Templar Globe

 An Israeli archaeologist said Sunday that what could be a Islamic prayer room was found at the site of the Mugrabi ramp in the Old City of Jerusalem, where excavation work has sparked angry protests by Muslims who say that the work endangers the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Muslim leaders and critics of the work said the announcement of the find, three years after it was discovered, confirmed their fears that the Antiquities Authority is intent on hiding Muslim attachment to the site.

Israel says the project is needed to repair damage to the ramp caused by a 2004 snowstorm, and the dig won’t affect Muslim holy sites on the nearby Temple Mount. Muslim leaders accuse Israel of plotting to destroy Islamic holy places, a claim that Israel has sought to refute by installing a web cam to monitor the scene and by agreeing to Turkish supervision of the dig.

In an article published recently on the authority’s Web site, Jerusalem district archaeologist Yuval Baruch described the ruins that were discovered after the snowstorm three years ago.

In 2004, when the Mughrabi ramp collapsed, a small room was discovered which contained an alcove covered with a dome, a kind of Muslim prayer niche, facing south, Baruch wrote. Some suggest that these are the remains of a prayer room that was part of a madrasa (a Muslim religious school) which operated near the Mughrabi Gate.

Authority officials said the article was published earlier this month, around the time the project began.

Adnan Husseini, Director of the Islamic Waqf, which oversees affairs at the Temple Mount, expressed anger that Israel withheld news of the discovery for three years. “We didn’t hear anything about this,” he said. “They are always hiding things.”

Baruch said the authority decided not to reveal the existence of the room sooner since it still is not clear what it was. He said finds in and around the room need further research before authorities can say exactly what the room was used for.

The archaeological dig is taking place about 60 meters away from the Temple Mount, the third-holiest site in Islam and holiest site in Judaism.

Activists for Palestinian rights in Jerusalem said the delayed publication of the archaeological find proved the Antiquities Authority has not been truthful.

“This coincides with the way they act,” said Amos Gil of Ir Amim, an Israeli group that promotes coexistence in Jerusalem. “They don’t want to find all the ruins, just the Jewish ones.”

Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.

The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.

In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.

The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.

It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.

The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.

Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacy when it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination.

(more…)

Dois sarcófagos descobertos em 1980 no norte de Jerusalém foram enviados aos EUA, onde serão expostos ao público para a apresentação do documentário televisivo “A Tumba de Jesus”.

O documentário foi realizado por James Cameron, mesmo diretor de “Titanic”, e Simcha Jacobovici, durante as investigações de três anos que envolveram especialistas de diversas áreas.

Os autores afirmam ter localizado a gruta da sepultura de Jesus e familiares nas proximidades de Jerusalém, segundo publicou nesta sexta-feira o jornal “Yediot Ahronot”. Jacobovici afirma ter tido acesso em 2005 à cripta em questão, localizada hoje em baixo de um condomínio israelense.

No meio do caso se encontra um sarcófago com a legenda “Santiago filho de José, irmão de Jesus” (”Yaakov Bar Yosef Ahi Yeshu”, em hebraico).

Frente à expectativa internacional, a peça foi estudada por especialistas israelenses, que chegaram à conclusão, em 2003, de que o sarcófago parecia efetivamente datar do primeiro século d.C, enquanto a inscrição parecia duvidosa, pelo conteúdo, a caligrafia e o revestimento que o cobria.

O jornal escreveu ainda que os autores do documentário estão convencidos de poder provar de maneira definitiva que a “tumba de Jesus” foi localizada.

in, Folha Online

The makers of a new documentary, to be aired for the first time at a news conference in New York, claim that a tomb found in a Jerusalem cave 36 years ago belongs to none other than Jesus Christ.

The claim presented in the documentary is based on years of research by world-renowned archaeologists, statisticians, experts in ancient scripts and in DNA, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily Friday quoted the makers as saying in an exclusive interview.

The documentary, titled “The Burial Cave of Jesus,” is a joint production by Israeli-born Canadian documentary maker Simcha Jacobovici and three-time-Oscar-winning Canadian film director James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator).

