Impressions of the Holy City

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OK, yes I'm aware this blog is a little late, but I was busy actually doing travelling, as opposed to sitting in front of a computer, so hence the delay. Sorry to all the people who thought I died since my travelblogs just ended abruptly.

Anyway, regarding Israel. My first stop in Israel was Eilat, subsequent to crossing the land border from Jordan, which in itself was quite an interesting experience. Exiting Jordan was routine, afterwards I was required to walk down across the no-mans land through a narrow corridor with barbed wire fence on either side of me and completely exposed to Israeli sniper fire should they have chosen to fire on me. I then went through an exhaustive search of my bags, in which they were run through the x-ray machine at least four times and everything taken out and wiped down with explosives detection material. While this was happening I was peppered with questions concerning where I was from, where I had been, where I was going, and what I did back home, which required giving a detailed description of what I did at work. All this before I was even allowed to see the customs official. Finally, after getting to the customs official, he starts routinely going through my passport, gets to the page where the Syrian visa and border stamps are, stops, stares at it, and immediately the routine questioning ends and the detailed questioning of my trip to Syria begins, involving why I was there, who did I meet there, what were the exact entry and exit dates of my trip to Syria, what places specifically did I go to, and so on. He then leaves me there for about half an hour while he goes to do what I am assuming was a detailed background security search on me and my passport to verify my story, which I apparently passed, as he eventually came back, and much to my dismay, put a big nice Israeli border entry stamp into my passport, which means I'm screwed for entering any Arab country with the exceptions of Jordan and Egypt for the rest of the duration of this passport. But whatever, I think this was the price I paid for his letting me in after having been to Syria, since he didn't look inclined to do me any favors by not stamping my passport. In any event I was now in Israel.

So once in Israel, I made my way by bus up from Eilat to Tel Aviv. Also an interesting experience for several reasons, the first being that there was this crazy Orthodox Jew on the bus who spent most of the bus ride (it was a five hour trip) explaining in English to everyone around him how all the world's problems would be solved with the existence of a World Leader, and that the best person to become World Leader was himself. He then laid out his Five Year Plan to Become World Leader, and explained that not everyone would accept him at first, but that once he established World Order, then he would have universal acceptance. I was seriously considering saying something, but other people on the bus beat me to it by telling him to shut up and stop talking. He eventually had to move to the front of the bus since no one at the back of the bus wanted anything to do with him. I was quite amused by the whole thing. Second reason for the bus ride being interesting is that I was sitting across the isle from this REALLY cute Israeli soldier in her early 20s, who was in uniform and carrying a full blown assault rifle with her at all times on a public bus. She didn't speak much English, I think she was a Russian Jew, but I talked with her a little bit and found out that she was stationed along the Israel-Egypt border, and that she was going on leave back home to see her family in Tel Aviv. As I found out throughout my trip, the Israeli military is EVERYWHERE in Israel. Military service is required for both men and women in Israel, so there are soldiers everywhere you go. In terms of security, there are also checkpoints and metal detectors everywhere, at then entrance of any public building that could conceivably be a terrorist target. I was always amused by the question of 'do you have any guns?' since who in their right mind would answer yes to that question? In any event, the Israelis take their security very seriously, and justifiably so, since they are surrounded by countries that don't like them very much, for reasons that may or may not be valid, depending on one's political viewpoint.

Anyway, I arrived in Tel Aviv, and spent about a day there, which was more than enough time to get a feel for the city and then get out, as it's not all that interesting as far as cities go. It's only about 100 years old, has no real tourist attractions other than the beach, and has the distinct feel of being an artificial city, since it bears no resemblance to any other city in the Middle East that I had been to at that point. It feels more like a modern construct that did not evolve naturally over the centuries, but rather was built solely because a bunch of Europeans decided to move there and they needed a city to live in so they built one. I also don't think I saw any Arabs the whole time I was living there, which was quite a change since I had come to see the Middle East as the area of the world where Arabs live, and so being in the heart of the Middle East in a city where there are no Arabs seemed unnatural somehow. In any rate, the day in Tel Aviv was not wasted, as I managed to get all of my laundry done at a self service Laundromat, which was good, as I think I was getting rather stinky at that point (possibly too much information for a public blog). After that it was on to Jerusalem.

