Day 8 The Christian Quarter

Mark, and five or six others, got up extra early this morning to meet a group at 7:30, which represented the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. This is a direct-action group that works on the issue of the Israeli government annexing Palestinian properties in the West Bank to build housing for Israeli settlers. Some Palestinians have had their homes demolished more than once, even a few times. The ICAHD also helps to build new housing for people whose homes are lost.

There is an old joke, though, that goes, "What I love about the Left is arguing with people I agree with." The representative basically harangued the group for an hour at a fairly high decibel level. People in our group literally had to cover their ears. I guess he assumed that American Jews wouldn't get the tragedy. So he pretty much alienated an audience that wanted to agree with him and find a way to support the cause.

Fortunately, I slept in instead. Mark's group met the rest of us back at the hotel, and we headed for the Christian Quarter of the Old City. We walked past stalls of Turkish delight, Armenian icons, t-shirts, silverware, and hummus, until at last we came upon the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Church was built by the Crusaders when Christians ruled Jerusalem. It's quite a large complex built over the site of the Crucifixion and internment of Jesus. The other most salient feature of the church is that no single denomination runs things. Different chapels and altars belong to the Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, and Roman Catholic churches.

We started on the roof, where the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a chapel. It's small, and, well...it's on the roof, so you can imagine they might feel they got a bit of a raw deal. Still, there's a community of about 15 monks living up there on the roof in little rooms, living a relatively quiet existence. To get from the roof down to the main courtyard, we walked through a couple of Coptic (Egyptian) chapels.

The grandest chapels belonged to the Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches. Mosaics, paintings, some sculptures, lots of candles and chandeliers and incense. Much of the iconography focused on the scene of the Crucifixion, of course; but the nice part is that the scene includes Mary, Mother of God, and Mary Magdalene, because they didn't run away when the Romans prosecuted Jesus. So the feminine is at least represented.

It was fascinating to see all these groups together in the same building, but one musn't suppose they get along very well. In fact different denominations have schemed and politicked to get the most important chapels, like the one over the stone where Jesus' body was laid for cleansing.

For example, it used to be the Copts who ran the chapel on the rooftop. Apparently one day while the Coptic Christians were celebrating mass in the main church, the Ethiopians changed all their locks and wouldn't let them back in. The case went to Israel's Supreme Court, but since Israel had good relations with Ethiopia at the time, and hostile relations with Egypt, the Ethiopians were allowed to stay.

We left the Old City to have lunch at Burgers Bar, which was great. I had my burger with harissa (spicy red pepper sauce) and tahini. Mark had a lamb burger with garlic mayo.

Then on to the Museum of the Seam, built on the site of the old border between Jordan and Israel. There was an exhibit about violence and our vulnerability to it, and our responsibility for causing or allowing it. Pretty heavy stuff. There were several Palestinian artists.

(Incidentally, the founding donors of the museum are the Von Holtzbrinck family, who I believe run the second largest German book publishing company, which is also the second largest publisher of books in the English language.)

Tomorrow we might take the day off, as far as touring goes. The focus will be on the Western (or Wailing) Wall, so it's a religious day. Mark is calling some relatives who live here in Jerusalem, maybe we'll see them at some point.