The 2000-year-old cave had already been discovered in 1980 in Jerusalem’s Talpiyot neighbourhood. In it were 10 coffins, six of which bore inscriptions, which - translated into English - included the names “Jesus son of Joseph,” twice “Maria,” and “Judah son of Jesus.”

The second Maria is hypothesized to be Maria Magdalene, while the tomb bearing the name Judah could indicate Jesus had a son.

If true, the find could be one of the most significant in the history of archeology and shake the Christian world.

But the senior Israeli archaeologist who thoroughly researched the tombs after their discovery, and at the time deciphered the inscriptions, cast serious doubt on it.

“It’s a beautiful story but without any proof whatsoever,” Professor Amos Kloner, who had published the findings of his research in the Israeli periodical Atigot in 1996, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Friday.

“The names that are found on the tombs are names that are similar to the names of the family of Jesus,” he conceded.

“But those were the most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE and CE,” he added.

Kloner dismissed the combination of names found in the cave as a “coincidence.”

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which is keeping the caskets in its archive in the town of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem, declined to comment on the documentary, saying it had not researched the caskets and that its duty was only to safeguard them.

The IAA nevertheless sent two of the caskets to the news conference in New York.

The documentary, which took three years to make, is to be broadcast on the World Discovery Channel, Britain’s Channel 4, Canada’s Vision and Israel’s Channel 8, which participated in its production.

Between 1989 and 1993 more than 95,000 Lhotshampas (Bhutanese Nepali-speaking Hindus of Nepali origin who live(d) in the southern plains of Bhutan), nearly a sixth of the kingdom’s total population of approximately 600,000 have been forced to leave or forcibly evicted from the country by the Bhutanese Government.

This has made Bhutan one of the highest per capita refugee generators in the world due to the implementation of the “Driglam Namzha” (Cultural Code of the Ruling Elite) with a “One Nation, One People” policy which imposed the language, dress code, and customs of the northern Bhutanese on the entire population. The crackdown on the southern Bhutanese continued as the government began closing schools and hospitals in an attempt to force out those of Nepali origin.

Often the countries most overburdened with refugees are already among the poorest in the world. Nepal continues to be ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of human development yet hosts more than 100,000 Bhutanese and 20,000 Tibetan refugees. Nepals inadequate social and physical infrastructural services are overstrained by such an influx of refugees.

There are seven camps with a population of 101,000 refugees, about half of whom are located in Beldangi camp. The camps are situated on the plains of east Nepal, spanning two districts (Jhapa and Morang) which are the most heavily populated in Nepal.

To get to the refugee camps, one has to drive on winding dirt roads through fields or forested land for at least half an hour. The forest clears out all of sudden and distinct rows of huts appear in the clearing. It seems as if you have come upon a civilization long hidden from the rest of the world.

In the seven camps there are 45 schools, 40,000 pupils and 956 teachers. The
student/teacher ratio is an average 40:1 but in reality the classes are much bigger than this as the number of teachers includes headmasters and teacher trainers which are given very few periods, if any at all.

A school environment provides more than just basic needs to read and write, but also provides an outlet for children to experience a sense of normality, safety and routine after many years upheaval.

Most of the classrooms are temporary structures (often made of a mixture of brick, bamboo and grass) due to the limited life-span of the camps. Many of the lower classes do not have desks and the children are sitting on jute mats which have been manufactured in the camps during the income generating activities initiated by Oxfam. However, all classrooms are provided with a table and chair for the teacher. The blackboards are portable with an easel.

Each school has a large open space where assemblies can take place. On structural appearances the schools are identical to many seen in the rural areas of Pokhara and Kathmandu Valley.

No land is available to refugees for cultivation yet the vast majority of the refugees come from rural backgrounds. Artificial life in the camps for more than ten years is therefore not preparing the younger generation for a farming life back home in Bhutan. Most of them have not been involved in farming for the past decade and there is a fear that they are losing their knowledge and experience in the area where they will have to make their future livelihoods. Although vocational training programmes and income-generating projects have been initiated, they are not a substitute for the agricultural work to which most of the refugees will return. In contrast, access to medical care, food rations, education and training has resulted in improved conditions for many of the refugees.

