He saw the city and wept over it…

During the last couple of weeks, we have been reminded that the city of Jerusalem always stands at the center of the conflict. She is relentlessly burdened by competitive claims about her history and her religious past. Lately, all of these tensions seemed to have been lodged under the dome of the Hurva synagogue.

See article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/world/middleeast/16jerusalem.html/)

Built at the beginning of the 18th century by a Rabbi from Poland, Yehuda Hanassi, this synagogue was just reopened. Located in the heart of the Jewish quarter, it was destroyed in 1948 by the Jordanian army. Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, numerous rehabilitation projects have been submitted to the authorities; and at last, on March 15, the new Hurva synagogue was inaugurated by Israel’s religious and political leaders. This public event provoked the unrest that most TV channels showed last week.

Nothing is neutral in the Holy City of Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities know it; my colleagues and I had never seen so many soldiers and police forces in three months. The Old City was closed to most Palestinian men, checkpoints were set up at the main gates of the Old City, and on a larger scale the access to Jerusalem was simply forbidden to Palestinian men from the West Bank between 16 and 50 years old. Ultimately, it meant that Muslim men were not allowed to go to Al Aqsa Mosque for their prayer.

A new closure of the City is predicted for Easter. The rumor is that Palestinian Christians from the West Bank won’t be allowed to enter the Old City and access the Holy Sepulcher. Meanwhile, for Palms Sunday, 50’000 pilgrims are expected on the Mount of Olives; and many more for Easter Sunday! Those visitors won’t be denied the right to enter into the Old City!

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.’” (Luke 19:41-42) While everyone was celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he wept; in the midst of all the hosanna and gloria, Jesus wept for Jerusalem and her destiny. Who will cry with him this coming Sunday? Most pilgrims will rush to the Mount of Olives, singing loudly their hosanna and gloria, forgetting that here nothing is neutral. And who will then remember the Palestinian Christians who are far away stopped at the gates of Jerusalem?