Dangerous Ideas

Flying the flag on our hotel in Jaffa

This night, I awoke at 2 pm. Nights like this, my mind starts to brew and ideas circle like crazy. I have bad indigestion and reflux, and I need to get up. I cannot stay lying down. Megan and I are staying in a tiny room in Jerusalem, and the only place I can go is the toilet. So I get up and sit in the toilet with the light on, hoping not to disturb Megan. I closed the door and started writing this blog. It is our last night in Jerusalem, and we are departing in 4 hours to fly back to Turkey. I sat for 2 hours on that toilet, recording some of the ideas circling in my mind.

A passenger to Syria

I should recount our notion of the reason we travel the way we do. Travel for us is a two-way interchange between the world and us. When we spend time living in foreign cultures, experiencing the world similarly to the local people (rather than through the eyes of a tourist), it works a subtle transmutation on us. We are affected by our travels and changed by them.

Live music at a restaurant in Jaffa

Dancing as well. Great music!

Outside the restaurant

I also think that this change may be a two way process. As we deeply explore what those changes are, and record them faithfully in this blog, perhaps it might change some tiny thing in the world around us. That must be the megalomaniac idea of every writer. Even the act of writing this down changes me. So, travel is a process of witnessing and allowing that to change us. Our blog then, is the chance for us to record and document that process.

Blooming yet uprooted - artist's comment

Simon, the tanner's tower

So, we are travelling in Israel, and at 2 am, I am filled with what seem to be dangerous ideas. Israel and dangerous ideas seem to go hand in hand. I have never travelled in a country with more soldiers visible in the every day, or more guns. Everyone in Israel does military service, from 18 to 21 years old. So you have a country where every teenager is armed with an Uzi, and they carry that gun with them everywhere; to parties, to the beach, and probably to bed. As I said, Israel is the perfect place for dangerous ideas.

Guards at the Western Wall

Security in the Muslim quarter

Guard at Caesaria!

I have commented above about the two-way nature of change when we travel. So it made sense to split my dangerous ideas into two arenas. The first is in the external realm, what did I observe and experience in Israel. The second is in the internal realm, what change did those experiences create in me.

A typical Israeli meal, hommous and bread

A hommous restaurant

A few drums

Chaotic market stall

We are in Israel, the Holy Land, so the first dangerous idea I have to confront is religion. Remember that my perspective is as a confirmed and unrepentant atheist. We were in the Jewish Quarter in old Jerusalem, and an elderly Jewish panhandler, who was working the tourists, engaged me in a conversation. Following a similar pattern to the previous tourist he chatted to, it went: “Where are you from…. I have family in…. Can I have some money for …”. I said I was from Turkey as that’s where we currently live, and he assumed that I was Muslim (he might not have been the most perceptive of panhandlers). He asked me about a mosque in Antalya. I said that I knew it, but that I was not a Muslim. He asked what my religion was, and I said  “I’m an atheist”. He then replied  “Oh, you believe in nothing!”

Modern Jerusalem

Jewish dress in the excellent State Museum

Display of masks in the museum

Orthodox Jews

Ultra-orthodox Jew

Confronting the Torah

Well, that’s not quite true. I wrote a blog about the surface of the world, and my desire to move away from belief. The idea was to live as close as possible to the sensory surfaces that surround us. But it’s very hard in Jerusalem not to confront the impact of belief. This is the cradle of three major religions and it all happens within a very small block of land in the centre of old Jerusalem.

Wall of old jerusalem city

A view of old jerusalem from Mount of Olives

Local transport up the Mount of Olives

View of Jerusalem from a cemetery

Peephole into the cemetery

Let’s consider them in turn. For the Israelites, their history is of a wandering collection of 12 tribes (the twelve sons of Jacob) in the land of Canaan (Judea, Galilee and Samaria). After being exiled to Egypt, they were rescued from slavery and led out of the desert by Moses. God reveals himself to Moses and gives him a set of Commandments that the Israelites must follow. So the disparate tribes became united by a belief in Monotheism. Rather than individual sets of tribal law, Monotheism, the belief in one God, meant that there was now only one set of laws.

Dead Sea and the Negrev desert

Dead Sea at sunset

Moses and God create a pact so that the Israelites become his people, and in return, they are given the Promised Land. Under King David, they build the kingdom of God (that is, physically on earth) and under Solomon, they build the temple where God takes his earthly dwelling. It is important politically to realize that today, the remnant of the Second Temple, the Western Wall is still the place that Jews regard as the dwelling place of God, and it is for them, the most holy of sites.

Bedouin camel herder

Bedouin camel herd

Neve Zohar oasis on the Dead Sea

Botanical Garden at Ein Gedde kibbutz

Landscape from Ein Gedde

We had an interesting conversation with a Dutch lady staying at our hostel who said “I believe in the promised land, and that it belongs to the chosen people”. It was an interesting statement, backed up by the fact that Israel is a city of walls. There is a wall around Jerusalem and a wall around the old city, which is divided into four quarters (Jewish, Moslem, Christian and Armenian). We climbed to the top of the Mount of Olives. It’s an inspiring view over the old and new cities of Jerusalem, but then you see the massive, ugly wall separating Jerusalem from the West Bank. It is far more imposing than the Berlin Wall.

The Western Wall, where the Divine Presence dwells

Bar Mitzvah candidate at the Western Wall

The Torah is a heavy weight

At the Western Wall

Men only section of the wall

Bar Mitzvah in progress

Now the child has to carry that weight!

I realized then that a Chosen People implies separation, as visibly determined by the walls that divide Jerusalem. Jewish monotheism, the belief in one god, has created one set of rules that apply to the chosen people. Of course, every one else must live outside those walls and be excluded. After all, we can’t all be chosen, can we?

Bar Mitzvah parade

Muslim Cemetery at Nazareth

Selling spices in the old bazaar, Jerusalem

History has demonstrated that there has been endless and continuing conflict to define who it is that are ‘chosen’, and for whom the ‘Promised Land’ is being prepared for. All three of the major religions have been involved in this piece of ‘biffo’, all based around the Temple Mount, where the current ‘Dome on the Rock’ is located.

Courtyard at the Dome

Entrance to the Dome 

Mosaic tiles

Here’s a brief account of that biffo. The First Temple was built around 975 BCE by King Solomon, to be totally sacked by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. After the Persians defeated the Babylonians, King Cyrus allowed the Israelites to rebuild the Second Temple. Alexander the Great then had a swipe at the Second Temple. He was dissuaded from destroying the Temple, and it survived under the rule of the Ptolemies. When the Seleucids succeeded the Ptolemies, they tried to Hellenise the temple and convert it back to a pantheon of gods. When the observances of the Sabbath and circumcision were banned, the Jews revolted and Judas Maccabeus (“The Hammer”) re-dedicated the temple. This is still remembered today in the Hanukkah celebration. The temple stayed in Jewish hands under Herod’s control whilst the Romans conquered the rest of Canaan, but was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Muslims conquered the city in the seventh century, and the Dome of the Rock was built on the site of the temple.

Masada and Dead Sea

Final battle at Masada

Then the Christians got into the act. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the first crusade, with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to Jerusalem. However, the deeper political reasons undoubtedly had to do with limiting Arabic expansion in the Middle East and extending the extent of Christendom. This led to six crusades over a 200 year history of bloody conflict, which ended in the falling of the last Crusader outpost at Acre in 1291. There is an interesting conflict of views over the Crusades from east and western viewpoints. The western view is that the Crusades consolidated the Latin Church, consolidating the Christian virtues of heroism, chivalry and piety. It also opened Genoan and Venetian trading routes in the Mediterranean, and made a lot of money! The eastern view is that the Crusades were bloody invasions, where soldiers would rape and pillage every village they encountered, under some rhetoric of cleansing the heathens from the land. They also massacred thousands of Jews in the Rhineland.

Entrance to Simon, the Tanner; friend to Jesus

Christian domes at Caesurae

Megan at Caesurae 

Roman circus ruins at Caesarea

After the siege of Acre in 1291, Saladin, a Mamluk, controlled the kingdom of Jerusalem. The forces of Egypt and Syria were marshalled to end Crusader domination in the region. Jerusalem became Islamised and Muslim’s were instructed to face the Temple Mount during their prayers. Muhammad’s night journey and ascension to heaven was purported to happen from the Temple Mount.

