Alastair Mitchell

East Jerusalem.

I went to the college early today – most people don’t turn up until late in the morning, and teaching doesn’t usually begin until about 3pm – to sort out all the violins owned by the college. I took my three hours but was well worth it as now the violin store is organised with labels describing the state of the instruments on each shelve. We also now know what we need to buy to complete the few incomplete sets, and what repairs need to be carried out on the damaged ones. I am seeing a few more of my students tomorrow so it will be good to be able to get any instruments they need quickly, and without kafuffle.
As you may have guessed from the end of the previous sentence, I stayed in last night and watched DVDs of Brass Eye and Little Britain. I had forgotten how good the first TV series of Little Britain was – it was nice to see what the folks of Britain, Britain, Britain, have been up to…

East Jerusalem.

One thing that concerned me a little before coming to Palestine was that my playing might deteriorate over the course of my time here. I’m glad that this isn’t going to happen – so far I’ve done more practice than I have for a while. Being in a college atmosphere, I’ve felt the urge to get out some of the old study books and give my playing a bit of an MOT, and it feels good to be back in that frame of mind.
Today I set out to phone each of my students to organise lessons for the coming week, and I had expected that scheduling it all would be a bit of a headache. To my surprise just about everyone could do the day and time that I wanted, and therefore everything fell into place nicely. It’s quite a contrast to the response I had become accustomed to at home, that little Jemima can’t do any day this week because she has ballet/horse-riding/art class/free-diving, etc. The students here seem to be committed and willing to learn in a really good way. To add to my delight, when I called Bethlehem to get the phone numbers of my students there, the secretary simply said, “I’ll call them.” And that was that.
I nearly broke the key to my flat this morning as I opened the door, and was lucky to get in without leaving half the key in the lock. So, after I was done at the conservatory Jihad took me to a place to get a new key cut, before dropping me back home. On our way home we passed a bar called Borderline; so called as it stands on the old pre-1967 line between Israel and Jordan, now of course well within Israeli controlled territory. Apparently it’s a good place so I might go there sometime soon, I feel like doing some socialising because so far most of my time has been spent by myself and although I quite like that, I do need a bit of human contact too.

9th September 2007.

East Jerusalem.

I considered going over to Tel Aviv for a day on the beach today, but decided instead to visit the two glaring omissions from my explorations of the Old City to date – The Temple Mount and The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
On my way to the Old City, I finally got my local simcard, having unlocked my phone yesterday, so now I’m much more contactable and look forward to being able to answer the phone again.
I walked round to the Temple Mount on the Ramparts Walk, beginning at Jaffa Gate on the West of the city. For about £2 you can walk round one or other half of the Old City along the tops of the walls, gaining good views outward as well as a good sense of perspective inwards.

When you’re down amongst the bustle of the narrow city streets it’s difficult to judge where you are and how far you’ve walked, so it was nice to view it all from above – especially as I seemed to be the only one up there.
When I got round to the Temple Mount I reached where the map shows the one and only entrance for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount and there seemed to be some work being done as it was closed off, and therefore I couldn’t access it. There are many gates into the Temple Mount area, but only one for non-Muslims so I headed off towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
So far, I’ve not really picked up on the famed spiritual power of Jerusalem, for around the city the people seem to get in the way of it, but within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the atmosphere was unavoidable. The architecture is impressive, though not any more so than some of the great European churches and cathedrals. But as soon as you enter, your senses are provoked – incense hangs in the air, candles glow out from the dimly lit space, creating an apparent aura around the gold and silver covered decorations. But more than just the physical space, the building is filled with the tension of hundreds of faithful worshipers fulfilling a life’s desire to visit the site of Golgotha, the very place where Christ was crucified. From the sombre, deeply affecting atmosphere inside that building, on leaving, your first breath of fresh air is catharsis indeed.
Unfortunately, I’m likely to find it difficult to get inside Al Aqsa Mosque – I need to ask the right people to find out whether it can be done, as it would be a fascinating place – in many ways the same as the Church just down the road, but in many more ways I suspect, very different.