Friday

Damascus Gate by night
in the heatwave

The heatwave continues to oppress us ... daytime still over 40 degrees. Few people venture out in the day ... and the nights are the same. People prefer to hide in their houses with the aircons on. Just today alone I've seen several people installing aircons in their houses. Aircon sellers are making a boom this week. The weekend night-markets which are usually packed with people, are now very quiet. In fact lots of shops close before 5pm ... not only because of the cost to keep the shops cool but because nobody is shopping because of the heat.

And added to this dreadful weather, a revenge attack was committed yesterday near the village where 18 mth old baby Ali was burnt to death. An arab villager rammed his car into 3 Israeli soldiers, critically wounding them. Rioters in Shuafat, north of Jerusalem where last year the 16 yr old arab boy was burnt to death by 3 Israelis, threw stones at passing Israeli cars, wounding one woman. This tit-for-tat violence is helping no one. Police presence was high today around the Old City. It's Friday and thousands of muslims are flooding into the Al Aqsa Mosque. Fears of revenge attacks on jews have triggered the regional police to station as many police and soldiers as possible along the main streets.

New wall and plaque
at convent entrance

Today news is out that Catholic Church leaders in Israel have filed an official complain to the police over the extremist rabbi's call that it is justified to to burn all churches. Other church leaders are still keeping quiet. Too bad for them if they're scared of jewish extremists. The Armenian Orthodox leaders have been spat upon many times in the streets, and Greek Orthodox churches have been vandalised ... but if they choose to keep quiet about it, they have to pay the price for their silence.

The wall of the Missionaries of Charity's convent has been rebuilt and a stone plaque hangs over their main entrance in the Old City. At least the nuns now feel a little more secure. Their muslim neighbours used to cut their phone wires and spit at the nuns. Let's hope with the new and higher wall, the nuns will not be harassed again.