Schisms and the Holocaust

It's kind of hard to be upbeat, when the tour didn't turn out to be very good today. For our last two days in Jerusalem, they have combined a number of tour groups onto a big bus with a different tour guide, and that created all kinds of consequences. Firstly, there were more hotels involved, and a big bus can't navigate easily in Jerusalem streets, so the pickups took ages, and we had to be up by 6:30am for our pickup slot.

Then they spent all day counting a larger number of people at every street corner, and of course the guide didn't know who was in his group and who was missing, so there was so much wasted time.

Thirdly, the morning guide was Jewish, and couldn't come to the Palestinian territory this afternoon, so we had yet another guide, but more of that later.

After an hour or so of pickups, we finally got on our way to the Israel Museum and a short stop for us to see only two things - the large scale model of Ancient Jerusalem in the forecourt, and the Shrine of the Book which houses the pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls that are in Israeli hands. Now we were told that they rotate one piece of the genuine scrolls through the exhibit at a time due to the fragile nature of the document, which is understandable, but I couldn't see it. I could only see facsimiles of the scripture scrolls and, as you couldn't take any photos at all, I couldn't even get a picture of a photocopy of the scrolls. At least in the Jordan Museum, it was free, they were genuine, and you could take photos. Anyway, the building and display was really well done. We were sped out of the museum and back to the entrance only to be told we now had 15 minutes to get a cup of coffee. Could have used the time exploring.

A bit up the road was Ein Karem, a village (now part of the suburbs of course) where John the Baptist was born, and we visited the Franciscan monastery built over the place where John was supposedly born. A nice, but modest, church built, as always, on the ruins of earlier churches, and remodeled a few times. In this case the actual birth grotto was off to the side and on a lower level which was part of the original Byzantine church before it was built over.

On the way back, we passed the rather more attractive Orthodox Church of the Visitation, on the site where Mary visited Elizabeth. As we saw lots of times today, both the catholic and orthodox churches conveniently claim part of the story for themselves, and so everybody is happy. In this case, the catholics claim the spot where John was born, so the orthodox church claims the spot where Mary visited Elizabeth.

The next stop was the Yad Vashem - the Holocaust Centre - which was a very impressive complex of buildings and displays that took an hour or so to navigate through. Whilst many people commented on the biased and selective view presented, and the irony that Israel was now doing exactly the same thing to both it's Palestinian and Syrian neighbours (sans the concentration camps), it was nevertheless a stark reminder of what we can do to each other when racist ideologies are zealously implemented, and a credit to how memories of suffering can be kept alive in a powerful way.

After the main exhibit, we ventured into the memorial for over 1 million Jewish children killed. It's a wonderful concept, where only 6 candles are used, and via a miriad of mirrors in a dark room show over a million lights.

Lunch in the first real kosher restaurant we've encountered. You ate either in the meat or in the dairy dining room.

After lunch, the guide cheerfully waved us goodbye, and the driver took us on to Bethlehem. My lack of knowledge became apparent, as I had always thought that the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem was some distance. Even our tour map seems to show them some distance apart. In fact, they are only 8km apart - about the distance we often walk at the weekends. Only took a few minutes in the bus, though it was a different world when we got there. Since the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993, Bethlehem has been Palestinian controlled territory or, in the official legalese, 'Area A' where Jews cannot enter (which is why our guide couldn't come). However, due to ongoing security problems, Israel has erected a high wall around the city, complete with barb wire, searchlights, guard posts and checkpoints. We had to carry our passports to prove we were not Israeli. Needless to say that the wall, and the way it can restrict goods as well as people is controversial, and not at all popular with the residents.

A cheerful Palestinian guide boarded the bus for our rather perfunctory tour. First up was a half hour stop at the souvenir shop. Then, on our way to the Church of the Nativity, the guide pointed out that Rachel's Tomb and the Shepherd's Field were 'somewhere behind those buildings'. Having left the bus behind, we walked past Manger Square without a comment, and up to the Church of the Nativity. Probably the oldest continuously operating Christian church in the world, it has a really interesting story.

The church is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities, who fight tooth and nail over every square inch of the church. For example, the main basilica is controlled by the Greek Orthodox church, but the steps up to the basilica are controlled by the Armenians. All three traditions maintain monastic communities on the site. In 1852 the Ottomans brokered an agreement over every aspect of the church, known as a firman, in order to maintain some semblance of peace in the place. As a result, however, there have been repeated brawls among monk trainees over quiet respect for others' prayers, hymns and even the division of floorspace for cleaning duties. It must be the only church where police have a continuous presence to stopping the clergy fighting. Even the way that the catholics can celebrate mass on Christmas Eve is set down and cannot be changed.

We stood in the queue for about 20 minutes to go downstairs to the Grotto built over the place where Jesus was supposed to have been born, and tried to look at the church from our point in the slowly moving queue, but couldn't see much due to the scafolding that was throughout the church. The guide explained, with no sense of irony or hint of exaggeration, that it had taken the Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Apostolic churches 150 years to agree on what what restorations could be done. Several times doors were shut and the queue stopped moving while the priests said prayers and walked in procession around the perimeter of their property. A bit like dogs marking their territory really.

When we finally got down to the Grotto, we each had about 5 seconds to look at it, due to the long queue. In their very territorial manner, the birthplace grotto is firmly in Armenian hands, so very conveniently the Catholics have the place where the manger lay only a few feet away in their territory. The Catholics must be continuously peeved that the queue was for the birthplace, and that anybody could just wander up to the manger spot.

Ushered up the stairs, we emerged into the Catholic part of the complex where the midnight mass is held on Christmas Eve and broadcast to the world. A minute later we were outside, and on our way back to the bus where the guide cheerfully waved us goodbye, and the driver headed back to the checkpoint in the dividing wall. Not a minute for exploration.

Eventually we got back to the hotel and decided to have a wander around ourselves, so we headed off on foot down to the Old City again. This time we went in Herod's Gate and walked around the Muslim Quarter for a while looking at the markets and shops, before emerging eventually at the Damascus Gate. It's actually funny. After several weeks in Jordan, the sights, smells and rhythms of the Muslim Quarter are so much more familiar, and feel so much more comfortable than those in the Jewish Quarter. Finally we found our way back to the hotel for dinner.