Day 6

Sabeel Center

The Sabeel Center is “An ecumenical center in Jerusalem for Palestinian Liberation Theology which seeks to make the Gospel contextually relevant.” Omar, the representative from the Sabeel Center who we got to talk to, was able to give us the Arab Christian perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, I found this to be one of the less interesting outings we had. Omar wasn’t especially engaging, and I honestly don’t remember a lot of the details of what he talked about. The main theme of his talk was the importance of nonviolence and of actually practicing nonviolence. He mentioned that with their youth groups, instead of sitting around talking about nonviolence, they will try to find a way to put it into practice. The other thing I found more interesting about his talk was his insight about housing demolitions. Although I doubt I’ll ever understand the full complexity of the issue, the general problem is that the Israeli government demolishes homes built by Palestinians in occupied areas. This happens because the Israeli government refuses to give building permits to Palestinian people, and then the Palestinian people build the houses anyway because they need places to live. The Israeli government then has these “illegal” houses demolished, and the cycle starts again. This seems like more trouble than it is worth, but it also seems like an effective tactic of the Israeli government to dehumanize and break down the Palestinian people.

Supreme Court

We then went to the Supreme Court, which was a very interesting building. The picture below is an outdoor courtyard, but I wish I had more pictures of the inside.

Inside, there is a library, and the floors of the library segregated depending on your role in the judicial process. For example, lawyers and judges wouldn’t be allowed on the same floor because they don’t want people to talk about cases or influence any opinions. The higher up you go on the floors, the more importance/experience the people have. The first floor is for lawyers, the second floor is for judges, and the third floor is (I’m pretty sure) for retired judges. This emphasizes the hierarchy of knowledge.

I’m also going to steal a bit of info from Jess Manno’s blog because she summed up the system so well…

“The Israeli judicial branch operates as follows: Across the country there are 32 magistrate courts, then 6 district courts, then the supreme court (with 15 justices, governed by a chief justice-which is essentially the one with most seniority). There are NO JURIES, as they wanted their court system to be fully professional and NOT to have people judged by their peers. Courts hear civil and criminal cases and whether you start at magistrate or district depends on the level of sentence that could result if you are guilty. If you start in magistrate you can only appeal to district and if you start in district you can only appeal to supreme. HERE IS THE KICKER… there are no real requirements on being a supreme court justice-you don’t even really need to be a lawyer-you just have to be knowledgeable in law. You have to be at least 18 and be qualified. You could petition in, be recommended or any other avenue then you go throw an interview process.”

City of David

Following the Supreme Court we went to the City of David. We saw a very disorienting 3D movie, but then got to travel through some underground tunnels! Yael gave an explanation about how they built the tunnels under the city to direct the flow of water into the city. We hiked down through the tunnels and then back up the mountain on stairs (reminded me of Lehigh!) that offered beautiful views of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives.

Coming out of the side of the mountain and looking across the valley to a modern city…

Awesome, old olive tree…

One of my favorite views of the entire trip…

Encounter

We ended the night with a group called Encounter, which was by far the most engaging group we had come to talk to us in our night sessions. Encounter brings American Jews to Israel to see the “less popular” sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The leader of the group, Rebecca, said that she was shocked when she learned about the experiences of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation, because she had never heard that side of the story before. She has made it her job to expose that side of the story to American Jews who are leaders of different organizations—she called them “grass tops” because it’s not as much of a bottom-up approach as grass roots organizations, but she’s not targeting policy makers either. Through this experience, these American Jews have the opportunity to listen to the stories of Palestinian people and even participate in a home-stay with a Palestinian family. It’s less about dialogue and more about listening, which I think is really interesting and probably helps the Jewish people focus more on what they are hearing than any rebuttals they may be tempted to make.

I think they were also one of my favorite groups because they never seemed like they were trying to preach to us. They told us what they were all about, were super interested in answering our questions, and shared some really personal information about their goals and their experiences in Encounter.

Day 4

Morning Bus Tour

We started our tour bus ride with Eldad from Ir Amim, a non-profit organization that advances the Jewish Israeli agenda by trying to help Palestinians. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be a geopolitical tour of Jerusalem and parts of Israel. This didn't really work because it was crazy foggy, not good for a scenic overlook tour of the city. When we did finally get into an area where it is good to see others, this can be very good.

Later on, we went to an overlook from which we could see the Dome of the Rock, King Herod's mountain grave, and El Azaria (the area where Jesus went to raise Lazarus from the dead). It was quite the impressive view, but it still wasn't very clear. He also took us through Palestinian towns where Israelis aren't able to go freely due to the conflict. The difference between Israeli areas and Palestinian areas is huge. While Israeli towns have nice houses and sidewalks and good city services, Palestinian towns are very dilapidated, not taken care of, and generally unsafe. The reason for this is that Palestinian's are considered "permanent residents" rather than "citizens" of Israel, and their towns are severely neglected by the municipalities.

After the tour with Eldad from Ir Amim, we went to lunch at the Burger Bar. At Burger Bar, I just got a classic burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, and pesto. It was delicious, and I loved it. The one problem with Burger Bar was that before I left to get back on the bus, I wanted to use the bathroom. The actual problem, though, was that the bathroom didn't have a light. Another girl on the trip guarded the door for me so I could go to the bathroom with the door cracked open. Awkward.

Old City

On our way to the Old City, we briefly saw from a distance Gethsemane, Mount Olives, and the Dome of the Rock. We also passed Herod's Gate into the city, but we went in Lion's Gate into the Muslim quarters. As we were walking through the Muslim quarters, we passed the place where they claim Mary was born.

The same place is also thought to be where the pools of Bethesda were.

We went in through this entry because it leads right to the start of the stations of the cross along Via Dolorosa. We walked the stations, which was neat, but most of them were just marked with a plaque and/or an image of some sort. We ended the stations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church was huge and beautiful. We saw (according to current belief, at least) where Jesus' cross was, the rock his body was prepared on, and the tomb where he was buried. The rock in the glass in the picture is part of the rock Jesus' cross was. Under the altar, you could reach into a hole they claim is the exact place the cross was positioned.

I lit a prayer candle for my family, and kept going with the group. We looked all around the church, and saw the tent-like structure covering the opening to the tomb of Jesus, and got to go into another tomb that was similar. We also saw lots of chapels including two Ethiopian chapels and a larger Armenian chapel, all of which are contained within the Holy Sepulchre.

After leaving the church, we walked through the little streets and alleys again, and we came across these lovely fellows. Nothing makes me feel safe like an 18 year old with an M-16.

ICCI

When we got back to the hotel, we got to decompress for a bit before we had a group of speakers come to talk to us. They were from an organization called ICCI, which stands for the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. The people who came were the director of the organization and four students who had participated in ICCI's programs. After talking to us about their experiences in the groups (ranging from participant to facilitator, from programs with middle school age students to programs will college-aged students, traveling all over the world) they came to join us at dinner. I enjoyed this informal conversation much more, and got to talk with a girl named Tal who had gone with an ICCI program to Japan.

Oddballs

After that dinner, we decided we were sick of the hotel food and ordered Dominoes. Yes, I ordered Dominoes in Israel. Don't judge. :]