The Mount of Olives

We reached the Mount of Olives by walking south past Hebrew University. On our east we passed a predominately Muslim neighborhood located in a deep valley, with the more open land of the West Bank visible in the distance. From the vantage point of the road we could also see the security barrier separating East Jerusalem from West. On the hillside below us was a herd of grazing goats.

As we approached the summit of the Mount of Olives we began to see many trees, with the horizon dominated by the soaring bell tower of the Russian Church of the Ascension. The neighborhoods on the Mount of Olives at this point are predominantly Muslim, and we had a somewhat difficult time finding our way inside of one or two of the holy sites. The Muslim neighborhoods were obviously poor, with many houses in disrepair and grafiti on the walls. Ironically, in the midst of this squalor were located many of the most holy sites in all Christendom, separated from the houses by high walls behind which were verdant gardens and groves of trees. There were also many cultivated patches where olive groves were growing beside the road, with wild flowers blooming. At one point we walked some considerable distance down a narrow residential street hoping to find a gate into the Russian Church of the Ascension, only to find ourselves in a dead end. This is one of the great paradoxes one sees in this city—entire neighborhoods cut off from each other by walls and gates. As Brooke told me yesterday, it is possible for people to live a few feet from each other for decades and know nothing about one another.