Fire!

So Sunday's rioting moved south yesterday (Monday) to Silwan Village .... more rioting, injured and arrests. Soldiers are still everywhere on high alert. They're still expecting problems.

Fr Matteo left this morning for Germany via Italy. He had finished his Licentiate (MA equivalent) and is brilliant in Aramaic and Hebrew. He's now off to Germany to study German for a year and then back here to continue with his doctorate. Good luck Matteo!

And today is the Feast of St Jerome, who lived here in Bethlehem and translated the bible into latin (from Greek and Hebrew and aramaic). It's our feastday of course, so we had a nice lunch - rice! And of course we remembered all the bible scholars who went before us marked with the sign of faith. St Jerome, pray for us!

My nose started bleeding (again. has been bleeding the whole week) after lunch. Feels lousy cos it was lots of blood. Got my beard all bloodied. Everyone is thinking my blood-pressure is high again.

Bro Rosario asked me to go for a walk after my bleeding stopped. It was about 4pm. Good thing we did because when we just walked past our school, we found a huge fire at our school's backdoor. Flames over 3 metres high. Crowds were surrounding, kids were shouting. I ran back to the monastery to get our doorman to get the hose from the garage but it wasn't long enough. So I ran up to the school rooftop and turned on the hose that's up there. Managed to douse out the flames. Someone had set a sofa on fire at our door. The school walls are now all blackened. Now you think it's a nice place to live here?

A little humor from the zookeeper . .. .

Feast of the Archangels

Today is the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. All are mentioned in the Bible and each have been identified with an event that reflects their name: the warrior, the messenger, the healer. You should spend some time praising God for all his creatures - including the invisible angels. Good chance now because Eternal Light webcast has broadcasting the vespers (evening prayer) of the Archangels sung by the Benedictine nuns on the Mt. of Olives. Go watch it at http://elwebcast.blogspot.com but please remember:

1) wait for it to download as it may take a little time. The video is HD so the high resolution will need some time to download.

2) You can click on the screen to become fullscreen. Reclick to reduce.

News on the riots

Here are some news reports and videos on the riots yesterday. The videos that you see were mostly taken in the Temple mount or just a few 30 metres away from our place.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/27/Israeli-police-quell-riot-at-Temple-Mount/UPI-12291254057524/

video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7bb_1254055716

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3782317,00.html

video: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133607

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Police+contain+riot+sensitive+Jerusalem+holy+site/2039539/story.html

Riots downstairs

Immediately after lunch, some of us rushed up to the terrace to see what was happening in the Lions' Gate area where riots took place. It's about 250 metres away from our monastery and we can see everything clearly. The soldiers had blocked the tunnel just outside our garage so there was a large crowd gathered there - locals and some tourists. It's strange that tourists can be so absolutelyy blissfully ignorant of what is happening or the danger they are in, even when hearing gunshots.

The street from the tunnel down to Lions' Gate (also called St Stephan's Gate because that was the gate he was dragged out of the city and stoned to death), was totally deserted except for a large troop of soldiers in riot gear. They charged twice into the large crowd outside Lions' Gate, dispersing them. But the crowds regathered.

Oops right now I can hear stun grenades exploding.

Anyway this blockage continued for an hour with several stun grenades exploding to disperse the crowds.

Oops again. Went out to the terrace because lots of shouting just outside our monastery. Some of our guys were there already watching what was going on below. Soldiers were charging inwards to the city. Lots of them. They turned into the street next to our monastery that leads to Herod's Gate. Then lots of gunshots and granades exploding - about 100 metres away. We could smell the explosives and smoke from where we were. Then the crowds outside our garage rushed off, the soldiers followed behind. One of them was shot in the arm. They called for medical help and charged down to Lions' Gate where the ambulance were waiting. Some of our guys got nervous and thought a stray bullet might hit us, so they went back into their rooms. But the rest of us stayed on to watch. And despite all this gunshots, there were still groups of tourists blissfully walking and taking photos!!!!! Their guides should be arrested for endangering the lives of tourists - walking right in the middle of a gunning zone. This is absolutely unbelievable!!!

Riot

The news just announced that there was a riot in the Temple Mount (now the Dome of the Rock mosque). A group of Jews entered the Mount (which is forbidden according to Jewish Law so you can be sure its not a group of orthodox Jews that entered) for reasons unknown (usually they try to rebuild the Jewish Temple at this time of the year). Some 150 Palestinians started throwing rocks at the group and the Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades at the Palestinians and so we have a riot.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117348.html and http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1253820685140&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Now we have to be careful in the streets so we don't become casualties of crossfire. Muslim school kids no more than 10 yrs old are grouping and chanting "Allahu akbar" along out street.

Shots

Can hear shouting and chanting from the Temple esplanade. Went out to the terrace to see what was happening. Lots of chanting and shouting but can't see much. Only lots of soldiers blocking the Lions' gate. Shots were fired.

We 're not sure what actually happened - whether Jews trying to enter the mosque (It's eve of Yom Kippur when the High Priest used to enter the Holy of Holies to pray for the forgiveness of Israel's sins), or muslims protesting over something. But it doesn't look good.