Jerusalem - a poem by James Fenton

To hear the British poet James Fenton read this work in full, click this link here. Excerpted from New Selected Poems (2006)

Stone cries to stone,
Heart to heart, heart to stone,
And the interrogation will not die
For there is no eternal city
And there is no pity
And there is nothing underneath the sky
No rainbow and no guarantee –
There is no covenant between your God and me.
2
It is superb in the air.
Suffering is everywhere
And each man wears his suffering like a skin.
My history is proud.
Mine is not allowed.
This is the cistern where all wars begin,
The laughter from the armoured car.
This is the man who won’t believe you’re what you are.
3
This is your fault.
This is a crusader vault.
The Brook of Kidron flows from Mea She’arim.
I will pray for you.
I will tell you what to do.
I’ll stone you. I shall break your every limb.
Oh, I am not afraid of you,
But maybe I should fear the things you make me do.
4
This is not Golgotha.
This is the Holy Sepulchre,
The Emperor Hadrian’s temple to a love
Which he did not much share.
Golgotha could be anywhere.
Jerusalem itself is on the move.
It leaps and leaps from hill to hill
And as it makes its way it also makes its will.
5
The city was sacked.
Jordan was driven back.
The pious Christians burned the Jews alive.
This is a minaret.
I’m not finished yet.
We’re waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
What was your mother’s real name?
Would it be safe today to go to Bethlehem?
6
This is the Garden Tomb.
No, this is the Garden Tomb.
I’m an Armenian. I am a Copt.
This is Utopia.
I came here from Ethiopia.
This hole is where the flying carpet dropped
The Prophet off to pray one night
And from here one hour later he resumed his flight.
7
Who packed your bag?
I packed my bag.
Where was your uncle’s mother’s sister born?
Have you ever met an Arab?
Yes, I am a scarab.
I am a worm. I am a thing of scorn.
I cry Impure from street to street
And see my degradation in the eyes I meet.
8
I am your enemy.
This is Gethsemane.
The broken graves look to the Temple Mount.
Tell me now, tell me when
When shall we all rise again?
Shall I be first in that great body count?
When shall the tribes be gathered in?
When, tell me, when shall the Last Things begin?
9
You are in error.
This is terror.
This is your banishment. This land is mine.
This is what you earn.
This is the Law of No Return.
This is the sour dough, this the sweet wine.
This is my history, this my race
And this unhappy man threw acid in my face.
10
Stone cries to stone,
Heart to heart, heart to stone.
These are the warrior archaeologists.
This is us and that is them.
This is Jerusalem.
These are dying men with tattooed wrists.
Do this and I’ll destroy your home.
I have destroyed your home. You have destroyed my home.

[Hat tip to Mr Thursday-on a Monday! - for the link to these verses.]

Sarah Palin pulls out of Bethlehem visit

Up against the Wall
Sarah Palin, the ex-candidate and present day minor celebrity, apparently had second thoughts about crossing an Israeli checkpoint on Monday to visit Bethlehem during a three-day visit to Jerusalem. Why didn't she cross over by foot, like most Christian tourists, and hire a Bethlehem-based guide? Conal Urquhart reports from the Holy Land for the Guardian newspaper:

The former governor of Alaska pulled up to the checkpoint run by the Israeli border police to the south of Jerusalem in a white people carrier, with her husband, Todd, her assistant and Israeli guides.

None of the occupants left the car nor did they speak to the police officers at the checkpoint, according to photographers at the scene. They then turned around and drove away. A spokesman for the Israeli police said there was no incident at the checkpoint and a spokesman for the Israeli army said that Palin's group had not co-ordinated a visit to the occupied Palestinian territory.

Palin's group then stopped at a nearby Greek Orthodox monastery before returning to her hotel in the centre of west Jerusalem from where they later continued their tour of the city.

Tourists need to carry passports to cross checkpoints into the occupied Palestinian territory and Israelis are not normally permitted to enter areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, such as Bethlehem.

From the checkpoint Palin would have been able to see the high concrete walls that separate Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

Palin arrived in Israel on Sunday night after a delivering a speech in India on a rare foreign trip. She is due to meet Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on Monday evening.

On arriving in Jerusalem Palin visited the tunnels next to the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, which is believed to have been part of the walls of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.

Palin wore a Star of David, the symbol of Judaism, around her neck, prayed close to the wall and lodged a written prayer in a crevice, according to tradition.

Palin told reporters: " It's overwhelming to be able to see and touch the cornerstone of our faith. I'm so thankful to be able to be here and I'm thankful to know the Israel-American connection will grow and strengthen as the peace negotiations continue."

Danny Danon, the Likud party member of the Knesset who invited Palin to Israel and accompanied her to the Western Wall, said Palin was moved by being close to the wall. "The visit was educational and spiritual. She was a strong friend of Israel and she will become a stronger advocate of Israel in the future," he said.

"The main purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with Israel and the holy sites. It was her first visit but I am sure she will come again."

Christmas past and Christmas present

While shepherds watched their flocks by night, a significant birth happened 2009 years ago, with special effects including a comet and a celestial angel choir, according to Christian tradition. But today's shepherds wouldn't be able to be the first visitors to reach a Christ child born in Bethlehem. The BBC reports about restrictions on their freedom of movement around the West Bank. To read more, click this link. Wise men on camel back would face significant obstacles, too, particularly if they came from afar. What we don't want to hear is a slaying song tonight.

Apparition of Matriarch Rachel protected IDF soldiers inside Gaza, top Rabbis claim

Prayer: It's not exactly the kind of secret weapon that the human rights activists complain about. But it seems to be effective. Some quarters assert that the military outcome in Gaza represents a triumphal Holy War...for the Israelis.

Secular soldiers may roll their eyes, but two prominent religious leaders-- former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of the Shas party-- both have declared that the biblical matriarch Rachel was sent to help Israeli ground troops during Operation Cast Lead. Battle tales of a gentle woman warning soldiers away from booby-trapped buildings and sniper nests have been circulating now that troops have been redeployed to this side of the border fence. Some say she shouts in Arabic, others that she whispers in Hebrew. Hallucination, apparition, holy spirit, night goggle optical illusion, whatever: the tale has been bandied about for a fortnight in synagogues, on radio, on buses and in bars. Are sleep-deprived soldiers confounding this with the otherworldly ladies in the animated Waltz with Bashir? (That's another lopsided battle from decades ago.)
Yedioth Ahronoth reports how Shas's spiritual leader described Rachel's apparition during the conflict. :

"The soldiers arrived at a house and wanted to go inside. There were three armed terrorists waiting for them there.

"And then a beautiful young woman appeared before them and warned: Don't enter the house, there are terrorists there, be careful.

- "Who are you?"

- "What do you care who I am," she said, and whispered – "Rachel."

The rabbi continued to describe how the soldiers indeed found the terrorists inside and killed them. The three were carrying guns, just like the woman said.

"Mother Rachel was called to the place, 'Go save your sons.' Ah, praised be His name! God redeems and rescues, and sends angels to save the people of Israel. How we should thank God," Rabbi Yosef concluded.

The rabbi also credited Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for funding Torah studies.
"Had it not been for that – we would not be alive," he said

As founder and spiritual leader of Shas, Rabbi Yosef is held in almost saintly regard by hundreds of thousands of Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin.

Earlier this week, former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu had confirmed this weird mystical rumor, saying, "The story is true. I sent her." Despite frail health, the ultra-Orthodox octogenarian had prayed repeatedly at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.

Who needs white phosphorus?

Addendum: There have been calls to fire Rabbi Avi Ronzki, a Brigadier General in the army, for his latest devotional pamphlet which was distributed to soldiers before they went to fight in Gaza. "Go Fight My FIght" was condemnend as hate literature by "Breaking the Silence", an activist group of former Israeli combatants.

In one section, Rabbi Aviner compares Palestinians to the Philistines, a people depicted in the Bible as a war-like menace and existential threat to Israel.