The walls at Acre

In 1517, Jerusalem fell to the Ottoman Turks, under Suleiman the Magnificent. The Ottoman’s remained in control until 1917, but Jerusalem was considered to be the capital of Palestine during this era. There were many incursions by Islamic forces into Jerusalem during Ottoman rule, with many Egyptian settlers remaining. During this time, there was also an influx of Jewry from the European Diaspora who settled outside the old walls of Jerusalem.

In 1917, Jerusalem fell to British forces, led by General Allenby. The League of Nations gave Great Britain the mandate for administering Palestine and the surrounding Jordanian territory. Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations in 1947, but this was never implemented due to the war declared by the newly independent Israel. West Jerusalem was captured and annexed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israel war, and East Jerusalem was captured by Israel from Jordan during the six day war in 1967.

Wikipedia summarizes the situation in Jerusalem:  During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Pretty impressive history of conflict for a town only 0.9 km square and home to 3 of the worlds major religions. Perhaps the Promised Land, but promised to whom?

I apologize for this rambling historical account of Jerusalem, but I felt a need to understand some of the complex claims of ownership over the Promised Land. I was also fascinated to observe the manifestation of Law by Jews at the Western Wall. One God meant one set of Laws, and the priestly class seems mainly concerned with following the precepts set thousands of years ago. Ritualized prayer, archaic dress and reading from Torah scrolls was all evident. Judaism appears to be a religion about following laws. At the airport, a visiting Orthodox Jew from the USA who had spent a year studying Judaism at a yeshiva in the old town commented that studying religion was very similar to studying law. The interesting thing is that Orthodox Jews today are attempting to follow laws set thousands of years ago. Makes for an interesting time warp.

Muslim women at a cafe

Lunch in the Muslim Quarter of Old Jerusalem

Islamic study group in the grounds of the Temple Mount

So, if we leave the Western Wall and the Jewish sect, and climb up to the Temple Mount, we enter into one of the most sacred of Muslim sites, the Dome of the Rock. Entry to this site was limited to one hour a day. This has only been since 2006. Prior to this, entry was prohibited for non-Muslims. Muslims believe that this is a place only for believers, and the Torah commands Jews not to enter the site. We were shocked by the level of security over the site; there were approximately 100 fully armed soldiers in riot gear, with machine guns and tear gas canisters guarding the site. These soldiers belonged to a special division responsible for security in religious sites.

Military guards at the Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is constructed in the centre of the Temple Mount, believed to be the site of the Second Temple that was destroyed in 70 CE during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. The Foundation Stone at the centre of the Dome is believed to be the site where Mohammed took the Night Journey and ascended to Heaven. Interestingly, the Dome was modelled on the dome in the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, mimicking the Christian churches of the time.

Temple mount courtyards around the Dome

Temple over the Foundation Stone

It was interesting to compare the Jewish and Muslim quarters in the old city. The Jewish section is very clean and modern, with universities, yeshiva schools and an upbeat and prosperous vibe. The Muslim quarter is dirtier, devoted to small-scale shop keeping and small enterprises. It was a comparison that reflected the power differential in Jerusalem.

That differential was even more poignant when we compared Jericho and Jerusalem. We drove from the Dead Sea up route 90 and turned onto Route 1 to take us to Jerusalem. This is a corridor through the West Bank; Palestinian administered lands. We took a detour to Jericho, believed to be the oldest city in the world, with archaeological remains from 11,000 years ago. We were a little hesitant to drive to Jericho; a large portal warns all Israeli’s that it is forbidden to enter, and we had heard stories of stones being thrown at cars with Israeli number plates. We drove through a small, dirty and chaotic town that looked like a war zone. There were large blocks of land just filled with rubble, burnt out car husks, and traffic and people swarming everywhere. We decided not to get out of the car. I’m sure we would have been fine, but the car may not have been. As we were leaving, we were overtaken by an incredibly derelict Mercedes car driven at very high speed, filled with four men who all looked like Yasser Arafat.

Modern Jerusalem

Jericho looked like a war zone, it was very dilapidated and run down. It looked poverty stricken and desolate. Nothing like the gleaming modern Israeli state that is Jerusalem. Again we wondered about the Chosen People. It certainly wasn’t the Palestinians resident in Jericho!

Palestinian area in Jerusalem

The Garden of Gethsemane

The Church where Jesus was betrayed.

