Violent Sunday

Singaporean pilgrims flocking
to the Holyland

Yesterday saw alot of violence .... but not what you expected. There was relative quiet between the arabs and jews with only one attempted stabbing in the West Bank. The violence this time came from the jewish half of the population in Tel Aviv. Firstly the angry protests of the Ethiopic jews against what they claim as racism from the police force. There was a similar protest march last week in Jerusalem that paralysed downtown traffic and ended with police shooting stun grenades to disperse the protesters. Yesterday the protest in Tel Aviv was smaller in scale but more violent. 46 people were wounded, half of them police. The second violence was in the city near Tel Aviv called Ra'anana when the District Court overruled a Municipality ruling and allowed the Jehovah Witnesses to organise a conference in the city's sport's hall. Ultra-orthodox jews came in droves to protest and stop the conference ... and it ended violently with clashes with the police. Jehovah Witnesses are aggressively opposed by the jews in Israel for their door-knocking and pamphlet distributing methods. Strange thing is muslims in the Old Cty are doing the same thing but no one is protesting against them. I wonder why.

On the personal front, yesterday was busy. I had to go to Bethlehem to give a conference to the english-speaking sisters of the Judea region. It took place in the Carmelite monastery where Sr. Miriam Baouardy lived and will be canonised next week - the first modern arab saint. I was having a bad spell of asthma attacks and was sitting outside the chapel while everyone else was inside praying. Then one of the sisters came out from the sacristy carrying the mantle of the saint and placed it on my head and prayed that my asthma would go. Well it didn't ... so much for a miracle. I said it's better to pray for a quick and painless death. It's a terrible nightmare each night to wake up choking and gasping for air .. yes nightly without fail. I hardly sleep anymore. I need to constantly walk so that fluid does not accumulate in the lungs ... but its difficult to walk when you're so tired and sleeping.

Meantime pilgrim groups from Asia are flocking to the Holyland. I've been extremely busy running from hotels to churches to restaurants visiting the many groups who ask to see me. Sometimes there're people whom I've met or guided before many years ago, but most I do not know. It's good to know that  asian catholics are leading the pilgrimage movement that had trickled to nothing in the last few months.