In another, the army rabbinate appears to be encouraging soldiers to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians, according to Breaking the Silence, the group of Israeli ex-soldiers who disclosed its existence. The booklet cites the renowned medieval Jewish sage Maimonides as saying that "one must not be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel".

Timeless Bethlehem

Here's a reworked painting from the clandestine British wall artist, Banksy, reprised from last December. And Izzy Bee repeats the refrain of holiday wishes: May there be no barrier to peace for you all in the coming year. No time like the present to start some changes.
( And thanks for clicking on to this blog over the past two years online.)
Israelity bites.

Macca, older than Israel, rocks Tel Aviv

Some killjoys were snarling about rapacious ticket prices, unwilling to boost the alimony of the world's most famous one-legged divorcee, Heather Mills. And death threats were issued against Paul--now half of the remaining Beatles-- if he dared to perform in Israel some four decades after Zionist bureaucrats banned the ultimate boy band. By now, the Fab Four is on the verge of becoming the doddering duo. But for two and a half hours, the sexagenarian Paul MacCartney (the cute one) put on quite a show last night. In the West Bank, at a Bethlehem music school, he had showed off his chops on the harmonica--but a hoped-for free concert for Palestinians failed to materialize.
He avoided Ramallah for security reasons after flash-mobs started to assemble for a protest demonstration at the music school there. Give Peace a Chance, anyone?

The Pipes of Peace or Live and Let Die? It must have been a tough choice for Paul McCartney, writes James Hider of The Times, considering the message of brotherly love that he hoped to disseminate with his first concert in Israel, a country under constant attack from militants of all stripes that prides itself on offing its foes with Bond-like ruthlessness.

Luckily for the crowd in Tel Aviv, McCartney put a bullet through the head of the insipid little peace ditty and opted for the James Bond setpiece that turned around what had been, up until then, a rather uninspired start.

It lit up the stage in a volcanic eruption of fireworks that must have been visible in the hills of the West Bank, where the Palestinian leadership were sulking about being snubbed by the ex-Beatle.

For a man six years older than the country in which he was playing, Macca gave an energetic performance, once he found his stride. The start of the show was not promising, with a few blander Beatles pop numbers like You say hello interspersed with some maudlin, instantly forgettable songs from the Wings years. Like Israel, McCartney bears a particularly heavy burden of the past, and he must have noticed how the crowd seized up for many of his solo efforts, only to come alive again once he steered back to favourites penned with John Lennon.

The high point of the first half was a tribute to his old writing partner, Give Peace a Chance, which struck a chord with the war-calloused crowd. After the last notes died away, one middle-aged man with a child on his shoulders and a heavy Israeli accent kept shouting, “Give peace a chance, give peace a chance,” as though he was channeling the trampled ghost of the Oslo Accords.

The problem with a Paul McCartney concert is that the Beatles songs are so familiar that they tend to resemble a karaoke session at an old people’s home, while the Wings numbers have a hazy, half-forgotten quality, with the uncanny ability to dredge up memories of grey Sundays on damp Welsh holidays in the 1970s — even on a warm Tel Aviv night.

Even worse was his foray into his very latest oeuvre. When he began last year’s mandolin-inspired Dance Tonight with a sprightly little jig, he looked up and noticed that he was the only person in Hayarkon Park actually moving, as though 40,000 people had suddenly, spontaneously, decided to play a round of grandmother’s footsteps.

It was only after Live and Let Die that McCartney seemed to find his stride, whipping up the crowd with rocking performances of Back in the USSR’ (with an amusing background video of May Day parades and dancing Cossacks, which must have brought back happy memories to members of the million-strong Russian community) before letting rip with Hey Jude and Get Back, when he finally got the reaction that he’d been looking for all evening: pure joy.

When the Beatles craze was sweeping the world four decades ago, Israel rather prudishly declined to allow the Fab Four to play. That decision made Israel wait 43 years before a Beatle would play here. Judging by the imploring crowd, it was worth the wait.

