Even if we've set out on the Lenten pilgrimage on Ash Wednesday and taken every step in penitence and prayer, we are still not prepared for the arrival. Neither were those who joined Jesus in Galilee and made their way up to Jerusalem. For many it was an annual pilgrimage, this Passover. Others, having to travel greater distances, saw the Holy City through the joyful tears of those who know they will never make the journey again. But in one particular year, the pilgrimage was a once-in-a-lifetime experience because it was made in the company of Jesus of Nazareth. For him too, Jerusalem was the end of a pilgrimage.

by Fred Craddock

For the first time in Palestinian history, Jerusalem has a minister: Khaled Abu Arafeh, Abu Arafeh, a father of five, is described as open minded and very tolerant by people who know him well. He told this writer that he plans to pay close attention to the various issues and problems raised by the people of Jerusalem. "We will support every effort that will restore the rights of our people." by Daoud Kuttab

A Jordan Times editorial

Israel's decision to go ahead with its plan to complete the controversial and illegal wall around East Jerusalem means only one thing: The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is determined to continue its expansionist policy and the Judaisation of Jerusalem, including East Jerusalem.

The Israeli Cabinet Sunday approved a new route for its wall for Jerusalem, and by so doing it has effectively cut off no less than a quarter of the entire Palestinian population in East Jerusalem from the rest of the Holy City and sealed the fate of that part of Jerusalem.

Nearly 55,000 Palestinians will be affected by this arbitrary decision which came in defiance of rulings both by the International Court of Justice, which decided that the entire wall is unlawful, and by its own supreme court, which said that the construction of the barrier as planned infringes on the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.

So why is Sharon going ahead with this plan at this particular time, despite its obvious illegality?

By Bill Dienst MD

March 8, 2005 in Hebron (Al Khalil in Arabic)

The main rode to Hebron that Palestinians have taken for years is blocked, so we have to take an alternate route. We cross the Israeli military checkpoint that blocks the Southern entrance to Bethlehem. We pass a Palestinian Refugee Camp, and past clusters of Israeli settlements collectively known as the Gush Etzion block, south of Bethlehem. We see how new Israeli settlements start out as illegal outposts of a few rows of mobile homes, and over time turn into Southwest style villa townhouses that would fit right in if we were in Southern California. Then there are the military bases taking up even more West Bank land to guard the settlements.

We arrive at one of the first, and one of the most ideologically right wing settlements in the West Bank, Kiryat Arba'a. We pass the checkpoint, and are allowed inside past the electric fence into the heart of this settlement of 6,500 people. It is the largest in the central Hebron area, but there are now 5 other Jewish enclaves within the Old City with an additional 400-500 Jewish Settlers: Tel Rumeida, Beit Hadassa, Beit Romano, Abraham Avion, and the Gutnic Center. They are supported by between 1500 to 2000 Israeli soldiers.

By Bill Dienst MD

March 7, 2005 in both East and West Jerusalem

Crossing the Bethlehem checkpoint is becoming routine; the absurd and surreal now somehow normal. All 19 of us flash our passports reflexively to the soldier, and we after waiting our turn in a line of cars, zip right through from Bethlehem to Jerusalem where ordinary local Palestinians are forbidden to go.

ICAHD

We arrive at the Central part of West Jerusalem, just to the West of the Green Line in the Russian Compound. We are at the headquarters of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), an Israeli group formed to resist the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israeli Army. Its leader, Jeff Halper, was not available, so we were treated to the dynamic young Jewish-American activist Jimmy Johnson's presentation about the current Reality on the Ground.

Jimmy started with the consequences of the Oslo Accords, and finished with the unilateral measures, including the building of The Wall, by the current Sharon government during the past 4 years.

During the Oslo process, the West Bank was divided up into Areas A, B and C. Area A was to be under Palestinian Civil and Military authority; Area B under Palestinian civil authority, but Israeli or joint military authority; and Area C under Israeli Civil and Military Authority. As the maps were drawn up for Camp David, 45 % of the land in the West Bank became Area C, that is, under direct Israeli control, and under control of the settlements.

by George Hintlian

The Christian minority in Palestine has always benefited from a privileged status, and rulers from Empress Constantine through Caliph Omar to the Ottoman sultans all issued decrees to ensure respect for the rights of the various churches, their patriarchs and local communities.

Conversely, and depending on the rulers and political circumstances, the churches have themselves been able to play their own political roles, and exercise their influence, either overtly or behind the scenes.

The last hundred years have witnessed some of the more profound changes for the Christian community here even by the standards of its particularly turbulent history.

In the late nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century Palestine and especially Jerusalem and Jaffa witnessed extraordinary prosperity. Modern urban patterns emerged and there was a sharp increase in the population. There was also significant growth in both foreign and local Christian institutions. The greater access to a western-oriented education available to the local Christian population resulted in upward demographic changes, as wealth increased and there was migration of wealthy Christians from neighboring countries into Palestine (mainly to Nazareth, Acre and Jaffa).

by Akiva Eldar

On the Friday when the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat was buried in the courtyard of the Muqata, the media reported that because of the fear of riots, the Israeli government had decided to close the Temple Mount mosques to residents of the territories. From this prohibition it could have been understood that on an ordinary holiday, masses of Arabs from Ramallah and from Hebron are allowed to come to Jerusalem to pray at the holy site. And the listener will wonder: If the gates of Jerusalem (which is an Israeli and united city, as we know) are regularly open to the residents of the territories, what are those ugly separation fences that surround East Jerusalem? And, on the contrary: If the capital is wide open, why do the city's Arabs need the permission of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to vote at the polls in Abu Dis?