Changes

Just when we thought the weather has stabilised, today saw intermittent light showers throughout the country ... and is forecast to continue tomorrow. What a change!

The new Christian Information Centre

Everyone is quite perturbed ... not by the weather but by the news we've been receiving this morning. Firstly the Supreme Court has allowed jews to march through the Muslim Quarter during next weekend's Jerusalem Day. Last year thousands of jewish youths marched through our Quarter and attacked arabs and arab property. Arabs were told to stay indoors and those who were outside were not allowed to return home. I'm afraid this year will be just as bad. There's even talk of opening up Lions' Gate (St. Stephen's Gate) to jewish groups to march through the Quarter. http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.655923

The second news was the appointment of Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister. She is openly anti-arab, calling for their extermination and confiscation of arab property. I doubt there's going to be much justice. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Bodyguards-assigned-to-incoming-justice-minister-Shaked-after-threats-made-on-her-life-402708

Jacob's Pizza - newly renovated

With a slow tourist season, many shops are making this lull a chance to renovate their shops. In any one street, there are at least 10 shops in various stages of renovation. It's investment ... I guess. Smaller shops have been sold to bigger and wealthier property owners, and the trend is to open restaurants instead of souvenir shops. This would cater to the growing local jewish groups that are flocking into the Old City every Saturday. Even our Christian Information Centre has been renovated. It's much smaller now and is situated at the shop that used to be the Franciscan Bookshop. And Jacob's Pizza has renovated too, and now serves ice-cream and waffles. But the Tom and Jerry cartoons remain ... which is very nice. It's their trademark.

Waste

One news from today's newspapers has bothered me ... Israel wastes 25 billion shekels (US$6 billion) worth of food every year, needlessly, while many jews and arabs hardly have one full meal a day. The State Comptroller reported that between 25 - 30% of food is never consumed and wasted, and the State has not addressed this issue.

Packs of clothes and daily necessities
ready to be distributed to refugees
in Syria ... all donated by you

And this news comes just only a few hours after I was talking to Sr. Marta from the Spanish Sisters of Calvary regarding one particular family. The father had run away to remarry in another city, the mother is very sick with cancer and is under heavy chemotherapy and treatment, unable to work, 2 daughters and a son still in school. They are so poor they cannot afford meals. The St. Vincent de Paul sisters from another convent provide the girls with lunch. The sisters of Mother Teresa provide food for the mother. Thanks to many of you, the children's school fees are paid for and the mother's medical treatment. But when I hear US$6 billion worth of food wasted like this, I am very upset and angry. But I'm not an Israeli nor a tax-payer ... I can only stand on the sidelines and do what I can.

Many of you are generous donors supporting poor families here in the Holyland. Thanks to your goodness, children and adults are eating at least one meal a day, receive medical care, school fees and rent and electric bills paid. And more recently, christian refugees from Syria and Iraq are supported by your kindness, receiving food, shelter, medication, clothes and safety.

A sister of St. Vincent de Paul and
volunteers in Syria preparing food packs
for the poor ... donated by you

I have always believed that education is the only way with which people can break out of the poverty cycle. With an education, young people can have decent income jobs that provide food, pay rent and receive proper medical care. Sponsorship of students is therefore my priority.

So these are my thoughts for today ... upset but much encouraged with hope by your kindness.

Weekend again

Roses and Calla lilies in my garden

The weekend has come upon us ... all in a hurry. April is gone and we're already into the 2nd week of May. Time flies. Looks like summer is ready here to stay. The daytime is very hot ... but the nights still get a little chilly. Flowers that had been stifled by the 2 snowstorms and now blooming in a rush. `unfortunately the heat is scorching them as soon as they open.

Today I'm feeling better as the asthma attack was under control. Had only 2 attacks all day ... but the nights continue to be a horror. I'm practically using one Ventolin inhaler every 2 days. Right now I've used more than a dozen ... my dustbin is filled with empty inhalers. This cortisone treatment is making me sick ... swollen fingers and feet, nausea, giddiness, lost of appetite. But it does help a little in getting me to breathe. Just can't win with this.

4 canary nestlings

The canaries and finches are breeding like crazy in this heat. 3 pairs of canaries are brooding ... one already has 4 nestlings. Looks promising this year though a 4th pair was a failure. The female laid 2 fertilised eggs but she threw out all the nesting material from the nest, leaving the eggs on the metal nesting frame. I removed the eggs and placed them in another of the nesting pair's nest whose female happily accepted them. The finches on the other hand have 9 new babies in total; all have left the nests and can fly.

Last night the PM managed to gather a last minute coalition govt. before the dateline. However it's pretty fragile ... and a little worrying for some as it's made up of ultra-orthodox and far-right parties. Newspapers are talking about racists legislations and other stuff that sound very scary. I think it's best to wait and let time unfold.

Custos of the Holyland visits Syria

The Custos surveying damage
in the parish

The Custos of the Holyland, Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, paid a visit to war torn Syria and spoke of what he saw in an interview given to the Associazione pro Terra Sancta. He had managed to travel and visit the franciscan friars and the people under the Custody's care in Latakiah, Damascus and Aleppo. Villages further north were inaccessible due to the ongoing war. 

He affirmed the role of the Franciscans in Syria in being with the people, comforting and strengthening their faith in a tragic situation. He recalled the poignant moment when he assisted at the funeral of a catholic woman killed with her 2 sons; in the church were many muslim women weeping and mourning with the catholics. It was a reassuring moment that showed not all muslims are against christians ... that there is still hope in the goodness of humanity.

