Jerusalem on March 24

Yesterday’s trip to Jerusalem was  both uplifting and discouraging.  Visiting the holy sites was a sacred time.  We were at the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, walked the Via Del a Rosa, David’s Tomb, Upper Room, Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  And, we enjoyed a wonderful mideastern lunch in the heart of the Old City.  Our guide, Issa, is a font of bountiful information and we felt blessed by all we learned, saw, and experienced there.

Midafternoon we met with Maya, a worker at ICHAD (Israel Committee Against Housing Demolition), who did an excellent job of giving us more history of the various encroachments on Palestinian territories accompanied by good visuals.  Then we boarded the bus and she guided us from West Jerusalem, a Jewish neighborhood that looks like those of any American city with many stores, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, coffee shops, and services with which we are familiar, to East Jerusalem where illegal Israeli settlements have been built on Palestinian land.  What a contrast East Jerusalem is.  The settlements are gated communities with full city services.  The Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have residency status but not citizenship.  They are, however, entitled to city services but very, very few are received.  Garbage stays on the street.  Water cisterns are on their roofs because they cannot be guaranteed  adequate water while the settlements enjoy getting it whenever a faucet is turned on.  (Average Isareli water usage is 24 liters/day…Average Palestenian water usage is 6 liters).  1500 more classrooms are needed in East Jerusalem and were promised to be built by 2010 but only one school for girls has been built.  Five thousand youths do not go to school because the schools are not adequate to hold them and are not up to standard.   Double sessions are held at the present time.  Our hearts are full of sorrow for these people.  At our devotions last night Marilyn read the passage of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and we think He is still weeping.

In Christ,

Gene and Lois