"Why can't you just be a normal person?" 8/20/2014

I loved leaving my hostel in the morning and immediately being in the old city. I just had to turn a corner and I was walking in the souq in the Christian Quarter. I was still waking up while I was trying to figure out which route to take to get to the Temple Mount when an Orthodox man in a long black coat walked briskly past me, talking on his cell phone in English and said loudly, "I hope we kill as many as we can. Two thousand this time." It took me a second to understand what he was talking about but then I remembered Netanyahu's vow to strike Gaza again after the collapse of the ceasefire the previous night. I felt sick. I know those sentiments are there and I hear about them all the time, but to hear it in person as a casual comment was quite a blow. 

I continued towards the Temple Mount. As I was nearing it I was stopped by a Palestinian man sitting in a lawn chair on the side of the street. 

"You can't go there." He said in English.

"Why not?" I responded in Arabic. He seemed surprised and told me that the street led to the Dome of the Rock. I would have to be a Muslim to enter. I knew that before but I thought I would at least be able to get to the Temple Mount. He explained that there were specific hours when non-Muslims could visit and I was about two hours early. He showed me another way to get to the Western Wall where I could see Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. I headed down, saw a security checkpoint and remembered the knife I had in my purse. I decided to try to get through anyways so I entered the checkpoint and told the soldier about the knife. He asked to see it.

"You know, this kind of knife is a problem in Israel." He said.

"Well they let me in at the border with it."

"Come back another time."

I obliged and I was just happy he did not confiscate my knife. I met the guard, Munib, back at the top of the hill and told him about the knife. He asked to see it and told me he would hold on to it for me while I went back in. I went back through security and got near the Western Wall. I walked around a little bit but came back soon because of the horrible heat.

The top picture is the Mount of Olives. It is famous for a lot of reasons, but its most striking feature is the 150,000 Jewish graves that cover the side of it. It has been used as a cemetery for over 3,000 years following the belief that when the Messiah comes, the resurrection of all people will begin there. The other two pictures are the Western (Wailing) Wall and the Dome of the Rock.

I head back to Munib and sit down with him on the side of the street which was a great place for people watching. It was unclear what Munib's job was. He obviously was not an official guard, nor was he a shop owner. He was just hanging out, watching the swarms of tourists and giving them directions in Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Russian. We talked for a while about American politics and Israel, religion, and people's attitude towards the massacre in Gaza. I noticed tattoos on his hands and commented that I had seen more Palestinians with tattoos than most other Arabs. He said that was true, they do have more tattoos and he explained the significance of his. One was a short Arabic phrase that meant something like, "It is what it is." The other one was three dots in the shape of a triangle.

"This one is about the occupiers (referring to Israeli soldiers). It reminds me that I don't see them, I don't hear them, and I don't talk to them."

Just as I was about to say that they looked like American prison tattoos he said, "They arrested me. Put me in prison for six years." 

"For what? And when was that?"

"I got out four years ago. They said I was working for the resistance, providing them with arms."

"Six years. That's a long time. So were you guilty?"

He stares past me with a distant and pained look on his face. An American tourist behind Munib is smiling wide, hand on her hip, posing for a photo next to some tapestries.

"So what, were you innocent?"

He looks at me and blinks hard, meaning yes. 

He tells me about everyone he knows in the old city. See that guy? Do you know who he is? He's the muezzin for Al-Aqsa. And that guy there? He's an Israeli informant. I asked him how he knew that.

"Oh, he always tries to be so nice to me saying 'Munib, how are you? How is your family? I hope you have a nice day.' I know what he's up to."

I asked him if he has many Jewish friends and he assured me he has every kind of friend. His ex-girlfriend was Jewish, but he said she was too self-centered so they broke up. A young man with a tray of pita bread balanced on his head walks by and Munib stops him, grabbing a piece from the tray.

He gave half to me and we sat and talked some more. He told me he is not scared of the IDF. They are the ones that are scared of him, because Palestinians do not fear death. We talked about my experiences with Israeli security and I explained that the border agents think it is strange that an American would want to be in Palestine. He tells me to just say I am a tourist and to not speak Arabic at the checkpoints. He asks me, "Why can't you just be like a normal person?"

I still have over an hour until I can visit the Temple Mount so I head back to my hostel for a little while and then meet Munib at the same spot soon after. He seemed surprised to see me, probably thinking I would not come back. Again, I forgot to take the knife out of my purse so I gave it to him for safekeeping and head to the Temple Mount.

I go through security again and there are different guards this time. They ask me if I have any guns with me and when I say no they ask me why not. I tell them if they want to give me one, go ahead.

I get down near the Western Wall but I do not see how to access the Dome of the Rock since all walls seem to be blocking it. I see two female IDF soldiers and ask them in English and Arabic where the Dome of the Rock is. Irritated, they responded in English, "Sorry, we don't know what that is." The Dome of the Rock of course being the most iconic structure in Jerusalem and less than 100 feet from where we were standing. I end up having to leave the Western Wall area and re-enter through another security checkpoint.

"Is this the way to the Temple Mount?" I ask.

"That all depends." The soldier says.

"Depends on what?" 

"If you can smile."

So I do and they let me through. At every turn of the enclosed gangway, which you can see by Al-Aqsa Mosque in the picture above, there are groups of soldiers. At the end there is another group and one tells me I need to take off my sunglasses, apparently just to tell me I have beautiful eyes.

I pass Al-Aqsa and make my ways towards the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount is quiet and spacious.

As I was walking around the Temple Mount and preparing to head back, two young Palestinian women approached me and told me I needed to cover my head to be in the area. I asked them in Arabic why no other foreign women were wearing the hijab.

"We're going to tell them now. Oh, you speak Arabic."

"Yeah." I pulled out my hijab from my purse and wrapped it around my head. "So is it okay like this?"

They said it was, but now they were more interested in what I was doing in Jerusalem and about my background. After I explained, and of course mentioned that I was from the U.S., one of them asked me what my opinion was on the attack on Gaza and how I felt about the occupation. She then rolled up her left sleeve and showed me quarter-sized wounds on her arm. 

"This is from the Israelis who fired at us while we were praying a few weeks ago."

I really did not know what to say. I asked them about the attack and the demonstrations and they asked me why America is supporting their occupiers. I said what I could about not all Americans supporting the occupation, but it was little consolation. I headed back to Munib and asked him if it was true about the Israelis shooting at people on the Temple Mount. He said it happens pretty often. I took my knife back and wandered around the old city for a few hours. 

I passed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then caught a bus to the Mount of Olives so I could see the sun set over Jerusalem. It was a beautiful view from a terraced park at the top of the Mount: