4 August: Jerusalem, a history of religions and violence

Today (04/08) we went with the whole Group to Jerusalem to see the conflict from nearby. In the morning we did a political tour with ICAHD, in the afternoon we visited the old city of Jerusalem. It was interesting day for everybody.

The tour, organized by ICAHD (Israelian Commission against House Demolishing), started with an introduction about the Israelian Palestine conflict and more specific on the situation of Jerusalem. The city consist of two parts, West-Jerusalem where only lives Jews and East-Jerusalem with a mixed population. The tour took place in the Eastern part. First of all we visited a Palestinian family. They told about the difficult situation of living together with Jews and the bullying in a settlement. Their story was confronting and moving for us. Then the bus took us to the Mount of Olive. There we had a good view on the settlements situated in the West bank. We visited this settlement and got information about the policy of Israel. We were wondered about the fact that things like house demolition, building the wall, discrimination, just can happen. When we stood next to the wall, the feeling of frustration, powerlessness and sadness increased.

After the political tour we had guidance through the old city of Jerusalem. We started the tour at the gate of Damascus; afterwards we followed the Via Dolorosa and visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall. We also saw the Dome of the Rock and the El Asqa Mosque. The way the guide told about all the monument and different religions in Jerusalem was the cause of a discussion in the group. We talked about whether it was allowed to make jokes about religion and how we should coop with it.

In the evening we took the bus back to Tel Aviv for dinner, where we ate on the roof of an Indian restaurant called 24 rupee. After a good dinner and a very good and relaxed atmosphere, we returned to the hostel after this to have a great evening.

It was a very hard but productive day, whit heavy subjects and a lot of emotion.

The Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood committee
Israeli Commitee against house demolitions

Glen, Marijntje and Jacob