Finally, I need to mention some reactions to the Christian presence in the Old City. We walked along the Via Dolorosa, the path walked by Jesus carrying the cross, on his way to crucifixion. Various events that occurred on that journey are marked by the ‘Stations of the Cross’. We were amazed at the Christian tourist groups that followed this road. Some were Christian women who clutched crosses and seemed to be possessed by a religious fervour bordering on the ecstatic. Others were sobbing and seemed to be reliving the agonies of Christ. We also saw brightly coloured African groups, all wearing the same coloured clothes, and American fundamentalist group. It was such a variety of people and experiences.

Courtyard of Greek Orthodox monastery, Jerusalem

Cave where Mary was purported to live 

Inside the Basilica of the Annunciation

Artwork in the Basilica

Dome of the Basilica

Basilica of the Annunciation

At some of the Stations of the Cross, there are particular holy sites. For example, at Station 6, Veronica is said to have wiped the face of Christ. His image is then meant to have miraculously appeared on cloth. (Not a sweat stain, I presume). At this station, a chapel is devoted to Veronica. We snuck in behind a Christian study group, and learned that the name Veronica stands for Ver Ikon, or True Image. Veronica was not the name of a person, but the name given to the unknown women who had recorded a true image of Jesus. When the nun in charge of this chapel realized that we were not with the authorized tour group, we were shooed from the chapel. One had to be on an authorized tour to experience Christ’s wonders! We found this several times, such as at the Russian Monastery of Saint Mary, where only people accompanied by a priest are allowed to enter. Not so different from the Muslim site on the Dome of the Rock.

Religious guardians on the Via Delarosa

Indian Christian pilgrims on the Via Delarosa

Tourists on  the Via Delarosa

African pilgrims to Jerusalem

We then visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus was crucified, layed on the tomb, and presumably, arose to Heaven. This is the holiest site for Christians, and the church had an indescribable atmosphere. Perhaps it was from the centuries of chanting, still echoing in the stones; or from the miasma of frankincense burned there, or the feeling of being buried under tons of rock with lots of Christian fanatics.

Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; note ladder.

Above the stone where Jesus was layed.

Roof the the Holy Sepulchre

Coptic crypt in Jesus' tomb

Wall mosaic

There are churches within churches here. At the centre is a tiny Coptic crypt carved into the tomb where Jesus is presumed to have been buried. Then there is the burial tomb, all of which is enclosed by a multi-levelled main church. Different Christian sects have been competing for real estate within the church for time immemorial. To stop the in-fighting, the various Christian groups decided to declare a status quo, some time back in the nineteenth century. There is an old wooden ladder; still strapped to the outside of the church that remains, as that was where it was on the day they called for the status quo to be maintained.

The tomb of Jesus

Now the church is run by three groups; a Franciscan catholic group, a Russian Orthodox group, and a Greek Orthodox group. They can all be seen at different times in the church. The tourists are flushed out of the way, herded by imperious religious guards. Then groups of ornately clothed monks pass like spectres through the stone chambers, chanting and burning incense and performing strange ritual practices.

Russian orthodox ritual

Franciscan service at the tomb

Russian plainsong

Greek Orthodox priests in the church

Russian Orthodox priest in the church

We also saw strange rituals being performed on the slab of rock where Christ’s body was reputedly laid after it was taken down from the Cross. Some were content just to kiss the slab and pray over it. Others however, wanted to lay a huge variety of merchandise on the slab. I guess this was to imbue it with special holy powers. Water and incense sticks seemed to be high on the agenda. Some people must have been bulk providers of such blessed and sanctified merchandise, judging by the quantities laid on the stone.

Kissing the stone and blessing merchandise

A nave of the church

Mural over the stone where Jesus's body was layer.

So Jerusalem for me inspired a reflection about the power of belief. It seems incredible that this small square kilometre of land had witnessed such a panoply of religious events. The indwelling Divine Presence in the western wall of the Second Temple for the Jews, the place of Christ’s death and resurrection for the Christians, and the site where Mohammed ascends to Heaven for the Muslims. These disparate reputed events have fuelled over 50% of the worlds religions (the so-called Abrahamic religions), and also, a great deal of the bloodshed from the multiple wars and conflicts over such a long history. The events in Jerusalem have shaped Western history more than any other place that I know.

Hotel in Old Jaffa

Harbour at Old Jaffa

As an aside, Megan overhead an interesting comment between two members of a religious ‘holy lands’ tour: One Christian says to another: “You know, the things that are not written about in the Bible are sometimes just as important as the things that are written about in the Bible”. In the light of the above discussion about belief, this just staggered me. The irony having such an inane belief just left me gob-smacked. Indeed, religion is a dangerous idea!

Sanctuary for the Dead Sea Scroll

Monument to the Dead Sea Scrolls

which are displayed in these cases

I mentioned earlier that there was a two way process with travel. These external events that we witnessed in Israel, and particularly Jerusalem, led to some inner experiences. There was some change happening, some response to our travels. Unfortunately, it is one of dissolution and decay, and it’s happening in my body.

Sunset in Acre

Mosque at Acre

Acre, the last stronghold

I rarely read accounts of ageing and how it impacts people, but we all experience it as a universal given. So, perhaps one small thing that I can offer back is a reflection on this universal experience. At the moment, I am experiencing two processes in my body, one of corrosion and the other of abrasion. The corrosive process is the one currently causing me to spend 2 hours on the toilet. I have reflux, and usually experience gastro-intestinal distress some 4 to 5 hours after eating. So the evening meal tends to wake me around 1 or 2 pm. I can’t stay lying down as I often vomit partially digested food, but must get up. I need to then burp for a few hours, and the event ends when I can finally defecate. It’s as though I have to clear the corrosion from both ends of the tube. Its great fun, but it does mean that I’m often awake in the quite hours of the night, and I find that I value the ideas and thoughts that come to me during those hours. Megan is less impressed as I often wake her with my musings!

Fish seller in the old bazaar, Jerusalem

Cake shop in the bazaar

Fresh bread baked in the bazaar

a story of the loaves and the fishes?

Abrasion is the destructive process that’s affecting the joints in my body. I had major surgery on my left foot, about a decade ago and had the cruciate ligament removed from my right knee when I was 18. These joints have now deteriorated and further use of them is accelerating the wearing process. One of the things we love to do when we travel is to walk for hours and hours. We’ve been doing this in Jerusalem, and I’m finding that I’m in increasing pain. I’m usually quite debilitated after just a few kilometres. Our bikes help a great deal when we have them with us, as I can ride all day.

Entrance to a mosque

Old Ottoman square in Acre

Russian church overlooking the city, Mount of Olives.

So, I have a growing sense of impending disabilities that threaten my current lifestyle. The one that concerns me the most is losing my mobility. I love to explore my environments, and need a good sense of balance to be safe on the boat. If I try to imagine my future under these disabilities, I have a sense of foreboding and loss. However, countering this, I have a strong sense that as old things die, new things are born. As a window shuts, a door opens.

Clock tower outside the bazaar

A hat for any head

One response I have had to these musings to take the things I can do more seriously. I think this may be the new door opening. The process of blogging is becoming more important for me, both writing and photography. I have had a very strong belief and commitment to life-long learning, which has led me to spend a lot of my time in universities and places for further learning (and led me to acquire 8 university degrees). If I can apply that love of learning to improving my writing and photography, life will regain its sense of importance and purpose, and I will have new avenues into which to sink my energies.

Water gauge on the Dead Sea

Alley in Nazareth

Church dome in Nazareth

Writing for me has become a vehicle for recording my own process of change, whatever that may be. It has moved away from a travelogue and diary to a place where I can record the inner whispers of my life. Photography has captured my interest and passion as a way of ‘seeing light’. I have a passion for the perceptual ‘surfaces’ of the world as an antidote to belief, and photography just seems the perfect way to capture those reflections from a distant sun.

Bakery in Nazareth

Palestinian demonstration in Nazareth

On the edge of the Negrev desert

A night out in pink

So, I’ve spent 2 hours on the loo and written eight pages of notes for this blog. Finally I can have a poo, and maybe go to sleep. I’ve mused about belief and how it has taken shape in some of the worlds major religions. I’ve been interested to see the how the history of conflict that has shaped our western world can be traced back to beliefs stemming from a miniscule plot of land in Old Jerusalem. On top of all this, I’ve found an antidote to my ageing process, by taking myself more seriously and valuing my writing and photography. Not bad for one sitting!

The old harbour at Caesaria

 Desert landscape towards the Dead Sea

Megan travelling back in time in Jerusaelm