Another day

Summer flowers

 The City especially in our Quarter is still very tense as groups of aggressive Jews continue to march down our streets, spitting at us, shouting and jeering and provoking local residents. There's not a single police around to protect us. It's getting frightening going out alone nowadays. You're never sure if you'll get attacked for being a Christian. 

The hot weather continues to beat down on us. However the flowers are enjoying the heat and are blooming profusely especially the geraniums. I have to water them every morning so they don't dry out and die at midday. 

St. Anthony's feast will soon be round the corner. For the Indian community it's a very big feast day. They're holding a novena right now for the feast. St. Anthony is also the patron of the Holy Land so it'll also be a very grand feast day for us. After this feastday, it's officially the summer holidays for us. For me, it'll just be another July and August.

Pentecost

At the Last Supper Room

 It's Pentecost today .... both the Jewish and Christian Pentecosts. The Jews celebrate the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. Jews celebrate by eating cheesecake ... and we're not sure why but we all love it! However all shops are closed so I couldn't buy any cheesecake. However at the Last Supper Room, Catholics gathered in huge crowds for Vespers yesterday night and Mass this morning. And with that, Easter season is over.

School is over as well. It's exams now and in a week it'll all be over and everyone will be off for their holidays ... except me. I'll organise several books that I really want to read, and some things I want to learn. That'll be something to look forward to.

Pentecost vespers at the Last
Supper Room

This morning during Mass, a group of zionist Jews tried to break into our church and vandalise it with spray paint. Our doorman and his 2 sons fought them off. There was a dreadful commotion but those anti-christians were driven off. We don't get protection from the police. Yes the violence is not over. And we're the victims this time. Something must change. May the Holy Spirit protect us!

End of May

 More and more videos of the injustice and blatant prejudice against paelstines have surfaced and put on social media. I am sicken by it all. I can't bare looking at them anymore. I just mentally switch off. Nothing will change. The West will tacitly allow this unjust discriminaiton to continue so long as it receives the jewish diaspora votes.

Lilies in bloom

The weather is hot this week as predicted. 35 degrees. And nights are above 20 degrees. I was quite sick yesterday with runny nose, sneezes and watery eyes. Wasn't sure if it was a cold or an allergy. Today I'm much better from the runny nose but the awful headache is still here ... and nausea. Perhaps I should go see the doctor. I self-tested and am Covid negative though.

It's almost the feast of St. Anthony of Padua ... so the lilies are in bloom. I have several cream lilies and they are blossoming well well despite the heat. They need a daily watering though. Geraniums love this heat and are also blossoming furiously. Daisies and nasturtiums also. At least I've got those in my terrace. They'll do well with daily watering before the sun rises.

Marian dais

May ended as usual with the annual procession around the Christian Quarter of the statue of Mary. It's then placed on a dais in our courtyard and hymns are sung before the statue is kept away till next May. I didn't join in as the crowds could be carrying Covid. I avoid crowds at all costs. 

Sunday

Arabs in shock as
police escort the israelis

 Yesterday's Israeli Flag March into the Muslim Quarter to celebrate Israeli conquest of Arab East Jerusalem was shockingly violent. It started very early at 7am though the March itself was scheduled at 4pm. Groups had started marching through our streets at 2am shouting racist slogans, banging drums and waking the whole neighborhood. That's illegal but the police allowed them to do it. 

I had to celebrate Mass at Calvary at 7am and then meet some chinese students at 9.30am so I thought I'd be back before 12pm before any trouble began. However when I got home through Herod's Gate at 11am, large groups of aggressive Jews were vandalizing Arab property and beating Arabs they found on the street. I was right in the midst of them as the street is narrow and there was no turning back. Police sided with the israelis, escorting them while letting them vandalize and beat arabs. It was utterly shocking and unbelievable. Anyway they left me in peace because they could see I was a foreigner.

Then waves after waves of Jews passed through our main door, threatening the Arab shop owners and provoking a fight with our doorman's sons. One was badly beaten up ... our doorman showed me a photo of his son recuperating at home. It's illegal for the groups to enter our street as it's not part of the route agreed by the police. But the police closed both eyes.