By: Davina Livsey

Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand sheik at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, has agreed to meet Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The sheikh is described as a moderate and is regarded as the highest spiritual authority for nearly 1 billion Sunni Muslims worldwide.

His decision to accept the pope’s invitation was made public by the Vatican press office after a visit to Cairo by Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Vatican’s commission on relations with Muslims. A date for the meeting has not yet been announced.

Benedict has been working hard to improve relations between the Church and the Islamic world since making a speech in Germany in Sept in which he angered Muslims by appearing to equate their religion with violence.

Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, called Friday for an “intifada” to save the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In response, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to investigate whether Salah’s comments constitute incitement and sedition.

In a fiery speech at his protest tent in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, Salah accused Israel of attempting to build the third temple, according to Israel Radio.

“Israeli history is drenched in blood,” Israel Radio quoted Salah as saying. “They want to build their temple while our blood is on their clothing, on their doorposts, in their food and in their water.”

Salah’s comments come in the wake of violent protests over renovations and excavations at the Mugrabi Gate, next to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said the police would investigate Salah’s comments. The police are considering requesting a court order blocking Salah from Jerusalem.

Friday prayers at the Temple Mount ended without a recurrence of last week’s violent protests, but there were several clashes between police and Arab youths in East Jerusalem.

Police arrested 10 Arab youths in East Jerusalem, including four suspected of attacking police officers in an attempt to reach the Temple Mount. Police said the others were arrested for participating in anti-renovation riots. Five of them threw stones at police near the Damascus Gate.

In East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud neighborhood, Arab youths threw stones at police, who dispersed the demonstration with stun grenades.

For Friday’s prayers, Jerusalem police let male worshipers aged 50 and over enter the Temple Mount compound. There were no restrictions on female worshipers.

Meanwhile, in Kashmir, India, separatist militants called a strike to protest the excavations on Friday. Most shops and businesses were closed in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar.

Traffic was thin and most streets in Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, were deserted in response to the call by Islamist militants fighting New Delhi’s rule in the disputed region.

“We appeal to Kashmiri Muslims to protest against the nefarious designs of Israel,” Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, a hardline militant group, said in a statement. Al-Badr, another militant group, backed the call.

Scores of Muslims shouting “Al-Aqsa mosque is crying … down with Israel” took to streets of Srinagar and burned Israeli flags.

By Jonathan Lis and Yoav Stern, at Haaretz.com

La expedición estuvo comandada por el jefe de las SS que pensaba que con él ganarían el conflicto.

Un libro de reciente aparición en España desvela que Heinrich Himmler, mano derecha de Hitler y jefe de la Policía Secreta nazi (SS), organizó una misión a la abadía de Montserrat -en Barcelona- donde pensaba encontrar el Santo Grial, el cáliz supuestamente utilizado por Jesús en la última cena.

Según relata Montserrat Rico Góngora, la autora del libro titulado La abadía profanada, Himmler, ‘el Reichsführer-SS’, uno de los más fanáticos nazis, pensaba que el descubrimiento del Santo Grial serviría de ayuda a Alemania a ganar la guerra y que él obtendría poderes sobrenaturales.

Por esta razón emprendió su expedición acompañado por 25 oficiales de las SS al mando del capitán Günter Alguen, algo así como su jefe de prensa y director del periódico oficial de las SS, el Schwarze Korps (Cuerpo Negro).

El hecho de que Jesucristo fuera judío y el visceral odio nazi a los judíos no lo hizo desistir, porque Himmler se creó su propia teoría para convertir a Jesucristo en ario.Según escribe Góngora, el jefe de las SS pensaba que el bíblico Jacob (nieto de Abraham e hijo de Isaac) era de sangre aria, y que sus descendientes, incluido Jesucristo, eran todos arios.

La autora entrevistó para su libro a Andreu Ripol Noble, monje en la abadía de Montserrat en aquella época, y a quien ordenaron en 1940, que se puso a las órdenes del nazi durante su visita a la abadía.

