When I walked out the door of our compound this morning (Schmidt’s College opposite the Damascus Gate) I could not enter the street because of a police checkpoint blocking the door. I tried to ask what was going on but my Hebrew is extremely limited and they spoke just a tiny bit of English. I then asked if I could pass, and they said yes. Asking again if it is safe, the police woman conferred with a superior and then said ”don’t know”. Okay...

Afterwards I realised that this was a routine check point set up every Friday to check the Palestinians going to the Old City to pray in the Al Aksa Mosque. 30 meters closer to the Damascus Gate there was an even bigger security check.The guy on the picture was stopped just outside my door and had to turn around again, not allowed to pass. Later I heard that the policy is to only allow Palestinians over 43 years of age to pass, keeping the risk for violent  riots at a minimum. Tourists like me can of course pass without any problems.

 

The fear of suicide bombs and violence affects everything here. Wherever you go there is a security guy in the door. When we went to a nice bar/restaurant yesterday (Caffit in the German district) the security guy asked if we carried any guns. Being Swedish I was rather surprised, but this is of course a small USA with the difference that the some of the Israeli Jews are much more well armed. When I strolled around the Old City the other day I met a bunch of teenage guys in shorts and t-shirts. No strange there except that they were all carrying loaded M16 automatic assault rifles and kippas (the small piece of cloth many male Jews have on their head). They were not in uniform, just a bunch of eighteen-something guys.

The kippas are important though. If they would have been young arab guys carrying a weapon in public they would probably have been gunned down immediately by soldiers, police or civilans. Scary stuff.

But you get used to everything, it becomes part of the normal everyday life. Like all the concrete and steel pillars outside hotels, banks etc to protect against car bombs, or the fact that every little place in the Old City, even churches, seems to have robust steel doors. And that there are police officers everywhere checking ID cards on all arabic looking people. Such is the daily life of Jerusalem.