Israel Pilgrimage Day Two From Father Jim Papile
We were up early, five o'clock breakfast so that we could make it
to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount before the crowds. Things there have been pretty tense the last
few months, you probably noticed in the media.
Just as in Jesus' time this most sacred place for three religions is a
flash point for confrontation.
There was a flurry of activity as we approached the Wall to say
our prayers, and to press our written prayers into the cracks between the huge
blocks of stone that made up the foundation of the Temple Mount. Men, in black suits with long earlocks and
beards, their prayer shawls up over their shoulders stood before the wall
praying while they davined (prayed), bobbing quickly up and down: some walking
briskly away as if late for work. Women,
dressed conservatively too, with their heads covered, prayed on their side of
the holy space. As early as it was, we
seemed to be the only tourists on site.
There was no sense of tension whatsoever.
Next, we lined up to go across the wooden bridge that would take
us up to the Temple
Mount. We got to the check
point, at the bottom of the bridge about 7:20, ten minutes before it open. I noticed, standing next to our group ten or
so Jewish people, I could tell because they had kippahs on their heads. It looked to me like they were having some
kind of briefing, with the leader saying things life, "now, this is what
you do if..." Whatever it was, I
didn't pay much attention. When the
Israeli police opened the gate, and we began to file through I noticed an
overhead electric announcement which cautioned Jews not to go on the Temple
Mount, for fear of stepping on the place where the Holy of Holies might have
stood, for not provoking the Muslims, who had control of the area, the site
being the Dome of the Rock, the third most sacred place in Islam.
About ten minutes into his talk Iyad, our guide, asked us to move
over a little, to get out of the way. Looking up I saw the same group of Jewish
people, escorted by several armed Israeli soldiers walk slowly towards us. This is a common experience by some radical
jews who want to take back the Mount to build the Third Temple. Several Muslims obviously found this
provocative, yelling at them "Allah Akbar" God is great. So the religious Israeli authorities beg Jews
not to walk on the Holy of Holies, and the government sends troops to protect
them when they do. An obvious
contradiction. This Iyad assured us is
why there has been trouble on the Mount in recent months.
It needs to be asked, for sure who should, or maybe even better
who should not, be allowed on the Temple Mount, anyone who wanted to,
obviously. Sharing, or not sharing. this
small stretch of ground, about the size of two football fields is a crystallization
of the national problem. It's seems
logical to think that the Jews, Muslims, and Christians should be able to sit
down and figure out how to live with each other in peace. All, without a doubt, love the land
passionately. Trouble they make, they
make for every body. Physical oppression
of the Arab cause spiritual oppression for the Jew. Acts of a few zealots on both sides
continually threatens peace on this holy mound, in this holy land place.
Elias Chacour was, until his retirement the Patriarch of the
Greek Orthodox Church in Israel.
In 2001, Chacour gave an address at commencement at Emory
University, in Atlanta, Georgia where he accepted an honorary degree. An
excerpt from his speech:
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