Israel pg 2: Travel & Cuture: timyoungonline.com

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Israel: A Land of Diversity

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Mioko on the Temple Mount.

On that same day, they visited Mt. Zion, on which are located King David’s tomb, and what is said to be the “Upper Room” where Jesus and his disciples held the Last Supper. This place is called Coenaculum, which means a type of dining hall. Also that day, our travelers visited the Church of Mary, and St. Peter’s Church, said to be built on the spot where Peter denied Jesus three times, in the Biblical story. Since the rooster crowed after Peter’s third denial, as Jesus had prophesied, there is a statue of a rooster at this church.

They also went to the Rockefeller Museum, which contains archaeological artifacts found in Israel up through the 1940s, and some that were found more recently.

The Temple Mount was closed that day, so they returned the following day. The Temple Mount is a sort of Ground Zero for strife among the religions in Jerusalem. Jews believe it is the site where King Solomon built his temple, which contained the Ark of the Covenant, carried by the Israelites during their famous wanderings in the desert. The Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall) is a remainder of the temple built there during King Herod’s reign; Jesus probably knew this temple, which was badly damaged in the Jewish revolts against Rome decades after Jesus’ death. The rock outcropping where the Dome of the Rock stands is also thought to be where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac in the Old Testament story.

Akiko and Mioko in front of the Western Wall.

Muslims, however, believe that Mohammed had his vision of Paradise, his so-called Night Journey, at that same place. During the time when Muslims controlled Jerusalem, around the 7th Century AD, Caliph Abd el-Malik had the Dome of the Rock built; his son, al-Walid, built the al-Aksa mosque nearby. The Temple Mount was the site of bloodshed as recently as October 1990, when 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli police bullets, and another 140 were injured. Police said the Palestinians had ambushed a group of Jews gathered at the Western Wall for prayers; the Palestinians maintained that the Jews were ultranationalists planning to build a new Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

“Muslims don’t like to forget that thing,” Mioko says, “and in the museum inside we can see [names of the] people who were killed and their pictures...

“To get into the place,” she continues, “tourists can go into this place, but there are many soldiers, Israeli soldiers in the cities, and this place also, and they check inside the bag. I could go inside the dome and they said they have a footprint of Mohammed here and handprint of Angel Gabriel. I didn’t think it’s very true, but they believed so.”

A far shot of the Western Wall. The Golden Dome on the Temple Mount can be seen on the left.

Looking at her photos, Mioko recalls that Akiko wore a skirt that day. “We wanted to go through the Dome of the Rock, because that’s a short way to go out,” she laughs, “but she wore a skirt here, so she couldn’t go in, because Islamic people don’t like that. I tried to lend her my raincoat but it was too short,” Women must be covered down to their ankles in such a place.

Mioko notes that, at the Western Wall, the prayer area is sex-segregated: the men’s section is larger, and yet more women than men were praying there. “That’s discrimination!”

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