Pentecost

It's Pentecost Sunday ... the last day of the Easter season. I presided at Vespers so I intone the last alleluia for Easter and the community responded for the last time. Tomorrow we revert to Ordinary Time and all our prayers will not end in alleluia till next Easter.

Muslim crowd hackling jews at
Damascus Gate

Well there was a minor confrontation at the Last Supper Room ... like every year for Pentecost when we go to pray and celebrate Mass (allowed only once a year because Israel has taken over the Last Supper Room). Orthodox jews were protesting that we were profaning "their holy site" - the so called Tomb of David - below the Last Supper Room. It's a lie that became a truth because enough people believe in it. The site below is an ancient church with an apse but now an empty box is placed there and draped with cloth and called the Tomb of David even though we know his tomb was further down the hill. But they chose to believe what they choose to believe ... even when archeology and written tradition have proven otherwise. Police dispersed the protesters and allowed christian worshippers to enter the Upper Room.

By the way, our Pentecost coincided with the jewish Shavuot ... which is the original Pentecost. Because the jews use a lunar calendar and christians use a solar calendar, the dates rarely coincide except once in a long while ... like today. And coupled with the start of the 1st week of Ramadan .... security was super tight.

Soldiers with sub-
machine guns on
the watch

And I was witnessed to that last night when I went out to Damascus Gate to see the crowds after dinner. It was packed with arab youths. And though the police had forbidden jews from passing there, still there were stubborn ultra-orthodox families who continued to walk between the muslim crowds. The arabs raised jeers and hackled the jews each time a family showed up to go out of the Gate. Things got overheated at times and police twice had to fire stun grenades to disperse the muslims. In front of me at one stage a group of youths surrounded 2 policemen and soldiers immediately ran down their watch tower and bashed up the arab youths. It was vicious. Merciless.

In the meantime up in Haifa, groups of Israeli arabs protested in solidarity with the Gazans ... and got severely and swiftly repulsed by the Israeli security forces.  https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-police-conduct-s-message-arab-protester-is-first-and-foremost-an-arab-1.6098595

Well the weather on Pentecost day was extremely hot ... a record 33 degrees at noontime. My stomach has almost stopped bleeding as occult blood is much lessened. I've eaten 2 ice creams and drank cold soup only. The heat doesn't help. So this morning while cleaning my room, I set up my portable aircon while is making my room cool and livable instead of like an oven for the past 2 days.