Day 2: East Jerusalem

 Today's post is from Laura Reboul, a member of the Parish of the Epiphany.     

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a day of emotional highs and lows.  After 3 days of sightseeing on our own in  Tel Aviv, Ted and I joined the group from Boston at the airport and met our guide Iyad for the drive to Jerusalem.  About halfway along the 45 minute trip, we crossed through the checkpoint (uneventful) into the West Bank and it was clear that the tone of our visit to Israel was about to change.  
      The highway was suddenly lined on both sides with a barbed wire fence.  In the far distance we could see a huge Israeli Jewish settlement built for about 100,000 settlers.  In the near distance we saw Palestinian houses - our guide indicated that these could identified as Palestinian because each roof had a black water tank.  Piped water to the settlers homes is reliable.  However, the water supply for Palestinians is apparently unpredictable, and it is cut off even more frequently in the summer.  Hence they have to collect a reserve of water in rooftop tanks for times when the government cuts off therir supply.        When we arrived at our hotel in East Jerusalem, we were in a very different world.  Stll in the West Bank, , this Arab section of Jerusalem was teeming with activity  The difficult position of the Palestinian Arabs was not as obvious here as along the highway.  After lunch Iyad took us around the neighborbhood and introduced us to the best Arab shops for spices, coffee, books, etc.  He obsviously is well respected as he and the shopkeepers all joked about being "cousins".  As the atternoon wore on, the hotel filled up with more groups of pilgrims wearing a variety of religious garb and hailing from places including Romania, Russsia, and Malaysia.        The Muslim call to prayer felt surprisingly comforting,  And the evening Compline service with the 15 of us helped bring this overwhelming day to a peaceful concludson.  Laura Reboul