Antoni María Marcet, quien para la época era el abad de Montserrat, sabía que Himmler atacaba públicamente a la Iglesia Católica alemana y se negó a recibirlo. Ripol relata en el libro que ‘el Reichführer-SS’ llegó a la abadía inspirado por Parsifal, la ópera de Richard Wagner donde se canta que el Santo Grial se guarda “en el maravilloso castillo de Montsalvat en los Pirineos”.

Para Himmler todo se trataba de un error de Wagner y el “maravilloso castillo” era Montserrat, aunque bien podría haberse tratado del castillo de Montségur en Francia.

El nazi también creyó al pie de la letra una canción folclórica catalana en la que se hace referencia a una “mística fuente de vida” situada en la misma región.

Himmler, quien hasta la llegada al poder de los nazis no era más que un humilde criador de pollos sin estudios y que se declaraba católico, empezó a atacar a la Iglesia alemana y por no sumarse al nazismo acabó convertido a una especie de paganismo radical.

También fomentó el estudio del origen de los arios y envió expediciones al Tíbet -recreada en la película Siete años en el Tibet, protagonizada por Brad Pitt-, a Mongolia y la India. Los “análisis” continuaron mediante prácticas horrendas en los campos de exterminio nazis. Para fomentar la raza aria estableció que los SS debían tener por lo menos cuatro hijos, aunque él tuvo tres. Y creó los Lebensborn, centros de mujeres arias destinadas a procrear con los SS.

Durante la expedición, corría el año 1940 y los ejércitos nazis arrasaban Europa. Mientras Hitler trataba de convencer al dictador Francisco Franco, en Hendaya, para que la España fascista se unie-ra a alemanes e italianos en la guerra, Himmler buscaba por Cataluña el Santo Grial. Pero por lo visto, no lo encontró.

Qué es el Santo Grial

En los libros de caballería se entiende que el Santo Grial es el recipiente o especie de copa en el que Jesús consagró su sangre en la última cena y que después utilizó José de Arimatea para recoger la sangre y el agua que derramó al lavar el cuerpo de Jesús.

Según esos libros, años después José de Arimatea se llevó ese cáliz a las islas británicas y fundó una especie de custodios de la reliquia, que más tarde quedaría vinculada a los templarios.

De acuerdo con la leyenda, con la saga céltica de Parsifal o Perceval, vinculada al rey Arturo, el Grial se convierte en una especie de piedra preciosa, que fue guardada un tiempo por los ángeles y luego confiada a la custodia de los caballeros templario de la orden del Santo Grial.

La palabra ‘grial’ etimológicamente proviene del latín tardío ‘gradalis’ o gratalis, que significa vaso.

* Fuente: Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Navarra.

Idafe Martín Perez

Para El Tiempo

Pourquoi, comment, s’est-il trouvé, tout à coup dans l’Occident chrétien, des «dompteurs» de pierre comme on n’en avait jamais vu depuis les pyramides? D’où tenaient-ils leur savoir? Combien de générations de maçons et de tailleurs de pierre faudrait-il, aujourd’hui, pour produire des maîtres capables de réaliser l’équivalent des cathédrales de Chartres ou d’Amiens?
On objectera que ce phénomène, unique dans l’histoire de l’architecture, est aussi une question de «mode». Le propre de l’architecture n’est-il pas de s’adapter à l’esprit de son temps?
Les bâtisseurs de Dieu, dans la foulée de Cluny

Le 15 juillet 1099, Jérusalem brûle. Les croisés ont enfin pris la cité Sainte. Bien des années plus tard, en 1118, Baudoin II, roi de Jérusalem propose à Hugues de Payns, un chevalier champenois, à Geoffroy de Saint-Omer et à sept autres nobles, une place dans l’antique temple du roi Salomon.
L’ordre des Templiers est né. La relation entre l’Ordre et l’apparition du gothique est alors indéniable.

Fondé sous l’impulsion de saint Bernard de Clairvaux, l’ordre des Templiers a versé son sang sur les champs de bataille des croisades et protégé les bâtisseurs de cathédrales, auxquels il a confié de nouveaux savoirs.

