Today we met Suzanne! Was she what we expected? Did she show us interesting stuff? Was she fun?
WAS SHE WORTH THE MONEY ! ?

Well yes … and no…  No, she was not what we expected, and yes she did show us interesting stuff, but was she worth it?

Let us put it this way you don’t, always get what you pay for and sometimes you don’t really know what you want either, but the bottom line is that Suzanne not only was informative but made the day special and most of it was fun.  She quickly “sussed” us up for the lunatics we are; and she and Rob traded insult after insult while Jen encouraged her from the sidelines.  Rob loved every moment of it! We also loved her honesty, openness and passion for Israel.  Bottom line, worth every shekel and more!

We started out at Jaffa Gate and proceeded northwards around the walls, stopping along the way to look at points of interest. Seeing the city both Old and New from these points enabled us to see what the effect the occupation of Jerusalem by the Jordanians had on the city. Some of the buildings still bear the scars of the fights with bullets marks and holes in the stone.

Moving around we passed over New Gate and continued to Damascus gate. Again here, a different view of the city enabled us to see aspects we had not appreciated before. Seeing the mass of TV aerials and satellite dishes seemed so out of place, but what also was interesting was that every home had a solar heater for hot water.  Maybe SA should consider this…

Coming to Herod’s Gate we descended off the ramparts and walked back to Damascus Gate through the streets. Walking through the gates we looked at the base to see the remains of the original Roman structure, the present gate structure having been built around 1550. “Buildings on buildings” is how to describe every structure in Israel, after all this country has been built and destroyed so many times over the centuries it is often hard to believe that it can survive at all.

Walking a short way outside the walls we entered Zedekiah’s Cave.  This is the original quarry from which stone was cut for the first temple that Solomon built. It is a vast cave descending into darkness extending a long way under the city. The other tradition, hence the name, was that when King Zedekiah was threatened by the invading Assyrian’s he escaped via the cave and was finally captured in Jericho.

Lunch was at Pizzeria Basti, a place with an interesting local pizza, tasty and filling. Leaving there we walked up the Via Delarosa stopping for a few comments from Suzanne at some places. Some of the stories she relayed sound like make believe but that is what makes the land of Israel unique. An example is a story of a synagogue in the Muslim Quarter.

In 1948 as the state of Israel was being formed, the caretaker, a Moslem Arab, heard that the Jordanians were advancing and going to take the city, he took the Torah, and all the paraphernalia of the synagogue and hid it in a side room, and then made the synagogue look like his home. Here he lived for 19 years and when he heard that the Jews were again taking the city he sent his son with the key to find an Israeli soldier, and bring him to his “home”.  Finding a solder who was on his way to the Kotel the son gave him the key with the instructions from his father.  When the soldier had prayed at the wall he went and opened the synagogue once again. Amazing, but what was more significant was that the soldier who came and opened the synagogue was the grandson of the Rabbi who built the synagogue in 1897. Strange?  No, this is God’s chosen people and their land.

She also took us into an Armenian Pottery shop and introduced us to the farther and son who make and decorate the pottery. A few purchases later we walked on stopping at Elia Photo Service, a treasure of historical photographs taken by the owner’s grandfather. Black and white prints that seem so fresh, it was as if they were taken yesterday. Still a family business, although his two sons are using digital technology … but still the tradition continues.   When we have more time (Thursday or Friday) we will go back, this (and subsequent other stops) was brief visit.

Continuing on we returned to Jaffa Gate and then continued to the Armenian Quarter, stopping in again and again at shops to be introduced to owners, each one a friend of hers. We never felt any pressure or expectation of a purchase, Suzanne just wanted us to meet her friends and give us an opportunity to interact with local people.  We got the sense that even in the city that there is a community of people who care for each other.   What was so amazing was that so many of her friends had some form of contact with South Africa.  One of them visited RSA for 9 months in 1971, ran the Comrades Marathon and watched his first rugby match (between the Boks and the All Blacks – he remembered that we won!)

On the Cardo, in between descriptions of archaeological finds, again we were introduced to jewellers, bookshop owners, coffee shop owners and food stalls vendors, each one interested in who we were, where we from and a sincere welcome to their country. Ending the day overlooking the Kotel plaza we saw the preparation for the memorial ceremony to commemorate those that have been killed defending Israel. We unfortunately were not able to watch as the Plaza had been closed off to all except the families of those being honoured, and all the vantage points were being guarded by the IDF and police. A very pretty Israeli female plain clothes agent told us politely but firmly that we could not watch from any of the vantage points as security was very tight. This we had seen all day.

So after leaving Suzanne at Jaffa gate we walked back to the studio and had bagel and salad for supper. Watching the ceremony on TV, at 8 pm the sirens sounded again and the entire land came to a stop and stood still for a minute to honour those that have died serving their country.  It was surreal to hear the sirens on the TV as well as through our window

The pride that the Israelis have in their land is both moving and sad; moving because they have survived against the odds and the courage and determination is palpable; sad however because the price that has been paid, has been paid in blood, not only in this generation but for many generations over thousands of years because, they are the Hebrews, Ha Shem’s chosen people, the people of ISRAEL.

Tommorow…  Hevron Day 11