At 5pm I heard gunshots just below my window. Things had gotten out of hand. 70,000 jews entered the Old City, attacking local Arab residents and shop keepers. Videos after videos showed the aggression and violence. Well I'm just glad no one died. And Hamas and Hezbullah had neither courage nor will to respond.

Still hot

Shade for a hot day

 Another very hot day today. Luckily my office has an aircon. I could work in relative comfort, but I pity the workers in the streets who have to endure the relentless sun beating down. Right now workers are putting up buntings and flags to prepare for the last day of May. We usually have a procession of Mary throughout the streets of the Christian Quarter to close the month of May.

Tomorrow will be a busy day because we must do everything before the Flag March begins and we're locked indoors to avoid being beaten by the extremist israelis who'll enter our Quarter with police protection. Yes we're not protected by the police but they are.

Prices have gone up so high it's almost impossible to buy anything anymore. Bread now costs twice its price. A 100% increase. The govt blames the Russo-Ukrainian war but the people say its the consequence of 2 years lockdown. Covid has slowed down imports. And the poorest people suffer. I've been buying soon to expire bread and distributing to the poor. It's not much but at least a few families will not go hungry.

Hot

Pigeons take a bath

 The weekend is setting in. Sabbath starts this evening when the sun sets. The City is getting more tense and police are increasing their presence. That's because Sunday is the Flag March where extremists jews will march by the thousands carrying flags through our Quarter. It's not only provocative but usually they vandalize our property. Sometimes they attack arab residents. I'll probably stay home as there'll be a sort of curfew. The public school opposite my house is preparing for this ... the police have taken over the highest floor and they've been working overnight with some fence of something. It's very noisy all night and the lights are shining very brightly in their workplace ... right through our windows. I couldn't sleep because of the light and noise.

Meantime the weather has risen to 32 degrees. It's hot and humid. The birds are flocking to the fountains at Palm Plaza, dipping into the cool waters. Some kids are also enjoying the waters ... while adults watched enviously. Being unable to sleep because of the heat and noise and lights shining into my room from the school, I start work at 2 or 3am ... correcting texts, reading, writing. By 7am I get very tired. But there's more work in the libraries and classes to teach. I can't wait for the exams to be over and the school closes. Then the students will leave for the summer holidays and our workload will take a short break.

I think I'll start planning my summer this weekend. For sure I'll have lots of masses to celebrate as many chaplains will also go for their holidays. I'll have to help out the konkani, eritrean and armenian Masses in several cities. And probably for a couple of filipino communities as well. It'll be a busy summer.

Turtle doves

Nesting dove in
our courtyard

 A stone was thrown at a passing car on the road to Nablus but the jewish passengers were only slightly hurt. This happens all the time ... jewish cars gets stoned by palestinians and palestinian cars get stoned by jewish settlers. It's a dangerous road ... a stretch of 40 km through the hills and valleys of Samaria with hardly any civilisation around. I had wanted to go to Nablus to see the MC sisters and their handicapped patients many times but the violence along the road is a big deterrent. I'll have to wait till things are calmer ... probably in winter before I'll try going there.

The weather continues to be hot as it's typically summer but the forecast is 35 degrees next week ... which should only occur in August. I guess if it's so hot now, August will get 40 degrees and above. One good thing about this extreme heat is it keeps everyone indoors ... so there'll be less violence in the streets. 

The turtle-doves are breeding well this year. They build very flimsy nests that get blown off when there's a strong wind. But many have now built nexts on window ledges and even on the statue of Mary in our courtyard. I feed them every morning and there're over 30 doves with sparrows that fly down for food. That gives them energy to have more fledglings. We need to repopulate the local birds because invasive crows and mynahs from Jordan have come and decimated their population by eating their eggs.

I know I've ben talking about my failing health but I've not be able to do anything about it. Going to a hospital checkup means a one day event, driving up to Nazareth which is 2 hrs away. I dislike the journey as I suffer from IBS. Yesterday the MC sisters cooked a little pansit for me but I had diarrhea after eating it. My stomach gets upset for any food that I eat now ... not just pansit. Even a sandwich. It's getting bad and there's no cure for IBS.