Today was the day we finally made it to Jerusalem. As it turns out it was also the day a Palestinian construction worker lost his marbles and plowed down pedestrians with a tractor, killing 3 and wounding upwards of 40 people. When we walked out of the central bus station we walked head first into the aftermath. It happened right outside the station an hour and a half before we got there.
It was hard to tell if this had affected the mood in the city. I understand from what people tell me that the atmosphere is tense in Jerusalem at the best of times. A native Jerusalemite and former professor of mine once summed up Jerusalem of today as “a playground for bigots.” Besides benign religious people the place is overrun with gun-toting settler types and other wild-eyed fanatics. This is a shame because it is a beautiful city. There were far fewer tourists than what I remember from the last time I was there, in 1995. I was surprised at how empty the Arab shouk in the Old City was.
Emma and I set out for the Western Wall in the lat afternoon, just in time to catch a veritable flood of people, mostly Hasidim and various other Haredi types going there for evening prayers. Coming down the road we heard cracks of some kind of gun fire in the distance and saw flashes of it over the West Bank. It may have been just someone shooting into the air, then again, it may not. In the end we didn’t go all the way up to the Wall. We were put off by the very skittish atmosphere, heavy security and the fact that we were the only non-ultra-orthodox people there. Sad, but what can you do.
We ended our evening in Ein Kerem. An amazingly beautiful village/ neighborhood in Jerusalem with a nice-seeming population. The experience was somewhat soured by the information that it used to be a Palestinian village before 1948.
Jerusalem Pics.
As usual you click the photos for more Jerusalem photos on my Flickr.
Aftermath of the tractor attack:
In the Old City:
Emma & Dimi Walking in Ein Kerem:
Unwinding in Ein Kerem:
