Land Day

Group of police in black

Land Day on a Friday is never good ... the potential for violence is doubled. Land Day is when Palestinians of the north and south express their indignation of having their land confiscated by Israel. There was a mass call to converge onto Jerusalem, while Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring countries were called to break through the borders to invade Israel. http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=264144  It was extremely tense to say the least. Israel closed the borders of all the P.A. territories and the military were stationed at the borders. Internally police forces tripled especially in the Old City. Arabs below 45 yrs were forbidden from entering the City. Violent clashes took place in several hot spots. http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=264147

Quiet El Wad street

I managed to snap a shot of the relatively quiet street in the Old City ... but it may be hard to see the mass of police at the end of the street. Damascus Gate was closed off to young arabs and most of the bedouin women were not allowed to sit and sell there. Most moved into El Wad further inside the City near the 3rd Station. Still the Friday muslim crowd was there, albeit much smaller due to the tight control of the Israeli police.

Despite the tension, the Way of the Cross was celebrated but under police protection. It's the last Way of the Cross before Holy Week which begins in 2 days time. Shops in the Christian Quarter are already selling Easter eggs and other Easter stuff.

Meantime we switched to daylight saving last night. I overslept. Oh well, I guess many others did too. it takes a little getting use to. Some places like Ecce Homo hostel still did not switch their clocks and there was confusion at the reception desk.

Francesco our resident pigeon

And above all this tension and confusion, I saw Francesco, our all brown adopted homing pigeon sitting up on our terrace balcony, looking down in glee at the buffoonery of humans. He's the smart one. High above, sitting at the edge ... he seemed to rule the City. Land Day? He prefers the skies!