls went on ahead. The boy managed to ask why we were wearing the scarves and they replied b/c it was cold. Well, we began to make our way to the Christian quarter and the boy appeared and was circling me and Shaheen. He looked at me and motioned for me to come nearer to him and before I could move away, he grabbed for my scarf on my neck. I yelled as loud as I could "Get away!" He got really scared and raced off...luckily, we were in a group and there were many people around. So it's definitely made me much more aware of my surroundings while walking in the Old City.

For dinner we had delicious shwarmas and then left the city to find a taxi home, as our checkpoint closes at 10pm every night. Luckily, we found a direct taxi to take us to Jericho, which saves a lot of time. We made it okay to our checkpoint and back safely to the flat.