Fistycuffs in the sanctuary. Walls. Demarcation. Tribalism.

One last post about Jerusalem.

Ten days in a country hardly qualifies me to make pronouncements, but I'm going to anyway. And what I witnessed hasn't given me a lot of hope that Israel will soon solve their 'Palestinian Problem'

I could write about the miles and miles of ugly concrete walls topped with barbwire in and around Jerusalem to keep Jews out of East Jerusalem and Palestinians out of west and all the problems this causes.

Or how the various Jewish populations—the secular, the reformed, the orthodox and ultra-orthodox remain quite separate from one another, and live in demarcated neighborhoods and observe completely separate mores.

But tribalism in all it's worst, even comical aspects is alive and well amongst the various Christian sects that share responsibility for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, arguably one of Christianity's most important shrines, since it is built over the very spot where Jesus was supposed to have been stripped, flagellated, crucified and entombed. Think of this church as really a number of separate churches, shrines and chapels on three levels, all encompassed by one very large church. The Greek Orthodox definitely have the upper hand and all the prime real estate, since they first built the church in the Byzantium era. There are signs and symbols everywhere that signal whose church you're in and what line you're about to cross. The Armenian Church is also well represented as are the Catholics, whose Franciscans have one of the really significant chapels and the poor, lowly Syrian church isn't even allowed to upkeep their little chapel. And there are literally lines where one or the other sect is not allowed to cross, or clean, or neglect. In the past 10 years fist fights have broken out and priests arrested because of a door left open to a Franciscan chapel; brawls and ejections between rival Greek factions; and eleven people hospitalized after a chair was moved by a Coptic monk that insulted the Ethiopian church and so on. Often these break out during especially holy celebrations and I'm trying to imagine what this looks like wearing their robes and vestments! This hostility is quite evident if you observe the priests carefully—and most pilgrims don't—where it's written in their every gesture and all over their pious faces. I wish all this was just a joke.



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