Walls are everywhere in this holy city. A few of us started our day jogging around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem as the sun rose over the Mount of Olives. Within these ancient stones are some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam: the Western wall, the Via Dolorosa (Jesus' walk to the cross), and the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa, two Muslim mosques.
But there are other walls, built more recently. Yesterday we met with a Muslim professor, a priest in the Melkite Catholic Church and a leader of the Sabeel ecumenical liberation theology center. Each of them told us about walls that restrain our Palestinian neighbors from leading a normal life. They are not allowed to swim in the Dead Sea, as we did so easily on Friday. They are not allowed to travel freely on roads or to enter certain areas. They are not provided basic civic services, such as reliable water and electricity, schools and parks. . . though they do pay taxes.
Today we saw with our own eyes the wall that separates Palestinian communities from Jewish communities -- a wall that is longer and higher than the Berlin Wall, and it is still being built. As the wall twists and turns, it separates family members and makes it very difficult for Palestinians to travel to jobs and schools.
I wept as I prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane, and again at the Wailing Wall. I wept to think of the sufferings of Jesus, and I was deeply disturbed to see that Jerusalem continues to be a place of injustice and division. Each day we seek to learn ways that we can be instruments of peace and justice, building bridges in a world of walls.
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