Bush had been otherwise occupied--now let us prey, er, pray

George Bush, the lame duck American president on tour in Jerusalem and the West Bank, has today urged Israelis to "end the occupation" This carefully coded turn of phrase sounds like criticism, but it is aimed at Palestinian politicians, to show the US wants concessions from all players. Bush also stressed that all infrastructure of terror must be dismantled inside the territories. When his flacks spoke about signing a peace treaty before his term ends, there was a smattering of applause. At least one more flying visit to the region is on the cards before Bush hands over power to his successor next January. Will this treaty yield anything tangible? Conflict seems so ingrained here.
Earlier, Bethlehem was disrupted when Bush choppered in to pray at the Church of the Nativity.

Snipers patrolled the roof of the church near a hanging plastic Santa Claus left over from Christmas, while Bush remained inside for under an hour. There was no longer any trace of the Bethlehem bedlam which arose when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests duked it out inside the walls of the Church of the Nativity last week. The dispute was about how to clean the holy house after the Christmas rush. Palestinian police broke up the ruckus-- but only after brooms and stones started flying. Four people – out of around fifty who are suspected to be involved in the melee – were reported wounded.
Young supporters of Bush today were shushed by security cops when they tried to cheer. Like many Texan Christians who visit the Holy Land, Bush intends to trace the footsteps of Jesus Christ, whom he once described as his favourite philosopher and whose teachings he says have informed his presidency, including his divisive foreign policies.

On Friday Bush will fly north to the Galilee, where Jesus delivered many of his best known lines, including the Sermon on the Mount in which he said "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God".

All the flagwaving on these tours has an unfortunate connotation: the Lena Riefesntahl aesthetic, which is best avoided in a country like Israel which abhors that German regime responsible for the holocaust. Less is more, even on stage, guys. One flag each is enough. Those lines of soggy stars and stripes and Magen Davids lining the main streets already look sad and discarded. There must be a better way. (Maybe projected images?) Israelity bites

'West Banksy' and art collective move Santa's ghetto into Bethlehem

The British graffiti guerrilla known as Banksy first left his mark on the Israelis' concrete separation barrier two years ago, but now he's back. With company. The artists' collective canvas is not limited to the looming 8 meter high 3-story wall, though. There's also a show.

Banksy's latest Bethlehem cartoon shows a dove clad in Kevlar vest, winging into the sights of a sniper. A girl in a pink frock patting down a soldier is another of his eye-catching graphics. There's more of his trompe-l'oeil funhouse effects, along with assorted artists' stencils and doodles (presumably done in haste despite the scrutiny of the Israeli guards.) The new twist is a public art exhibit, held in a former chicken shop in Bethlehem's Manger Square. Sundry paintings and a few conceptual pieces can be purchased only here, and reproductions are sold online at the collective's website, Santa's Ghetto There's Suleiman Mansour's "Jamal al Mahamel",pictured above,which shows a humble man burdened with all Jerusalem on his back. Libya's Moammar Gaddafi bought the original painting back in 1973, but American bombers obliterated it when they struck his Tripoli residence in 1986. (This is a new version.)
Then there's the intricate olive wood model of the Holy City, created by Tawfiq Salsaa from memory over three years, which got an update when Banksy dotted it with watchtowers. Starting price is $175,000 according to Sheera Frenkel in the London Times. She interviewed the supposedly reclusive artist by text message for her piece, and headlined it, "Let us spray." Banksy must have exceedingly agile thumbs,built up from years of lifting aerosol paint cans and counting wads of cash from his sales, because he texts in paragraphs!
Hat tip to Checkpoint Jerusalem for pointing out this subversive art happening in the neighborhood.

Christian students in Bethlehem hard-pressed to 'Love the Neighbor' in Holy Land

It should take Amal Abed Rabbo, 16, one hour to reach the Lutheran Dar al-Kalima School in Bethlehem from her Jericho home. With Israeli travel restrictions, it takes three hours each way. Instead, she stays with her uncle's family in Bethlehem during the week.

But the Roman Catholic 11th-grader doesn't harbor any hatred. "The situation is not good for us, but I don't have hatred against Israel," she said. "I have hope and faith that the situation will one day end and we will have peace."

