I set out early in the morning to get the bus to take me to the checkpoint at the River Jordan. I had been told by the Lonely Planet Guide for Israel that with a valid single entry visa for Jordan in my passport I could leave Jordan via the King Hussein Bridge, and enter the West Bank/Israel and return without needing another visa. This sounded odd to everyone including me, so when I got to the border I tried to check it out and asked the passport control person about it. "You are welcome!" he said, which was friendly, but not exactly an answer to my question. So I went through the passport control and across a very militarised border into Israel without an exit stamp in my passport. Time will tell whether they let me back in again!
At the Israeli passport area things went relatively smoothly. It was helpful to have all my itinerary and St George's College papers at the ready, because when I was asked why I had come to Israel I could produce some evidence. When the passport official asked me whether I would be visiting the West Bank, I could say that I was going on pilgrimage, and it was possible that I would be visiting some West Bank areas, but only for the purpose of pilgrimage. So to my relief, I was let in without even having to open my bags (although they had been thoroughly scanned along the way).
Outside the border post I got on a minibus for Jerusalem and was surprised to note that everyone in it was speaking Arabic, not Hebrew. Someone later explained that this border crossing was used particularly by Palestinians. The taxi bus took us up out of the Jordan Valley, and with great excitement I got my first glimpse of Jerusalem, the Holy City. The bus took us into East Jerusalem (the Palestinian quarter) and when it stopped I asked the driver where I could get a taxi for Salah ad-Din Street (where St George's College is). He said that I didn't need to get a taxi, because it was the next street on my left. So I trundled my luggage up the street, asking for directions and before long was at the College.
I was met by a friendly New Zealand woman, Lois Symes, who is a Priest, and is currently working as the Chaplain at St George's. She said she was sure that she had met me, and she finally worked out that she preached at a service I presided at when I was Archdeacon of Whanganui. Amazing!
Lois said that there was going to be a procession in Jerusalem that afternoon, and that I was welcome to come on it with her and with others from the College. So I did. What I didn't know is that this procession is an important part of the Holy Week events in the city. It used to start at Bethany and follow Jesus' route through to Jerusalem, but now that the Government has built a wall between the West Bank towns and other areas, the procession starts at Bethphage, on the Jerusalem side of the wall.
We were supposed to bring some item to wave in celebration, and here is Lois carrying her palm flower. I carried a small olive twig.
The procession went up the Mount of Olives from Bethphage
and then down the other side of the Mount of Olives towards Gethsemane
then over the Kidron Valley to the city. Finally the procession went through St Stephen's gate to St Anne's Church inside the walls of the city.
As you can see, there were thousands of people - one newspaper report I read said that there were 20,000 people - in the procession. Many of them were Palestinian Christians. And because the Eastern and Western Easter dates coincide this year, there would have been Orthodox as well as Catholics and Protestants in the procession. It was an amazing experience to join the crowd for this event, going up to the Holy City on Palm Sunday in remembrance of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment