Timing

Wasted bread each evening

The cannon just fired ... time for the muslims to eat as sunset has begun. Now that the strict law of arresting muslims who violate the fasting during daytime, there are fewer muslims eating and drinking openly. But still you see them. They are tired ... tired of a tiny extremist group that tries to command their lives, enforce their views on the majority ... and of course the relentless heat which Ramadan falls for the past 5 years. The severing of ties by 4 arab countries with Qatar has embolden the moderate majority of muslims here to eat and drink in a discreet but not hidden way. That's because Qatar pays the extremists here ... and now that the funds are being cut off, the influence of the extremists are also collapsing.

But still the main feast begins when the cannon is fired. So much food is cooked and not all is eaten or given to the poor. This morning I saw boxes of bread by the roadside ... fed to the birds. What a shame. when the cannon is fired each evening, thousands of muslims gather in the Al Aqsa esplanade for a free meal that other muslims offer. Well they should be poor ... but we see them arriving in BMWs, parking outside the Old City then enter the mosque to be"poor" to get a free meal.

Lock-down of my street

Last night I came home at 9.30pm after work and found my street was locked down by the police. Something must have happened but nobody was saying. Everyone was turned away and only residents in our neighbourhood were allowed to enter to go home. I wonder what happened.

The past 4 nights I had to work ... i.e. meet a pilgrim group. It got very tiring as I have to walk up 1km in the very hot weather at the exact time between 5pm and 5.45pm in order to avoid the crowds of muslims entering the Old City to pray. Then coming home is a lot more tricky. The only window which allows you to enter the Old City is 8pm to 9pm while all the muslims are eating. The streets are empty. But once dinner is over, tens of thousands will flock out of the Old City to walk, chat and watch street performances till 3am. So it gets very stressful for me as I have to time myself just right. Last Sunday after visiting a Singapore group I was stuck outside Damascus Gate for 2 and a half hours before I could even try to enter the City. That was 11.45pm!!! I am really tired of all this work in the night. Daytime I have 2 libraries to supervise and so many classes to teach. It's summer!!!! Give me a break!!!

Bazaars day and night

Ramadan night bazaar

News just in ... terrorist attack at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It never stops ... and will not unless European countries wake up and realize that this is a war. Not isolated incidents but a consistent pattern of attacks. I say it's all the consequence of "political correctness". To avoid calling things with their true names, invent euphemisms for evil ... you end up with this. History is reversed: the Saracens have entered the Crusader lands and begun conquering.

Meantime western hypocrisy continues. White House was lighted in the Union Jack while the Eiffel Tower turned off its lights in memory of the Manchester/London killings ... but for the murdered Coptic Christians who were no less human there was no such public show of solidarity. Don't tell me that there were people praying for them ... that's not my issue. I'm talking about governmental public recognition of the loss of human lives .... Middle-Eastern christians are dying in a genocide but their lives are apparently cheap and disposable. Not a single christian European country flashed the Egyptian Flag. Only Israel ... a Jewish State .... flew the Egyptian Flag in Tel Aviv's municipality building. Now the Islamists are in the European countries ... conquering it's spirit, subjugating it's ideals to fear, confusion and division. No Joan of Arc, no Richard the Lion Heart will rise from such a society. "Christian" Europe has lost Christ.

Meantime local tensions are high when riots broke out in an arab village that led to one youth being shot dead.  http://www.timesofisrael.com/father-arab-leaders-accuse-cops-of-murder-after-man-killed-in-riot/

Turning the tables, Israeli extremists have vandalized arab property in East Jerusalem, calling for "Death to Arabs".  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4971611,00.html

Day bazaar at Safra Square

Well despite all the bad news, Jerusalem tries to be festive. It diffuses much of the tensions. In East Jerusalem which is arab ... night bazaars spring up everywhere for Ramadan revellers. In West Jerusalem which is Jewish, there is a day bazaar at Safra Square (Municipality Square) as well s the weekly night bazaar all along Jaffa Street. Let's hope people on both sides realize that life is precious and not worth killing it off.

Enforced fasting

Thistles have dried out

The weather is continuing to be fluctuating between very hot in the daytime to cold in the nights. Not at all nice. I usually like the heat but this year the heat is killing me ... I have no strength to walk up to work at all. The heat just drains away my energy. And to show you how hot it is, the thistles int eh fields and roadsides are all dried before time. They've become brown and spiky. No wonder we only had a couple of weeks when artichokes were on sale. Artichokes are the immature thistles that we cook and eat. But because the weather was too hot, they've all dried up and turned spiky before they can be harvested and cooked. What a waste. I like artichokes.

Bread seller in
Ramadan

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I noticed this year the muslims are a lot more relaxed about Ramadan and Fasting. Food and drinks are sold in the streets ... you even see muslims drinking and eating and smoking though discretely. Yesterday the Palestinian Authorities asked the Muslim Authorities to enforce a strict ban on eating and drinking during Ramadan. Any Muslim caught will be imprisoned for a month. That is really tough ... and I doubt many muslims like it even though they don't dare to oppose it. I think the laced reaction is due to the past years of fasting during the hottest seasons of the year, and also a reaction to the extremism of fanatical islam. Well the PA is not taking it lightly but the enforcement of this law would be the 1st time in Palestine's history and will set a precedence that a political institution can direct the course of the Supreme Court.    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinian-Authority-bans-public-eating-during-Ramadan-494765

Some violence were nipped in the bud yesterday when the Israeli Security arrested several terrorists who had planned to attack jewish visitors in the Al Aqsa Mosque. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4971315,00.html

But on a positive note, there's the news that a jewish nurse is breastfeeding an arab baby because his mother is in serious condition and father died in a car accident. Other jewish women on social media volunteered, some offering to travel 270 km just to care for the baby. It's very touching. Every mother with a baby would understand. It crosses cultures.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4971345,00.html

Pentecost Sunday

Solemn Vespers in the Last
Supper Room

It's Pentecost today. The usual solemn Vespers was sung at the Last Supper Room. The Our Father was recited in each person's language ... a mixture of tongues like the day of Pentecost 2000 years ago. It's a wonderful experience.  Then there was the annual procession to the Armenian Cathedral of St. James to remind everyone of how the Armenians hosted the Franciscans in the 16th century when the Ottoman Turks evicted the Franciscans from the Last Supper Room. Then the procession went on the the Syrian Cathedral of St. Mark to recall the house where Mark and his mother lived and had hosted Ss Peter and John when they escaped from prison in the Antonia Fortress.

Military presence continue to be very high today in and out of the Old City in the wake of the terrorist attack in London. Palm Plaza is ringed with 3 concentric circles of metal fences ... each with only one gate. Thousands of muslims continue to congregate in the Al Aqsa Mosque and chances for a riot are real. But nobody wants their holidays to be spoiled so frankly I don't expect any violence. But always better safe than sorry ... hence the military presence.

Metal barriers dividing up the whole
of East Jerusalem

Well these few days I've bumped into several old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time. It's always so good to catch up. Perhaps that's a sign of old age ... nostalgia, memories, old friends .... This summer I will be alone as usual. Everyone else will be going home. So these friends ... jewish and muslim ... will be my companions for the next 3 months to pass the time. Meantime it's seeing through our students with their exams which will last till June 29th. My other lot of students at the Salesian University will be ordained deacons next week at the Basilica in Gethsemani; others will return to their countries to be ordained priests a week later. Happy for them.

Eve of Pentecost

Waraq Dawali for lunch

While yesterday there was calm despite the massive crowds of muslims entering the Old City, violence came from a different front -- the ultra-orthodox jews. Following the news i blogged 2 days ago, police posed as soldiers walking through the ultra-orthodox neighbourhood and were attacked. This set up led on a police raid and the arrest of 11 ultra-orthodox jews.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4970520,00.html

And there was more violence by the ultra-orthodox jews when they demonstrated along Porphets' Street leading pass the Municipal Police Station. This lot were against the breaking of the Sabbath Law - meaning there should be no work i.e. driving of cars, opening of shops etc. It happens every Friday evening at the onset of the Sabbath, or on the Sabbath itself. Apparently throwing stones, fighting and spitting is not against the Sabbath Law. Well it was quite violent. So the Israeli police really should worry more of violence from their own kind than from the muslims.

In summary, the ultra-orthodox jewish community is flexing its power over Jerusalem, enforcing its way of life on all the other residents. No wonder the jewish youth and secular jews are leaving Jerusalem by the droves.

Fruit for sale

Tomorrow is Pentecost. There will be solemn Vespers at the Last Supper Room this evening and tomorrow. Then the Easter season ends and we're back in Ordinary Time. There's the Feast of St. Anthony on June 13th and Corpus Christi on June 15th and then the summer holidays begin. It'll be fun ... as I plan to eat a lot of fruit this holidays. Even now in early summer we have grapes and plums and apricots. The heatwave has ripened these fruit quickly so they're now being sold in the markets. There's so much vine leaves on sale, today for lunch we had waraq dawali which is rice and minced meat wrapped in vine leaves. It's one of my favourite summer dishes.

Calm Friday

Crowds leaving Damascus Gate

Today is the 1st Friday of Ramadan and thousands of muslims form all over the country have flocked into the Old City to pray in the AL Aqsa Mosque. Israel has allowed many palestinians from the Territories and Gaza to enter Jerusalem. But the police were taken all precautions to prevent riots and violence. Damascus Gate was closed with 3 rings of metal fences and the waves of muslims coming into the City. I was stuck at home till about 3pm when I tried to get to work. The crowds leaving the afternoon prayers was still huge though it was only the tail end. I had to take the alleys to get to work.  Fortunately there were no violence ... although youths dawdling around Damascus Gate constantly provoked the police with chants and whistles.

Frying salmon on a bbq pan

After work I went to my friend's apartment near the 6th Station. He invited me for dinner ... roasted salmon on charcoal fire. It was the first time I have been to these Old City apartments and the view was spectacular. He's an MA student at the Hebrew Uni. specialising in ancient Akkadian. Although brought up a strict Presbyterian, he knows quite a lot about the Catholic Church and we talked a lot about doctrine and practise. In fact we talked till 11pm and we ended up out in the cavea of Damascus Gate, watching the thousands of muslims leaving the Old City after the final night prayers. It took more than 2 hours for the crowds to exit and even then, it was not the end. More people kept pouring out.

Well tomorrow life will return to normal and hopefully our access to and from the Old City would be open. 

Summer holidays soon

Lemon, almond and date syrup on
sale in the streets

The weather continues to be very hot during the day and cool in the nights. Though the range of temperature change is not so wide, it still makes people sick with coughs and colds. By the coast, the beaches are getting crowded as school ends and students begin their summer holidays. But the jellyfish have returned and they may become a danger when their numbers are too many. But the heat in Ramadan also signals the sale of lemon, date and almond syrup ... a definite favourite which boosts energy after a day's fasting and a sure thirst-quencher.    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4970108,00.html

Plainclothes police making stop-and-
search on arab youths in the park

Well with the massive police presence in and around the Old City during Ramadan, you might think that they're expecting some threat from the muslims .... but it has emerged form the news that the real threat are from their own kind: ultra-orthodox jews have placed up posters calling ultra-orthodox youths to murder Israeli soldiers. It's a reaction against the compulsory drafting into military service that these ultra-orthodox are fighting. But the strange thing is no one is being charged for inciting violence. If this were done by arabs, arrests would have been made and charges of terrorism would have been slapped. Here the rabbis are too powerful and beyond the reach of the law. http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/in-israel/local/tal-28750   and   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4970056,00.html

June has crept in and we're already into the halfway point in 2017. Time flies. I abhor to start making my summer holiday plans ... not so much "holiday" than work. I need to pick up on my studies and there're lots of books I need to read. Sounds like a busy summer ... so no time to be bothered by jellyfish in the beaches.