Students at the four schools run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land must strive daily to practice Jesus' edict to "love thy neighbor."

Each day they face political hardships with the Israeli government and within their society, reports Judith Sudilovsky. in a guest post. Charlie Haddad, educational director for the schools, sees helping students come to terms with their reality as a main task, in addition to striving for academic excellence.

"If they start hating, it will never end," he said. "It is the biggest challenge to convince the young people not to feel [hate]. Of course they struggle with it. They see the news, hear their parents and feel the economic hardship. It is very difficult to convince them that it is a government doing that and not to stereotype a whole nation."

But Haddad doesn't necessarily want the children to get used to the situation either.

Before the outbreak of the second Intifada, Haddad encouraged the schools to meet with Israeli counterparts. The meetings fizzled once the violence began. "Both sides are afraid of the other," he said. "They each know very little about the other."

School administrators and teachers are hesitant to restart dialogue for fear of being seen as traitors/collaborators because Christians and their institutions are associated with unpopular Western and American regional policies, Haddad said.

"A lot of fanaticism was created by the intifada," he said. "Before the intifada there was no Hamas or Islamic jihad. ... Muslims look at us as foreigners now. ... It puts Christians in an awkward situation."

Yet Haddad would like to see programs developed so Israeli and Palestinian students can communicate freely.

After the intifada, only the Arab Education Institute's peace education program—aimed at exposing teachers, administrators and students to the religious traditions of the three monotheistic faiths—continued to function, he said. But the joint workshops with Jews, Christians and Muslims are intermittent, partly because of travel restrictions on students like those pictured above.

Talking openly

It's vital not to sweep problems under the carpet, Haddad said. Many times the morning devotion at the Dar al-Kalima School is dedicated to discussing current events, allowing students to express their fears and concerns.

"If you ... suppress things, you allow anger to grow," said Munib Younan, bishop of the Lutheran denomination. "We need to teach toleration and love, [to] not succumb to hatred but instead find a solution. Teaching violence is the tool of incompetence."

Younan sees "toleration" as acceptance of diversity and living together in peace, whereas, he said, the word "tolerance," which he dislikes, means something you must accept.

Abed Rabbo said students at her school can discuss problematic issues without letting it affect their relationships with each other. "We don't take it personally," she said. "The problems are outside, they are not between us."

Last year, when tempers flared in the Muslim world over Danish cartoons that lampooned the prophet Mohammed, Younan said all teachers at the Lutheran schools were asked to devote classroom time to the topic.

"It is allowed to be angry, but as Jesus taught: Be angry but don't sin," he said. "You are allowed to be angry when someone is killed. I would be lying to you if I said I did not become angry when anybody—Christian, Jewish or Muslim—is killed. But this anger should not trespass a line and it should not only remain in anger but find ... solutions."

At the Lutheran schools—as in all Palestinian schools—Christians and Muslims attend separate religion classes. But in Dar al-Kalima the two classes also meet twice a month to learn about the other religion as well as about Judaism and the Old Testament.

Tony Nassar, Christianity teacher, said the schools can do more to create understanding between Christians and Muslims than with Jews because both are part of Palestinian society.

Nassar teaches the joint lesson with In'am Shaktour, the Islam teacher. "They see Tony and me working together, and they learn from us," Shaktour said.

Both try to help students differentiate between Judaism as a religion and Israel as a political entity, she added.

Haddad said he'd like to see the school's program become more structured. He submitted a proposal to the (Lutheran) Church of Norway for funding that would allow more frequent meetings and special trips to holy sites.

As inheritors of Martin Luther's Reformation, the Palestinian Lutheran schools hope to be part of the reformation of Palestinian society through formal and informal educational programs. It's something Haddad said he'd like to see.