To the question if the war would end, he responded that it all depends on those who are selling the weapons and those who are providing the rival armies with money to buy these weapons.

The Custos preaching to parishioners

*All your kind gifts to the Franciscans in Syria will go to provide milk, food, clothes, medical care, temporary housing and payment of rent for those whose houses have been destroyed, and payment for escape to safer places.

With 30 euros: food, drinking water and care for infants

With 50 euros: help to maintain a halfway house

With 100 euros: payment of school fees of children in safer places

With 250 euros: to buy medical equipment for the Aleppo Hospital or payment of rent for a catholic family

Violent Sunday

Singaporean pilgrims flocking
to the Holyland

Yesterday saw alot of violence .... but not what you expected. There was relative quiet between the arabs and jews with only one attempted stabbing in the West Bank. The violence this time came from the jewish half of the population in Tel Aviv. Firstly the angry protests of the Ethiopic jews against what they claim as racism from the police force. There was a similar protest march last week in Jerusalem that paralysed downtown traffic and ended with police shooting stun grenades to disperse the protesters. Yesterday the protest in Tel Aviv was smaller in scale but more violent. 46 people were wounded, half of them police. The second violence was in the city near Tel Aviv called Ra'anana when the District Court overruled a Municipality ruling and allowed the Jehovah Witnesses to organise a conference in the city's sport's hall. Ultra-orthodox jews came in droves to protest and stop the conference ... and it ended violently with clashes with the police. Jehovah Witnesses are aggressively opposed by the jews in Israel for their door-knocking and pamphlet distributing methods. Strange thing is muslims in the Old Cty are doing the same thing but no one is protesting against them. I wonder why.

On the personal front, yesterday was busy. I had to go to Bethlehem to give a conference to the english-speaking sisters of the Judea region. It took place in the Carmelite monastery where Sr. Miriam Baouardy lived and will be canonised next week - the first modern arab saint. I was having a bad spell of asthma attacks and was sitting outside the chapel while everyone else was inside praying. Then one of the sisters came out from the sacristy carrying the mantle of the saint and placed it on my head and prayed that my asthma would go. Well it didn't ... so much for a miracle. I said it's better to pray for a quick and painless death. It's a terrible nightmare each night to wake up choking and gasping for air .. yes nightly without fail. I hardly sleep anymore. I need to constantly walk so that fluid does not accumulate in the lungs ... but its difficult to walk when you're so tired and sleeping.

Meantime pilgrim groups from Asia are flocking to the Holyland. I've been extremely busy running from hotels to churches to restaurants visiting the many groups who ask to see me. Sometimes there're people whom I've met or guided before many years ago, but most I do not know. It's good to know that  asian catholics are leading the pilgrimage movement that had trickled to nothing in the last few months.

Saturday

Another dreadful stabbing attack at an unscheduled police block between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. A 16 yr old arab tried to stab security police when they boarded a bus to check on ID cards. This chain of events is almost a daily occurrence.

Even street kabab costs alot

But with the new coalition govt., it doesn't seem like security is now going to be a priority as the PM promised during election . The coalition is made up of ultra-orthodox jewish parties ... those that had been kicked out in the last govt. This time they're coming back with a vengeance. Their priority will be to reverse the law of compulsory conscription for ultra-orthodox men to the army, more financing for jewish seminaries and yeshivas and in general every benefit the ultra-orthodox lost during the last govt. Security is not their priority.

On the otherhand, the PM has hinted he might push for VAT free duty on essential foodstuffs. That's good news for everyone as prices of bread, milk and other essentials are super expensive. But the Bank of Israel and the National Treasury are against it. Let's hope they don't get their way as life is almost unbearable now with the high cost of living.

I've had several severe asthma attacks today. Just came without any trigger. I was away from my room at that time and tried to get back to it for my inhaler as fast as I could. The one at 4pm was really bad ... I was thinking I'd never make it to the hospital so I must get the asthma under control by myself. The main thing is to stay calm ... which is very difficult when you're suffocating. Then I had to lie in bed as I might faint from lack of oxygen. It eventually passed. Miserable.

Ethiopic protest

Protesters block the Light Rail

Yesterday evening saw a relatively large protest by ethiopic jews that ended in violence. I was on my way home from visiting the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul in Mamilla when the loud chanting of the protesters caught my attention further up the road at Jaffa Street / Tsahal Square junction. Traffic was totally blocked, even the Light Rail could not move ahead as protesters occupied the crossroad.

Lots of police and soldiers were at hand but they kept a distance ... mainly because they were the object of the protest. Several days ago a video showing an ethiopic jewish soldier being beaten up by israeli police for no apparent reason had gone viral. The ethiopic community accused the police and State of racism ... hence the protest.

Anyway as the protest moved down the road towards Mamilla Mall and the Agron street junction, violence brought out. Police claim some protesters threw rocks and firebombs. In response they fired stun grenades and tear gas. Protesters fled in chaos. What a sight!

One of the numerous
beautiful stain glass
windows of the Mamilla
Convent chapel

Back to my visit to the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul at Mamilla. It's my first time I've been inside the complex of buildings. It is enormous! There is a creche, a home for handicap, a hospice for pilgrims and the landmark chapel which is incredibly beautiful. Sr. Ursula who was superior at the Bethany convent is now superior of this convent in the middle of the City. I gave her more donations for Sr. Sophie for the syrian christian refugees and a little something for the Mamilla convent which cares for handicap peoples.