Tension Friday

Jaffa Street junction was closed to
all traffic. Background is St. Louis
hospital run by the Sisters of St. Joseph

There must have been trouble in Damascus Gate yesterday after the noon day prayers in the Mosque. As I passed by there later that evening, there was a water-canon stationed at Palm Plaza, all the adjacent roads were closed and there was the awful smell of pungent water that is sprayed by the water-canons. The smell remains for at least a month and it acts as a marker. Police later in the week will make house to house searches and whoever has that smell in their clothes and house are usually arrested. You could sense the tension in the air. There were more police and soldiers than usual.

I had to rush off to Tel Aviv on emergency call yesterday. Being Sabbath, the taxi adds the Sabbath rate which is about one third of the price on the meter. It's so expensive living in this country. All in all the taxi cost US$150 for 70 km. I was worried that I'd have to pay the same amount coming home ... but luckily some of the newly ordained priests came to our Jaffa parish to celebrate their first Sunday Mass. I joined in. The Mass was in spanish. And after the Mass there was a party for the spanish-speaking chaplain who celebrated his birthday. Everything fell into place as the newly ordained priests were returning to Jerusalem in 2 SUVs. I got a free ride.

Sunset at Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv was beautiful and the weather was very agreeable - sunny and breezy. It's not much affected by the Sabbath. Shops and restaurants remain open and lots of people flock there. It's a lot more livelier than Jerusalem which enforces the Sabbath law. Well frankly with the Ramadan crowds (and the tensions) I think lots of people just want to avoid any trouble so they leave Jerusalem during the Sabbath. I think I will too ... especially the coming weekend when ISIS promised to kill all christians in the Old City.