Richissime, l’ordre du Temple avait réussi à poser les fondements d’une nouvelle civilisation. Les cathédrales, dans la mystique de saint Benoît puis de saint Bernard, en étaient la dimension spirituelle, l’aboutissement du long labeur élaboré à l’abbaye de Cluny, où ont été établies les fondations de la civilisation chrétienne occidentale. Plus de 1300 monastères se rangeront en effet sous la règle clunisienne. Et c’est de Cluny, aussi, qu’est issu le pape Urbain II, qui prêchera la première Croisade.

Parfaitement organisés, les Templiers avaient assuré le nécessaire vital, le blé, l’outil, l’argent. Avec les cathédrales, ils ont donné au peuple la clé de l’éveil spirituel qui lui manquait. Pour agir sur la pierre, il fallait des constructeurs initiés à certaines lois.

Opération de «communication par le bâti» pour la reconquête des lieux saints, les croisades ont donc favorisé l’essor des cathédrales gothiques dans tout l’Occident..

En témoigne l’œuvre du dernier bâtisseur de cathédrales, le Tessinois Mario Botta, concepteur de celle de la Résurrection à Evry, près de Paris (1995). Pour lui, l’architecture moderne ne s’applique pas qu’aux supermarchés, mais aussi aux églises, aux mosquées et synagogues…

Des bâtisseurs de jadis ont laissé leurs signatures, sur des poutres ou des pierres. On connaît des noms d’architectes et de maîtres d’œuvre, pour Amiens, mais pas pour Chartres… Le fait est que l’on sait peu de choses sur l’origine de ces constructeurs, sur le savoir-faire dont ils ont été les dépositaires. Ils étaient réunis en confréries, fraternités. Ou compagnonnages, un mot qui vient de «compas», leur outil de prédilection, et signifie aussi «qui partage le même pain».

Les confréries les plus connues avaient pour nom les Enfants du père Soubise, les Enfants de Maître Jacques ou les Enfants de Salomon. Elles ont aujourd’hui pour héritiers les Compagnons des devoirs du Tour de France. Certains d’entre eux ont gardé une tradition initiatique et morale de savoir-faire et de «chevalerie de métier» en refusant, par exemple, de construire des forteresses et des prisons, leur œuvre étant dévolue aux hommes libres.

La cathédrale, dans cette éthique, apparaît paradoxalement comme un édifice laïc, au sens originel du terme, car construit pour l’âme du peuple et non pour la gloire des seigneurs.

De saint Louis, ardent croisé, les bâtisseurs de cathédrales obtinrent des franchises royales qui en firent des «maçons francs». C’est dire la reconnaissance et l’estime dont ils jouissaient. Ces privilèges, le roi Philippe le Bel, dans son acharnement pour anéantir les Templiers, les supprima sèchement…

Sous protection templière

En effet, les bâtisseurs de cathédrales furent pourchassés lors du procès des chevaliers du Temple, leurs protecteurs. Si bien que beaucoup disparurent, signe de leur inclusion dans l’ordre, d’autres entrant dans la clandestinité.

La cathédrale de Chartres a dû être construite par les Enfants de Salomon, qui édifièrent la majorité des autres grands sanctuaires gothiques, comme Amiens et Reims. Les bâtisseurs étaient très liés aux Templiers, qui les avaient instruits et pris sous leur protection. Et on peut remonter plus loin. Car ces constructeurs puisent leurs origines dans les écoles initiatiques de l’ancienne Egypte.

L’art gothique, en tout cas, prospère en même temps que l’ordre du Temple. Et il déclinera avec lui, de même que l’art du vitrail, tel que splendidement pratiqué à Chartres, lorsque l’ordre sera brisé, au terme d’un des procès les plus scandaleux de l’histoire.

C’est si vrai que, sept siècles plus tard, lorsque des compagnons travaillèrent sous les ordres de l’architecte et restaurateur de cathédrales Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), ils s’effarèrent, raconte Louis Charpentier, «de ce que le moindre choc sur certaines pierres provoquait des ondes sonores comme on en obtient sur des ressorts tendus ou sur des cordes d’instruments de musique».