So Jerusalem. Where to begin. A fabulous city. Everything that Tel Aviv is not. Old, tons of history, all sorts of different people from all sorts of different backgrounds and religions living there, and an incredible amount of things to see. I was there for four days, which was only enough to scratch the surface of this city. Absolutely one of the must see places to go to in one's lifetime. A brief overview of Jerusalem is that it's essentially divided into three areas: West Jerusalem (Israeli), East Jerusalem (Palestinian), and the Old City (technically in East Jerusalem as it was on the Arab side of the 1948 armistice line. Israel didn't get control of it until 1967). The Old City is itself divided into four quarters, those being the Christian Quarter, Muslim Quarter, Jewish Quarter and Armenian Quarter (which is Christian). While I have been to other historical cities that have various quarters for various religions, notably Damascus, the boundaries of the quarters in other places have not been nearly so well defined as they were in Jerusalem. Each quarter has it's own distinct character, and it is fairly easy to tell which quarter one is in.

So, to go through them one by one, the Jewish Quarter is in many ways the newest of the quarters, since it was completely destroyed in Israel's 1948 war of independance, and so had to be completely rebuilt after Israel captured the Old City in 1967. So everything is very new, and is mainly a residential area for Jews at this point. The main thing of historical/religious importance is the Western Wall (aka the Wailing Wall), which is the southern most part of the western foundation wall of the Temple Mount. This is the only surviving portion of the Second Jewish Temple, which existed on top of the Temple Mount from 515 BC to 70 AD, at which point it was destroyed by the Romans. As such, it is the holiest place in Judasim, and is essentially an open air Synagogue, with many ultra-Orthadox Jews standing up against the Wall and praying at any given time. There are a number of extremist Orthadox Jews that are attempting to raise money to build the Third Jewish Temple on top of the Temple Mount, however there is the slight problem of the Dome of the Rock, which I will get to.

So, next there is the Muslim Quarter, which is the largest of the four Quarters (which I guess makes the word quarter a bit of a misnomer), and is also the most densly populated and the most active, meaning that it is a very alive area of the city. Many Palestinians live here and make their living here, and so all of the streets are filled with Palestinian shops and marketplaces with people selling all sorts of things, but mainly for their own domestic consumption, and not tourist stuff, which made it much more interesting. It was quite facscinating just to wander around and see everything, and it was also nice that I came at a point where tensions in the city seemed to be rather low, and as such it was possible to walk around. I have heard from other people that when tensions are high the Muslim Quarter is essentialy closed off to non-Muslims, because it's just not safe to go in there. Luckily that is not the case at the moment. The main site of religious significance to the Muslims is the Temple Mount, which in addition to being the foundation of the Second Jewish Temple is also the location of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which together make up the third holiest site in Islam, as it was here that the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven with the archangel Gabriel and recieved commandments from God on how Muslims should pray Apparently God originally thought that praying fifty times a day was a good number, but Mohammad and Moses talked him down to five. In particular the Dome of the Rock is in the centre of the Temple Mount and is located on the exact spot where Mohammad is said to have ascended. It also happens to be the exact spot where the Second Jewish Temple was, and the exact spot where certain Orthadox Jews want to build the Third Jewish Temple. So if one were looking for a way to start a holy war between the Muslim world and the Judeo-Christian world, bulldozing the Dome of the Rock to build the Third Jewish Temple would be a really good way to do it. Luckily, most people seem to be happy with the status quo. In any event, while tourists and non-Muslims are allowed on to the Temple Mount for a grand total of one hour each afternoon other than Friday, they are not allowed into the Dome of the Rock or the Mosque any longer. This is apparently in response to Ariel Sharon's famously well timed tour of the Temple Mount in 2000, which many say was the catalyst for the Second Palestinian Intifada. From my perspective the result of all this is that I only have photos of the outside of the Dome, not the inside, at which I was most annoyed. I briefly considered going up to the guards and telling them I was a Muslim, but I didn't think it would work since I don't know any phrases from the Koran, and also provoking a confrontation on the Temple Mount didn't seem like a good idea.

Next up is the Christian Quarter, which is the most touristy area of Jerusalem, mainly I believe because there are just not that many Christians in Jerusalem or Israel in general these days, and so this area is mainly shops selling tourist souveneirs of a religious nature, such as crucifixes, and there are of course the various nuns, priests, monks, and so on that maintain the various churches, of which there are many. The main Christian religious site is of course the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Related to that are the 14 Stations of the Cross, marking the key events along Jesus' walk from the point at which he was condemmed to the place of his crucifixion and burial. The first Station is just north the Temple Mount, where he was condemmed by Pontius Pilate. The Stations then wind their way along the Via Dolorosa through what is now the Muslim Quarter, into the Christian Quarter, and then into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is where Stations Ten through Fourteen are located. I actually went around and got photos of all the Stations, which are quite interesting to see, as at most of them they are marked by small chapels with a painting or sculpture depicting what happend at that spot. I won't post all the photos here, but they are well worth taking a look at. The church itself is also very impressive. Various parts of the inside of the church are controlled by various denominations, such as Catholic, Greek Orthadox, Armenian, etc, which gives different parts of the church a different feel to it. It also means that there are all sorts of rivalries over who controls what. As a result, nothing is ever allowed to change in the church without the consent of all parties. For example, in the photo I posted of the outside of the church, there is a ladder just below one of the top windows that has not been allowed to be moved for over a hundred years, in order to maintain the status quo between the various denominations. This is the greatness of organized religion in all it's splendor.

Moving on to the final quarter, there is the Armenian quarter, which is the strangest of all the quarters. For one thing Armenians are Christian, but why they needed their own quarter separate from the rest of the Christians is beyond me. It is also very isolationist. It is effectively a walled city within the walled city of Jerusalem. The gates to the quarter are shut at 10 PM every night, and most of the quarter is off limits to tourists or visitors. The main Church, the Church of St. James, is only open to visitors between 3:00 and 3:30 each afternoon. Talk about short working hours! Anyway, I managed to get there at the correct time on my last day, and was rewarded by getting to see a most interesting Armenian religious ceremony. I'm not entirely sure what was going on, as it was in Armenian, but it involved much praying, chanting, reading from the Bible, walking around a square in procession and burning of incense. As with the rest of the Armenian quarter, it was also clearly designed for the benefit of the people in the ceremony, and not spectators. Almost a monastic service as opposed to a church service. Quite fascinating in any event.

So that's the Old City. Of course there is also much to see in Jerusalem outside of the old city, however I had very limited time, and so the old city is where I concentrated my sightseeing. A few places outside of the walls that I did go to included the Garden of Gethsemene, which is in east Jerusalem just ouside of the old city walls, and is the place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas. As with all other historical Christian sites they have of course felt the need to build a church on top of the location, which was interesting to see. Then in West Jerusalem I took half a day to go see Yad Vashem, which is the Jewish Holocaust museum. Very worthwhile seeing, it is a very moving museum, describing in detail all the stages of the holocaust, from when Hitler first took power in the early 30s and restrictions on Jews started appearing, all the way up to the end of the war where the extermination camps were operating flat out. They also made the link between the Holocaust and the founding of Israel, since after the war many Jewish refugees had nowhere to go, since their homes and possesions had all been confiscated by the Nazis, and so they emigrated to what is now Israel, since that area already had one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the world, and so they thought they'd feel safer amongst people of their own religion. I would definately recommend for anyone that goes to Jerusalem, if you only go to one museum, go to this one, because it is very well done and very impressive. Also free admission, which never hurts for the budget backpacker.

So that's essentially my trip to Jerusalem. I also went to Bethlehem for half a day, but since that is in a different country (the West Bank, or Occupied Palestine, whatever you want to call it), I will do that as it's own blog. Leaving Jerusalem was also interesting, as I was going back down to Eilat to cross over to Egypt, and as it turns out, the route the public bus takes to get to Eilat cuts straight through the West Bank, using one of the 'safe' Israeli roads that Palestinians are not allowed to drive on or cross. There were signs every five hundred metres warning people not to stray from the road or to stay on the road past nightfall. I personally did not find the signs reassuring, but I did get to Eilat without the bus being attacked, so everything worked out fine. Stay tuned for blogs from the West Bank, and another for Egypt.

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Photos

Tel Aviv
Pretty much my only photo of the city. From a tourist attraction point of view, not all that interesting

Western Wall
The only surviving part of the Second Jewish Temple. The holiest site in the Jewish Faith.

Dome of the Rock
On top of the Temple Mount, this is where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven in a dream. Third holiest site in the Islamic Faith.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Located on the site where Jesus was crucified. Holiest site of the Christian faith.

Inside the Holy Sepulchre Church
Actual site of Jesus' crucifixion, also known as the 12th Station of the Cross

Yad Vashem
Museum of the Jewish Holocaust. It's built like a prism sticking out of a mountain.

Yad Vashem 2
Cattle car used to deport Jews to extermination camps by the Nazis in World War II

St James Church
Religious service going on in the Church of Saint James, the largest and most Prominent Church in the Armenian Quarter.

Jerusalem at Night
One last view of the Holy City at nightime.