Violence

The weather continues to be cold, hovering around 8 degrees both day and night. But during the day the sun is shining and bright. It would have brought our families and children this weekend to enjoy the lovely weather. But it's Friday. All the City Gates were under security surveillance. The Gates in the Muslim Quarter are closed. It's very tense. People avoid trouble by not going out.

Burnt Mass center

Meantime our Catholic Mass center in the Jewish city of Rehovot was burnt to the ground. Everything was destroyed ... altar, liturgical objects, sound system ... everything. Investigations are going on to find out the cause of this fire. But the migrant communities who use this center for Sunday Masses say neighbors and passersby curse and throw stones at them during the liturgy before.

Fr Justinus and
the burnt gate

The Church of Jacob's Well in Samaria was again attacked, and the very old priest Fr Justinus there was again also attacked. He was badly injured the last time arab youths entered the compound and attacked him last year. He had spent over 60 years in this church, cleaning and building and painting it from scratch. 50 years ago the bishop and a priest of the same church were killed by jewish extremist youths. If only more police security was given to this church that lies in the middle of a conflict zone.

It's been a sad week with all these violence. Let's pray things will get more settled as the year rolls on.