Calm returns

Market day as usual

Running battles continued through the night till 3am. It was terrible. And it occurred not only at Damascus Gate and Herod's Gate where Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown in response to Israeli stun grenades and tear gas, but just behind our house. Arabs fired fireworks at the soldiers which can be very deadly, and soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades ... so loud I could not sleep. Each explosion shocked me. I didn't dare close my eyes to sleep as I never knew when the next explosion would occur.

By morning everything was calm again. It was as if nothing had happened. The barricades were removed, bedouin women returned with their fruit and veggies to sell, shops reopened. But this is quite a deceptive calm ... next Tuesday begins Yom Kippur which coincides with the muslim feast of Eid el Adha (Sacrifice of Ishmael, not Isaac by Abraham) and we expect more violent tensions. The streets in the Muslim Quarter especially the Way of the Cross was eerily quiet today with only a few groups. We do not expect groups to return till after Sukkoth when the tensions will be much lessened.

Nanjing professors in my library

Despite the violence I still had to go to work. Well, mainly because a group of researchers from Nanjing University had asked to see me. Don't know how they knew I existed but they got my number and asked me to give them a talk. It ended with a question-answer session. It was very pleasant. I believe the group was invited by the Hebrew University as a couple of the local professors accompanied the group.

The previous night the bishop of Suzhou with his priests and nuns and laity (42 of them) were on pilgrimage and asked to see me. It too was a pleasant meeting. But as you can see, besides the work and classes during the day, I also have meetings at night with groups. Sometimes my day ends at 11pm which means I get 4 hours of sleep. It's very exhausting.