A little fresh air

Seeing the City Walls again

This evening Holocaust Day begins. It's a solemn memorial in Israel as they recall 6 million of their people killed by the Nazis. And the call this evening as always is "Never again". It's a horrific genocide. And let's not forget also our martyrs Edith Stein, Maximilian Kolbe, Titus Brandsma and many others. Every year I'd get my students to stand in 1 minute silence as the siren sounds at 10am. Most places of entertainment should be closed ... but as we're under lockdown, they'd be closed anyway.

And yes our lockdown has been relaxed ... as mentioned yesterday. This morning I went in our van to the main monastery ... there was laundry to collect but I go to check on the library. There was a lot to do, payments for subscriptions, books to be checked out for students writing their theses, checking if the ceiling is still leaking .... the 30 minutes given to me is not enough. I really must find another time to go and get all the backlog done but I need permission to leave my house alone. Though the govt has relaxed the lockdown, our house rules are not.

Fruit shops and bakeries reopened

Anyway getting to see the City Walls again, more people in the streets, more shops opened ,,, they are all good signs. It was a moment of getting some fresh air and sun again ... something I miss very much as we live in a tightly packed area in the Old City with no gardens. The lucky ones have a terrace ... but most only have a window or two for a bit of sunlight. We just hope everyone remains cautious, wear masks and keep social distancing from preventing a 2nd wave of infections. We so much want this pandemia to end.

There was another riot by ultra-orthodox jews in our northern neighbourhood against the lockdown. It was quite violent and the police had to charge and fire stun grenades. In Tel Aviv 2000 israelis demonstrated against the political stalemate but in an amazingly orderly manner, each one standing 2m apart in accordance with the law. You have to see the photo to believe it.   https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-over-a-thousand-israelis-brave-coronavirus-fears-to-protest-netanyahu-1.8781869?fbclid=IwAR0DHGAMmfMfFyaPnxxbPwLXTLzOrHyqvPF9rS12D8oFp-AXtUhecGWNmoA

And very sadly the annual fly pass on Independence Day has been cancelled to avoid crowds gathering to watch it. Every year I would go to our Jaffa house and watch the fly pass of the latest Israeli air power. It show flies directly overhead our church as it's a landmark on a promontory. I hope next year I get to see it.