Le Temple anéanti, la civilisation idéalisée se transforme.

On ira jusqu’à dénigrer le gothique et s’enticher d’art classique antique. Restent les pierres et leur mémoire. Aux XVe et XVIe siècles, le gothique, sur le déclin, devient flamboyant. Des «flammes» architecturales hautement symboliques: on donne dans la surenchère de dentelles de pierres, on répète obsessionnellement courbes et contre-courbes, on démultiplie les nervures dans les voûtes. On assiste à un tumulte plastique qui ne traduit plus la mission fonctionnelle et mystique de l’art gothique, mais la douloureuse inquiétude spirituelle des temps.

Rédactrice en chef: Anne IMBERT

During 2006, according to B’tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians, almost half of them innocent bystanders, among them 141 children. In the same period, Palestinians killed 17 Israeli civilians and six soldiers. It is such figures, as well as events like shellings, house demolitions, arrest raids and land expropriations, that make the headlines in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What rarely get into the media but make up the staple of Palestinian daily conversation are the countless little restrictions that slow down most people’s lives, strangle the economy and provide constant fuel for extremists.

Arbitrariness is one of the most crippling features of these rules. No one can predict how a trip will go. Many of the main West Bank roads, for the sake of the security of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, are off-limits to Palestinian vehicles—only one road connecting the north and south West Bank, for instance, is open to them—and these restrictions change frequently. So do the rules on who can pass the checkpoints that in effect divide the West Bank into a number of semi-connected regions (see map).

A new order due to come into force this week would have banned most West Bankers from riding in cars with Israeli licence plates, and thus from getting lifts from friends and relatives among the 1.6m Palestinians who live as citizens in Israel, as well as from aid workers, journalists and other foreigners. The army decided to suspend the order after protests from human-rights groups that it would give soldiers enormous arbitrary powers—but it has not revoked it.

Large parts of the population of the northern West Bank, and of individual cities like Nablus and Jericho, simply cannot leave their home areas without special permits, which are not always forthcoming. If they can travel, how long they spend waiting at checkpoints, from minutes to hours, depends on the time of day and the humour of the soldiers. Several checkpoints may punctuate a journey between cities that would otherwise be less than an hour’s drive apart. These checkpoints move and shift every day, and army jeeps add to the unpredictability and annoyance by stopping and creating ad hoc mobile checkpoints at various spots.

According to the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of such obstacles had increased to 534 by mid-December from 376 in August 2005, when OCHA and the Israeli army completed a joint count. When Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, agreed last month to ease restrictions at a few of these checkpoints as a concession to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, human-rights people reported that not only did many of the checkpoints go on working as before; near the ones that had eased up, mobile ones were now operating instead, causing worse disruption and pain.

It is sometimes hard to fathom the logic of the checkpoint regime. One route from Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative capital, to Jerusalem, involves a careful inspection of documents, while on another the soldiers—if they are at their posts—just glance at cars’ occupants to see if they look Arab. Israeli law strictly forbids Israeli citizens from visiting the main Palestinian cities, but they can drive straight into Ramallah and Hebron without being challenged, while other cities, such as Jericho and Nablus, remain impermeable. In many places the barrier that Israel is building through the West Bank for security purposes (though in Palestinian eyes to grab more land) is monitored with all the care of an international border, while around Jerusalem the army turns a blind eye to hundreds of people who slip through cracks in the wall as part of their daily commute.

Because of the internal travel restrictions, people who want to move from one Palestinian city to another for work or study must register a change of address to make sure they can stay there. But they cannot. Israel’s population registry, which issues Palestinian identity cards as well as Israeli ones, has issued almost no new Palestinian cards since the start of the second intifada in 2000. And that means no address changes either. This also makes it virtually impossible for Palestinians from abroad to get residency in the occupied territories, which are supposed to be their future state, never mind in Israel.

