The Wall, the Prisoners' Museum, Al Quds University and the Arab Institute

Yesterday began with a tour of the wall and the Prisoners' Museum. I met up with Abed, our "tour Guide" and also Salah Ayaad, an elder of Abu Dis together with Christian group (I mentioned in an earlier blog) at 9am in Azeria. We saw how the main road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem has been cut by the wall, there no longer being a direct route but lengthy diversions around. Consequently what had been a thriving commercial centre has become blighted with abandoned shops. We viewed other parts of the wall where single houses as well as whole village communities had been divided off leaving some people on the west side (Jerusalem side) with green (palestinian) IDs who are not allowed to walk out from their own premises into the street, thus making them prisoners in their own homes. Some people on the east side who held blue IDs when the wall was built are in danger of losing them which would in effect make them stateless and having to take on Jordanian nationality. This is all very complicated but I guess you have got the idea of the difficulties the wall has caused. Before the wall(2002) it was possible to cross over the line on foot but now there is only one checkpoint to enter Jerusalem requiring a huge diversion from Abu Dis.

We then went to the Prisoners Museum - very interesting architecture designed to reflect prison life. Obviously this was quite grim viewing, both Abed and Salah had some horrific stories of their time spent as prisoners of the Israelis eg being shut in a "cupboard" only just big enough to hold a man sitting down and being left in it for 48 hours in the desert with temperatures rising to 50 degrees in the day and freezing temperatures at night!! However just as happened in S.Africa"s Robyn Island prison can also be an educational experience as professors, doctors etc are also inmates. There were examples of paintings and books that had been produced and published by ex-prisoners. I believe there are 80 people from Abu Dis presently being held in Isaraeli jails.

The museum is set within the campus of Al Quds University. This is very modern and newly built as the original university was sliced in two by the wall. It is very beautifully laid out with courtyards with fountains and landscaping between the different buildings. There are 10,000 students. The university accounts for the recent expansion of Abu Dis. There is a lot of new building. Old Abu Dis was a very quiet and clean village with solid houses built of stone many with the traditional domed roofs.

I enjoyed meeting the Christian monitoring group, two men, American and English, and 2 women from Norway and Sweden. They are here for 3 months as well so our paths are likely to cross again.

I then went to teach my first lesson at the Arab Institute - group of 14 year olds - very keen and polite. So I think we will get along fine together. I then went and had lunch at the house where the orpans live, meat stew and rice, quite a welcome change from my staple of humous, falefel and vegetables. Afterwards I taught this group of young scallywags, mostly 12 years old and we had a lot of fun even if it was a bit chaotic.