Day 32 - June 21, 2009

I have spent the last few days wandering Jerusalem. Friday evening was the beginning of shabbat, which was a wonderful experience. I went to a synagogue for the first time, and although I had no idea what anyone was saying or why they were doing what they were doing, there was something quite beautiful about it. Amidst the conflict of Israel, there is true beauty to be found in the Jewish faith.
We then had a traditional shabbat dinner at Rebecca's (well, as traditional as you can get with a vegan dinner). There were people from all over the world - South Africa, America, Brazil, Canada, and of course Israel. There were all different points of view on the conflict, and although we tried to avoid the subject, having one person working at ICAHD and another working at a right-wing think tank sitting beside each other, it was bound to come up. For the most part though it was a very peaceful (and delicious!) dinner. The guests stayed until 4am, with some staying over, as is tradition since it is not permissable to drive a vehicle (and because Jeff lives in Ramallah, which although very close in distance, would take hours to get to through the checkpoints at that time of night).
The next day was a perfect shabbat - we woke up at 1:30, had "breakfast" at 3:30, and then proceeded to take a nap. What a perfect day! That night we met up with Marvin and his Canadian friend for coffee in the German Colony, which I'm really confused as to why it's called that because it's filled with Americans.

Today I spent some time in the commercialized Ben Yehuda area and then headed down to the old city for the "Jerusalem Hug." It was quite the hippie event (which of course I loved) and began with songs in Arabic, Hebrew and English and we then made a banner of painted handprints to symbolize our solidarity with each other. We all then "hugged" the old city wall by holding hands. I was holding the hand of a beautiful little Palestinian girl from Hebron who was quite shy in using her English to talk to me but we communicated quite well. At the hug I ran into Flore, our photographer who had been arrested at the protest, and I was so excited! We grabbed dinner at a burger place, and I still was unable to find a place that will make me a cheeseburger - I'm now on a mission! I'm now staying up all night to do checkpoint watch tomorrow morning.