- Day in Jerusalem – City of Peace!!!

As the [Michigan Peace Team] MPTers team got adjusted to the new country, they visited the Western Wall and The Dome of the Rock. The wall is the most important Jewish religious site in the world and the hottest tourist attraction in Jerusalem. After seeing the Western Wall a testament of time and the many empires that ruled it, the next stop on the map was heading to the Dome of the Rock, the second most important Islamic site in the world. They were stopped when they tried to pass through one of the entrances and told to find the non-Muslim entrance. A Palestinian man led them to an over look of the western wall and pointed out the non-Muslim entrance next to the Western wall. Befuddled they followed that path to the second entrance to the western wall only to find that there are no signs pointing to a wooden bridge to The Dome of the Rock. Even the soldiers shrugged when asked for directions and did not respond. It seemed that the entrance was pushed off to the side, so as not to over shadow the Western Wall and to make life harder for tourists and non-Muslims interested in seeing the Islamic architecture.

MPTers also visited the

Jerusalem Holocaust Museum , Yad Vashem. One MPT followed an English speaking guide as he explained the history of the Holocaust to a group of international Jewish youth. He pointed out that the Holocaust was a systemized endeavor by many well educated people.

He made a special effort to point out the section “The Righteous among the Nations, “ which honors non-Jews who risked their lives, liberty and positions to save Jewish people during the Holocaust. He focused on one man, a thief, who for several months, hid Jews and fed them. He said that he did not want the youth to leave the museum with hate, but rather with love and with the conviction that one person can make a difference. Reflecting upon his statement; The Holocaust and the present Occupation of Palestine leaves one with many unanswered questions. Michael Lerner of Tukkun magazine has stated that the Jewish people suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, because of the Holocaust. It might seem important that the museum would include ways to be healed from the tremendous trauma of the Holocaust. Too, that those who know of the Holocaust be truly committed to working that a systemized endeavor to ghettoize and destroy a people never happen again to any peoples in the world.

Pictures from wikimedia(1)(2)