###
Judith Sudilovsky's article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Owner cross as Bethlehem's sole soul-saving Christian tv station closed by debt

"If the big churches can't come up with that money, then I'm happy to let this station go straight to hell," said Samir Qumsieh, the Greek Orthodox owner of Nativity TV (Al-Mahed), which was the sole Christian tv station in the Holy Land and stayed on air for 11 years. Based in the little town where Jesus was born, the channel broadcast mostly in Arabic, and both Muslims and Jews would phone in to talk shows. Now debts of $800,000 have brought the station to its knees--and the owner says it does not have a prayer of survival. So much for any aspiring television stars of Bethlehem. However, English-language gospel shows are regularly broadcast on cable stations inside Israel, notably the program featuring American evangelist Creflo Dollar. Qumsieh wishes more dollars would flow his way.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Mr Qumsieh has been an often outspoken advocate for the shrinking Christian community in Bethlehem. He said Christians were leaving the city in large part because of the sharp economic slowdown brought about by the Israeli occupation and the effect of the concrete West Bank wall that runs nearby. Some Christians have also said they feel under pressure from conservative Islamist groups which are on the rise across the Palestinian territories.
"Emigration is our great nightmare," Mr Qumsieh said. He believes the Christian community was likely to shrink drastically within the next two decades and he said he too would now be looking for work abroad. He said his family was typical of Bethlehem's Christians, with four grown-up brothers who live and work abroad.
Unemployment runs as high as 65% in Bethlehem and farmers complain that large areas of their land have been taken up by the West Bank barrier and the several Jewish settlements that have been built nearby. The Christian population of the town of Bethlehem is thought to be around 40% today, down from around 90% in the 1940s.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Let there be no barrier to your Christmas joy. We hope that 2007 brings prosperity and peace...or at least a little good will
Seasons Greetings, one and all
(...and a nod to my favourite social researcher for sharing this postmodern image. Graphics are by Banksy, the radical Shoreditch UK graffiti artist, "vandalised oil painting 031"

A daytrip to what amounts to a Jerusalem suburb felt a bit like a mugging. First, the pimply security minders refused entry to our car and insisted that it was against the rules to take a rented vehicle beyond "the fence". "The rule of law will be enforced on my watch," insisted a youngster, caressing his rifle and refusing to look us in the eye. But he couldn't cite the regulation number (and , in fact, journalists technically are allowed to take rental cars inside.) He also refused to talk to any higher-ups on my phone, as it could be a risky ruse to blow him up, and he declined a suggestion to ring them up himself. We went across on foot. Sigh.

The bored Israeli visa stamper kept gabbing to her boyfriend on her cell phone, and we walked through a series of gates and x-rays until we got to the taxi stand on Palestinian turf.
Here, the pace quickened. In the week before Christmas, traditionally high season in Bethlehem, the streets are echoingly empty. We were swarmed--and felt like hapless pigeons about to be plucked. Vendors and taxi drivers were cutting deals over imagined profiteering, and we turned out to be a bitter disappointment for not digging as deeply into our pockets as they had hoped. A Fatah cab driver and an armed Hamas trinket-seller quarreled over us.
Santa Claus, strung up on a pole near the police station, looked rather like he was on the gallows.

Even inside the Church of the Nativity, the atmosphere felt tense. Impatient priests strongarmed visitors out of their way. Chanting and incense swining took precedence over gawkers. Thankfully, the line of Palestinians on the way out were courteous and extremely patient. They go through this twice a day, after all.

Ahem. Bethlehem. In chains

Thanksgiving is here, so now it's officially the season to flog Christmas gear. One farsighted activist suggests that the traditional olive wood nativity scenes carved in Bethlehem would sell faster if they were postmodern hyper-realistic models, with the creche surrounded by checkpoints and a nasty concrete wall that replicates the real one, daubed with miniature graffiti. The slogan, without a trace of irony, reads "Bethlehem. Go in Peace."

She has a point. The celebrated birthplace of Jesus suffers from the wall's intrusion, and a row of gnarled ancient olive trunks, which were uprooted during its construction, now are padlocked in the city centre to stop thieves from hauling away the valuable wood. This seems sadly emblematic of what the little town has come to represent. Growth is nearly impossible and the future seems locked away.

To read Chris Hedges sound off again about this political monstrosity click here.