Praying in the Streets of Jerusalem

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. 

To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. 

To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty in its lair. 

To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. 

To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch, to try and understand.

 To never look away. And never, never to forget. 

Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living

Yesterday on the way home from the old city after doing an interview with a woman from the village of Deir Yassin where hundreds of people were massacered during Al Nakba, I came upon about a hundred Palestinians standing in and around Damacus gate holding a peaceful albeit nosiy demonstration. They were demonstrating against the call of the Jerusalem Municipality and  Zionist leaders for an international march on Al Aqsa Mosque with its goal to destroy the mosque and rebuild the temple. As I and others came through the gate we were met with sound bombs like the one in this picture.

 Sound bombs are very loud and can make you temporarily or permanently deaf. One went off near my feet which caused me to flee with others who knew after these bombs come the tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets. As I was running down the street I was reminded of my days in Al Masara demonstrations as an Ecumenical Accompanier. However, this time I was a Jerusalemlite on her way home. A kind shopkeeper waved me into his store where I took refuge with other women and children and peaked out at the scene in the streets---very large horses going by with sounds of yet  more explosives including what sounded like shot guns. In the mean streets of Chicago I learned to distinquish between gunfire and fireworks. This was gunfire, rubber coated steel bullets can still do a lot of damage. 

So this is how Jerusalem celebrates Sukkot, the harvest festival. First the Christian Zionists come and have their own parade to show their solidarity with their Jewish Zionist friends claiming  that Jerusalem become the undivided eternal capital for Israel so they can then get raptured up to heaven and now this annual march to destroy Al Asqa Mosque. 

Where were the Christian Patriarchs who have ordered us to pray for Jerusalem I wondered? Why weren't they standing out there in the streets with their Muslim sisters and brothers getting sprayed with raw sewage? Isn't this where Jesus would be? In the middle of it, demanding justice for all, not another temple? Wouldn't he want to see us praying with our legs and feet as the late Abraham Heshel once said. When the Israeli settlers come and spray paint "Jesus is a monkey" on our holy sites who will stand with us? 

The proposed destruction and siege of Al Aqsa should be an assault to us all for freedom of worship is for all not just the Christians. No one should have to get a military permit to pray in Jerusalem and no one should have to take to the streets to say No to Jewish Zionists who want to destroy your holy site.

Even though I was a little shaken by my close encounter with a sound bomb and near miss with being sprayed with tear gas and raw sewage, I am glad I was able to see the teeth of the oppressor up close. Gandhi often said one of the hoped for results of a good nonviolent action is to expose the teeth of the oppressor for all to see. Living here in this pressure cooker of repression I don't always see the violence of it exposed the way Palestinians do every day. 

Let us join our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our bodies in prayer for peace in Jerusalem, for Jerusalem. Let us begin by standing with these brave women who stood up to the soldiers to say "No, you cannot take our Al Aqsa." Let us never get used to the" unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity."

Let us then say "Yes" with smiles of joy too like this young Palestinian man. For the God of peace is with us, even when we are being taken hostage. We belong to a higher one and these days soon will be over not in a rapture but in the creation and realization of a new Beloved Community.  Let it begin with us who refuse to look away, who respect strength not power, and seek joy in the saddest places and times. To exist is to resist. To stay human even when you are being treated inhumanely is resistance. Resistance is to the way things is a form of prayer. Let our resistance be our prayer.