hi everyone!
so as you know, the pope recently visited the holy land! this is a big deal. this is the first time pope francis has made a visit to jerusalem. it's also interesting because of the politics. recently, the vatican was very anti-israel. that has recently changed, but you can tell there are still sketchy feelings.
obviously all christians here in the holy land are palestinians (all the israelis are jews), so all the people that support the pope also are hoping for a palestinian state. the vatican openly supports this sentiment as well. this is important background.. i will explain later!
before i get to that, i have to mention... THE PAPAL PALACE IS LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO THE JERUSALEM CENTER. THE POPE IS MY NEIGHBOR. hahah. how crazy is that?! at orientation in provo they told us about the pope's visit but i still can't believe it. you would think he would be in a nice area in west jerusalem but he is right here next to us! cool fact #2: the security center ('mission control') for the pope was located on the eighth floor OF THE JC. there are tons of computers and shiz. like 200 people are always coming in and out. cool right? for the past two days we have not been allowed up there. there have been so many different uniforms and security guards wandering around it has been nuts. they are from israel, the vatican, privately contracted companies. it's tight. there are snipers on our roof. hahaha. how crazy is that? a lot of the security is staying here with us as well, including the swiss guard. this is a big deal. so tight. they are all over the patio where we eat lunch and the backyard of the papal palace that we can typically see is all taped off.
so. we get home from turkey on saturday night, and the pope rolled in early sunday afternoon. we found out that there was a chance we could see him coming out of jaffa gate (old city) at around 6 o'clock, when do you ever get a chance to see the pope? so of course we went for it.
for a lot of the day we couldn't even leave the building. we left out the bottom gate at about 3 o'clock so 'we could get a good spot.' walking to jaffa gate was nuts. the street the whole way there was lined with police tape and every five feet there was pair of armed guards. it varied from israeli military to common policeman to what look liked privately contracted people. a majority of them were women which i thought was interesting. we must have passed at least 150 people in a mile or so walk. once we got to the old city area a ton of the walkways were closed. we had the hardest time getting to the actual gate, i swear it took us two hours.
(we had to detour through the old city itself and i saw the armenian quarter for the first time. i am excited to go back). anyways. we finally get there and get this prime spot right on the corner. we were one of the first people there and we were STOKED. we talked to a couple different policeman dudes (they all spoke english) and they said we could stay where we are. most of them said the pope wouldn't come till at least 8:30, if not later, but our teachers and the ABC press release said 6:30. the last officer we talked to, who seemed the most legit, also said that, so we decided to wait it out for the next 2 and half hours.
at around 5:30, we started to hear bagpipes and a big crowd. to be honest, i thought the pope was rolling in early! as i looked up the street, there was HUGE crowd coming our way with palestinian and papal flags. there were probably about 250 people. a majority of them were families. they were very loud and happy. they had drums and trumpet things and kept chanting 'viva la papa!' (long live the pope in spanish). it was cool, but i'll be honest, i was sketched out and i could tell something was gonna go down.
they placed themselves right in the middle of the busy road that had yet to be shut down. they stopped traffic going both ways. people in the cars and huge tourist buses were not happy. as they got closer to us, the israeli guards suddenly got very serious and told us to move. we were forced across the street so that the big crowd could take our place. this makes me think the security people knew that they were coming and were anticipating their location, but i'm not sure.
(we were originally by the light pole furthest on the right, but we were moved behind the crowd)
anyways. they continued celebrating, singing, dancing, etc. and it seemed pretty innocent. another group of byu students actually came and kind and joined the crowd, but then eventually went up on the grass bank you can see in the background. some of the kids i was with wanted to do that but i didn't think that was a very good/safe idea. i became more comfortable with them however and did walk up to the outer perimeter of the crowd and got some good video. the most interesting people was this group of self-proclaimed 'arabian scouts for the pope' or something like that. they wore these fancy outfits that made them look like they were straight vatican security. i totally thought they were at first. they were the guys playing the bagpipes and they were very in sync and unified. it was impressive.
we were just hanging on the walls, having a good time people watching and talking.. but as 6:30 approached the israeli guard started to get super aggressive. they didn't announce it or anything, but they all got in a line, locked arms with each other and started pushing the crowd back and setting up barricades. it was really violent. the palestinians were not down... and things got crazy. it was really scary. a lot of people started pushing back and finding cracks to push through. the two i remember most was a woman that i had seen earlier with her daughters, just a typical mom, and a really overweight guy that may or may not have been super drunk. they pushed through the line and the israeli guards immediately jumped them. they tackled them to the ground and started beating them. it was scary. there was lots of yelling and i actually turned my face away, i didn't want to watch. the mood changed so suddenly and the israeli guards closest to us (we were right up on the front line near the impending barricade, but we were way on the side and actually standing up on some railing) started yelling at us to move back. we were mostly with foreign tourists, i think they were filipino, and everyone was very scared. probably one of the scariest if not the scariest moment of my life. at the moment i thought we definitely should leave.
our group got all together kind of towards the back of the crowd and decided it was okay to stay. if the center's security decided it was no longer safe they would either call us or come get us from the city. after that scuffle nothing else bad happened. it was scary, but we were okay.
the pope didn't show up until about 8:30. we are supposed to be out of the old city by sundown so that was kind of sketchy as well. oh well. so he rolled up in this huge brigade with probably a dozen cars including 2 ambulances, a bunch of black SUVs, and some limo looking things. he was supposed to be in an open-top pope-mobile as we call it but i guess they changed their minds at the last minute. sooo we were totally anticipating this car and it never showed up. to be 100% honest, i didn't see the pope. hahah. i filmed the whole brigade, and two of the black cars had the windows down and in one there was someone waving out the window. sooo i have him on film but you can't really see his face or anything. needless to say it was disappointing. i don't regret going, however. it wasn't the experience i was expecting by any means, but it was a very eye opening experience. it made the conflict and violence so much more real. it was 100% terrifying.
the old city was covered in yellow papal flags welcoming the pope. it was so cool. what a unique thing to see the israeli flag flying side by side.
we had to go home through west jerusalem since the sun had gone down. we walked through this outdoor mall that was totally amazing. tons of little outdoor french cafes, boutiques, and high end american shops, and strung lights everywhere. new favorite place? totally. we now call it 'jerusacreek' like city creek mall in salt lake. hahah. for dinner we went to this little new york pizza place that some people had found earlier in the day. it was real american pizza and it was amazing.
as we were leaving the jaffa gate area an american guy and a girl joined our group and started to talking to us. i had seen her earlier in the day and immediately thought 'she is mormon.' i was right! haha. it turns out they were two byu grads (just friends) who both live in london and were visiting jeru for the weekend. they grabbed pizza with us and ended up buying us dinner. they were so nice! it was so cool to run into them. one of them is working for boeing and the other for the state department. pretty cool right?
overall, the day was crazy and terrifying and emotional but great. we are safe! promise. the jc is very aware and picky about when we can go out. we actually couldn't go into east jerusalem/old city at all today because they were wary of riots. today is 'jerusalem day'- the israelis celebrate the unification of jerusalem when they reclaimed it from jordan about 40 years ago. it's still a rough memory for the palestinians. i am doing great and am so happy i am here! hope everyone is doing well. love to all! xo
No comments:
Post a Comment