City re-opened

People stuck outside New Gate

The City Gates were finally opened today at 3pm. What a relief. It was terribly inconvenient the past 60 hours when everything was locked down. Now people are rushing out to buy veggies and bread and food. Thank goodness. But like what some newspapers noted ... the lockdown faced little resistance from the arabs inside and outside the City. Everyone accepted it as a consequence of the attack 2 days ago .... perpetrated by people who lived far away from Jerusalem.

This morning I had the Armenian Mass and after that I needed to go to the other monastery to fetch some books. I had to go out of Damascus Gate and then I realised everything was still under a lockdown though more tourists are in the streets. I had to go back through Jaffa Gate again like yesterday. It's been so stressful and bothersome these 2 days but that is a fact of life here.

Riot at St. Anne

At 3pm the City Gates were reopened and muslims began to re-enter the Old City. But at 7pm there was a minor riot in front of St. Anne's Church. Not sure what it was about ... but one seminarian from St. Anne's was stuck outside in a dangerous situation. His key was not working and he forgot to bring his phone. SO he came to my house and asked me for help. I contacted some other seminarians to get help ... at least for someone to open the huge gate of St. Anne's while our doorman accompanied the seminarian there, in the middle for the rioting. Luckily he managed to get in safely.

Well let's hope the rest of the week will unfold with a bit of serenity and reason ... instead of the emotions and irrationality that we've seen the past week.