Winding down at the Temple Mount and old city
Our group started our light Day 8 schedule with a tour of the Temple Mount (Haram ash-Sharif in Arabic), At the bottom is Western Wall (Wailing Wall), the last remnant of the Israelites' Second Temple and a sacred to Jews. Men and women, facing the wall, pray separately, and respectful visitors are welcome. The two key Muslim sites flanking a broad plaza built atop of the former temple, are the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
Like so many other Holy Land sites, control of the Temple Mount has over time shifted from religion to religion, jurisdiction to jurisdiction and often at great cost of life and/or treasure. King Solomon built the First Temple there in 967 B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. Jews rebuilt it as the Second Temple six decades later, but the Romans under Herod first expanded the site and later destroyed the temple in 70 A.D. Emperor Constantine's mother, Helen, was a 4th-century Christian activist who established the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And did I mention earthquakes?
In the 7th century, Muslims conquered Jerusalem and built the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. Over time, all or parts of the Temple Mount were under Byzantine, Persian, Jewish, Crusader, Muslim, British Mandate, Israeli, Jewish and Muslim control. The timeline spans centuries. A visit to the compound in September 2000 by Ariel Sharon of Israel's rightwing Likud Party accompanied by 1with ,000 armed guards infuriated Palestinians. who started hurling stones at Israeli riot police, who in turn tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. Sharon's visit set off a five-year Palestinian uprising often called the Second Infitada. The day after Sharon's provocative visit. On September 29, the Israeli government deployed 2,000 riot police to the complex. The prospect of peace hasn't been very encouraging since then.
Since then, it hasn't seemed to take much to set off a confrontation. Whenever archaeologists dig somewhere, they outrage some group. In the last five years alone, Jewish zealots' proposal to build a synagogue on the Temple Mountain infuriated Muslims, and Muslim proposals to add a fifth minaret ticked off Jews. Arabs protested a plan to rebuild an old earthen ramp leading to the Mugrabi gate. When a posse of right-wing Zionist rabbis entered the Temple Mount, provoking Palestinians and also both religious and secular Israelis who decried that particular provocation.,Also. some critics noted that Jews are not supposed to enter the Temple Mount but confine themselves to the Western Wall until the Messiah comes -- or something.
It was against this background that we visited the Temple Mount, again passing airport-style metal detectors, X-rays and bag inspection stations. Day 7 was a Sunday, the Christian sabbath and a "weekday" for Jews and Muslims. The large plaza was largely empty, save for small groups of Muslims reading the Koran or something under shake trees and some sightseers like us. Neither the Dome of the Rock nor the mosque is open to non-Muslims these days, but I can recall which particular incident caused the closure. In the old city beyond the Temple Mount, Christian churches welcomed worshippers from all over the world, while Jewish and Muslim shopkeepers and vendors in the old city welcomed shoppers, also from all over the world.
I reveled in some unscheduled time, sharing some quiet conversation and coffee with a couple of my traveling companions in a shaded cafe. I wandered through the narrow, shop-lined streets for a while. But I bought nothing. In the end, the endless displays of Christianiana made of olive wood, glitzy yarmulkes, rosaries, pottery, T-shirts with slogans like "Guns and Moses," metalwork, religious and secular costume jewelry, keychains, scarves and shawls were oddly dispiriting. I normally love prowling around marketplaces, but I began preparing for re-entry by spending a quiet, somewhat contemplative afternoon in a day room thoughtfully booked for each of us at the Holy Land Hotel.
Security procedures at Tel Aviv Airport were lengthy, as expected, but not excessive or unpleasant. And then, we boarded our Continental plane for the first of our respective flights home.
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