No-through-roads galore
On top of that, in the past year several thousand Palestinians who had applied for residency in the West Bank and were living there on renewable six-month visitor permits have become illegal residents too, liable to be stopped and deported at any checkpoint, not because of anything they have done but because Israel has stopped renewing permits since Hamas, the Islamist movement, took control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) a year ago. (Israel says it is because the PA isn’t handing over the requests.)

Like Israelis, Palestinians who commit a traffic offence on the West Bank’s highways have to pay the fine at an Israeli post office or a police station. But in the West Bank the only post offices and police stations are on Israeli settlements that most West Bank Palestinians cannot visit without a rare permit. If they do not pay, however, they lose their driving licences the next time the police stop them. They also get a criminal record—which then makes an Israeli entry permit quite impossible.

Some of the regulations stray into the realm of the absurd. A year ago a military order, for no obvious reason, expanded the list of protected wild plants in the West Bank to include za’atar (hyssop), an abundant herb and Palestinian staple. For a while, soldiers at checkpoints confiscated bunches of it from bewildered Palestinians who had merely wanted something to liven up their salads. Lately there have been no reports of za’atar confiscation, but, says Michael Sfard, the legal adviser for Yesh Din, another Israeli human-rights body, the order is still in force. As he tells the story, he cannot help laughing. There is not much else to do.

in: The Economist

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Thursday extended the restraining order barring Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, from entering the Old City of Jerusalem, at the state’s request.

Salah has been the leading critic against the repair work on the earthen ramp leading to the Temple Mount.

Soon after protests broke out at the site last week, police issued a 10-day restraining order preventing Salah from entering the Old City. Police also charged him with attacking police officers during a demonstration.

At a hearing on Wednesday, the police submitted footage from Channel 2 News allegedly showing Salah spitting at police officers. The state said the officers involved testified that Salah had spit at them. Salah is heard calling the police officers “murderers,” “occupiers” and “cowards.” Another photograph, from a security camera above Dung Gate, shows Salah directing demonstrators last week.

Salah appeared at the hearing without counsel, by choice. He refused to recognize the authority of the court and its rulings. “An Israeli court has no authority to rule on issues connected to Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Salah said. “Thus any decision made by this court over keeping me away from Al-Aqsa is null and void.”

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement is planning a large demonstration in East Jerusalem. Salah is barred by a restraining order from entering the Old City and plans to deliver his Friday sermon in his protest tent in Wadi Joz.

Jordanian MPs: Jerusalem dig violates peace pact with Israel
At least 25 Jordanian lawmakers have signed a petition urging the government to officially declare that Israel has “violated” the peace treaty concluded between the two countries in 1994 by going ahead with excavations near Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, parliamentary sources said Thursday.

Accordingly, the deputies said, the government should summon the Jordanian ambassador from Tel Aviv and “dismiss” the Israeli ambassador from Amman.

“We hereby urge the government to officially declare that Israel has violated the article 9 of the peace treaty by conducting excavations at al-Aqsa Mosque,” the lawmakers said in their memorandum.

Article 9 commits Israel to respect Jordan’s role in looking after the Islamic and Christian holy shrines in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967.

The parliamentary memorandum coincides with Jordanian contacts with Arab and Islamic countries as well as with world powers to put pressure on Israel to halt its construction work at the Temple Mount road leading to al-Aqsa Mosque’s Mugrabi Gate.

Jerusalem police prepared for violence around Temple Mount
Jerusalem police are prepared for more violence on and around the Temple Mount to protest the nearby construction work.

On Thursday afternoon, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court will rule on the state’s request to extend Salah’s restraining order by 60 days. At Wednesday’s hearing, the police submitted footage from Channel 2 News allegedly showing Salah spitting at police officers. The state said the officers involved testified that Salah had spit at them. Salah is heard calling the police officers “murderers,” “occupiers” and “cowards.” Another photograph, from a security camera above Dung Gate, shows Salah directing demonstrators last week.

Salah appeared at the hearing without counsel, by choice. He refused to recognize the authority of the court and its rulings. “An Israeli court has no authority to rule on issues connected to Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Salah said. “Thus any decision made by this court over keeping me away from Al-Aqsa is null and void.”

in: Haaretz