A WEEK IN THE CITY OF PEACE

 

 It has been a week of tragedy here in Jerusalem and for Israel as a whole. It began with the funerals of the four Israeli victims of the snow storm in Nepal which killed around 40 other trekkers and injured many others. The four Israeli victims were Tamar Ariel, Agam Luria, Nadav Shoham, and Michal Gili Charkesky. Tamar Ariel was the first orthodox woman to become an Israeli Airforce Navigator.


 Agam Luria                  Tamar Ariel               Nadav Shoham          Michal Gili Charkesky

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4581131,00.html
 

Another seven injured Israelis, all suffering frostbite in varying degrees, were flown home last Saturday in a plane sent from Israel to rescue them. Israeli rescue teams also helped the Nepalese to rescue many of the injured and trapped trekkers caught in the storm.  

The week ended with another tragedy in Nepal, in which two more Israeli young people died, and four others were injured when an overcrowded bus toppled off the road and fell 200m into a ravine. The two Israeli young women who were killed were Shira Dabush and Omer Shemesh. According to the Walla news site, Israeli travel agencies reported that these two women had planned to travel to the Annapurna region, but changed their plans after the deadly snow storms of the previous week.

Israel is a small country and in many ways it is like a big family. When something like this happens the whole country mourns. We all feel the loss together. In a nation which prizes its young people, it is always especially poignant when those killed are some of the nation's best. It is something of a rite of passage here for young people to travel the world after their years of national service in the army or after completing their university studies. Many venture forth on shoestring budgets to find adventure, and respite from the violence they have experienced, in the mountains and the wildernesses of the world.  For many it is a spiritual oddessy. It is a sad fact that sometimes, too often, they do not come home alive.



Haya Zisel - Braun

Just as tragic, perhaps even more so, is the death of one precious baby this week, a 3 month old girl, Haya Zisel-Braun who never got to live her life. She never got to go to kindergarten, much less university, or travel abroad with her friends. Her last great adventure was her very first visit with her parents to pray at the Western Wall. On their way home she was struck by a car driven by a terrorist as her parents were alighting from the Light Rail train  at the Ammunition Hill stop in East Jerusalem. Seven others were also injured, some seriously.




 Haya's funeral - Such a tiny corpse
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25442/Default.aspx

Overnight and throughout the day following the death of Haya there were numerous incidents of rioting, and the throwing of stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks around the city. On Thursday morning a Jewish kindergarten was bombarded with rocks, while the children huddled frightened inside.

Since then the city has been tense and there have been many other incidents of violence. I came home on Thursday to find a surveillance blimp hovering over my neighborhood. Our little shopping center at the end of my street had come under attack by stone throwing youths from the neighboring Arab village of Jebel Mukaber, one of the several 'hotspots' in the city.

Even as I am writing reports are coming in of more incidents this evening:

Riots broke out on Saturday evening in several locations throughout Jerusalem, where several dozen masked men threw Molotov cocktails and rocks, blocked a road and set fire to trash bins near the Beit Orot yeshiva, located near the At-Tur neighborhood.

Assailants also hurled stones at the Jerusalem Light Rail traveling the Beit Hanina-Shuafat line, shattering its windshield. No injuries were reported. Earlier in the day, youths threw stones and fired fireworks at a tractor in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

         http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4584058,00.html 

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/

Wednesday's terror attack was the worst incident of the so called "Silent Intifada" that has been raging in Jerusalem since May. Every day our city has been rocked by riots and incidents involving the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails and the firing of fireworks at cars, police and passersby. Since May more than 107 policemen have been injured and more than 700 Palestinians have been arrested, and yet the mainstream media has been curiously silent on the subject, even here in Israel. The silence has now been broken but it took the death of a child to do it.

One can only hope that now somehow peace can be restored to our beautiful city, and measures  will be taken by all involved to stop the escalation of violence and the incitement that feeds it. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has been reported as saying that the violence has become intolerable, and he has vowed to restore order.  On Thursday night a police spokesman said, "The police will operate decisively and show zero tolerance to anyone who tries to break the peace." He also said that, "new intelligence gathering facilities including small surveillance balloons are being deployed. He called the buildup a "strategic decision" connected to the overall situation, not a response to Wednesday's killing of the 3 month-old baby in the Ammunition Hill light rail stop attack.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25446/Default.aspx

 Although most of the violence has been in the vicinity of the Arab villages of East Jerusalem, and on the Temple Mount, there is an awareness that it can erupt anywhere at any time. It is very reminiscent of the time of the Second Intifada. There is  a feeling that at any moment the man walking along the street beside you, or sitting beside you on the bus, or in the car that pulls up alongside you at the traffic light could turn out to be a terrorist. Surveillance camera footage of the terror attack that killed Haya Zisel-Braun was broadcast on all our TV news reports this week. It showed us all how easily and quickly a normal, every day situation can become the scene of violence and death. With no warning a car just swerves out of its lane and plows into a crowded bus stop. It also demonstrates all too clearly just how impossible it is to predict or prevent such attacks.

On the whole most Jerusalem citizens are stoic and are just going about their lives normally. We are, after all, fairly used to such things. However it is wearying and increases stress levels. The Jerusalem Post reported that one Israeli woman interviewed at the site of the Ammunition Hill bus stop attack said, "I feel like an attack could happen at any moment". Another said, "I won’t let the terrorists terrorize me".  A resident of Ma'ale Adumim who uses that light rail train stop every day to get to and from work, had this to say, "The last time I felt this way was 10 years ago [during the Intifada] . I feel fear not only here, but everywhere in Jerusalem. They [Arab terrorists] are around us all the time – on the bus, the train, in the streets. It feels 100 percent that an attack could happen at any moment...I need to come here every day, and now I have to look behind my back for them [Arab terrorists].”http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-residents-afraid-but-stoic-after-attack-379714





http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/25/Iran-acid-attack-suspects-freed-as-lack-of-evidence.html#slide=3
It is perhaps very apt that this week's Parasha (Torah reading) is the story of Noah. It is in this story that the word for violence (hamas) first appears in Scripture.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.   So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

                  Genesis 6: 11-13

It is hard to conceive of a world more violent than ours at this time. It seems it is all around us.  I have spoken of the violence in Jerusalem but failed to mention the violence occurring all around us in the surrounding nations - terror attacks in Egypt, civil war in Syria spilling over into Lebanon, the ongoing fight against the "Islamic State", the threat of a nuclear Iran and more.  Neither did I mention the two soldiers who were injured on Wednesday by terrorists firing across the border from the Sinai, or the attack on the Canadian parliament. Yet, as the story of Noah tells us, God watches over the innocent and rescues them. The God of Israel has promised never to leave nor forsake those who rely on Him. Terrorists and the enemies of God may kill us but they can never separate us from the love of God.

I was deeply moved this week by an account of an incident that occurred in one of the towns held by the 'Islamic State' forces. A group of former Muslim converts to Christianity were being held by IS soldiers, who were threatening to kill their children if they did not recant their new faith in Jesus. They all denied their faith in order to save their children.  However when the children were offered their freedom if they would recant their faith in Jesus, the children refused, and immediately the soldiers killed them right there  in front of their parents. 

I was humbled by this true story. Such faith in the children! Such courage, and how deeply they knew and loved the Lord! It made me tremble. What would I have done?

What would you do?