He explained to me that the wailing siren indicated the area was
under an aerial attack and that everyone must take shelter. Most likely it was that
rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Ashdod which had been
picked up by their Iron Dome security system and the tracking system of Iron
Dome had predicted that Ashdod was under threat and had automatically activated
the alarms and we were all taking shelter in a bomb proof section of the
building. Gaza Strip is a narrow rectangular piece of land south west of Ashdod
by about 30-40 km and is entirely populated by the Palestinians.
He then asked
me to carefully listen out and in a couple of minutes I could hear a few booms
and he explained to me that this was the sound of their ballistic missile
defence shield
(Iron Dome) firing their missiles and guiding it to
intercept the incoming rockets, I was seriously impressed. We waited there for
about 15 to 20 minutes till the all clear siren went off and then we went back
to the conference room and continued the meeting as if nothing had happened. This
kind of an action happened another 3 times in those three days of meetings that
we had and each time it was the same protocol that we had to follow. I read in
the newspapers the next day that the
Derby missile which is part of the Iron
Dome had managed to intercept almost all of the rockets which had been fired
from the Gaza strip and had a success rate in excess of 90%, which was fairly
impressive and the casualties were in single digits.
Turkish coffee, which is strong, black and bitter with a
strong cardamom or hazelnut flavour. On the last day, we were given a choice of
a small outing, either the Dead Sea or Jerusalem. I instantly
opted for Jerusalem, since it was the fountainhead of 3 great religions of the
world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The drive to Jerusalem was
very interesting. The entire country is almost brownish in colour, fairly arid
and reminded me of Rajasthan. However, there are intensely green and well
cultivated and fairly large pockets where their villages were. The country seemed
to have excellent infrastructure and, in most aspects, reminded me of USA though
a much smaller version. I did notice, when we were crossing areas in the West
Bank, it almost felt like we were either ourselves in a prison or driving
through a path carved within a prison. On both sides of the highway was barbed
wire fencing, ironically it reminded me of Moses as he paved a path
between the waters of the sea, only here it was barbed wire fencing instead of
the sea.
Jerusalem is an undulating city, with small hillocks and
valleys and the main part of the city, at least the touristy part we were taken
to is in a bit of a valley. As you crest the hill, what stood out was the Dome
of the Rock, like a shining golden beacon. It is believed that it was here
that the Abraham offered his son Ishmael or Isaac (to the
Jews and Christians) to God as sacrifice. This is one of the
holiest sites for
the Jews, even though the Dome of the Rock is essentially a mosque, since the
Jews believe that this was the site of the
First and Second Temple and
God has manifested here more than anywhere else. The same compound also houses
the
Al Aqsa Mosque. It is believed to be one of the holiest sites of
Islam since
Prophet Mohammad is to have been transported to heaven from
here.
We climbed up an escarpment which led us to the Wailing Wall.
This is a very holy place for the Jews
and you can see a number of Jews almost leaning against the wall with their
eyes closed in prayer. It was here that I learned that Jews could be broadly
divided into two types, the religious (which has further subgroups amongst
them) and the secular. The religious Jews either wore long black
dresses with a
black top hat or a traditional dress (generally black) with a skull cap, a
yarmulke
(much smaller than the one the Muslims wear). Almost all of them have beards
and long hair. I noticed that many of these men had their hair in curls as they
fell by their cheeks, our guide explained to me that when these men study their
Talmud, it could get monotonous and their concentration tends to waver
and they doze off. To prevent this, they are taught to run their fore finger in
a circular fashion in their hair which tends to form curls. Interesting!!! Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t visit the
Dome of the Rock, nor the Al Aqsa mosque which adjoins it, as this is permitted
only on certain days. It was evening time and we could hear the
Azaan,
the call for the faithful Muslims to prayer, as a dashing bride in all her
finery hurried across the square along with her friends. In her wedding attire,
I couldn’t make out if she was Christian, Jew or Palestinian, whatever she was
she looked happy to embark upon a new phase of life. She bestowed a happy smile
upon us as I took a photograph and suddenly, I felt a touch on my elbow. It was
our guide reminding me that we still had another religion to witness.
The Via Dolorosa or the Path of Sorrow or Suffering as
the Christians call it is said to be
the p
ath taken by Jesus as he bore his own
Cross on his shoulders till Calvary where he was crucified. It is a narrow-cobbled
path hemmed in by stone buildings on either side. At each of the Stations,
there is a plaque which tells the details of what happened to Jesus at that
point. You can see a stream of solemn and quiet Christians, many of them with
walking sticks hobble along, feeling the pain that Jesus felt as he bore the
sins of his brethren. The Via Dolorosa finally led to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This again counts as one of the holiest sites of Christianity as
it is believed that Jesus was buried and resurrected here. For a place of such
importance in the history of Christianity, it is a rather non-descript
cul-de-sac. A fairly small building, one has to climb a few steps to enter. The
interiors of the church is at sharp contrast to its ordinary exteriors and consists
of richly painted walls and dome, the floor has dazzling marble and there are
many gold painted figurines of Mary and Jesus on the Cross. There
are elaborate lanterns and candle stands, with the air heavily laden with the
smells of myrrh and
frankincense. There
is a simple stone platform, on which
Jesus is believed to have been laid
to rest and I could see a number of reverent Christians as they silently wept
tears, both of sorrow and joy as they kissed the platform. I have seen this
kind of solemn prayer and the faithful immersed in self inquiry only at one
other place, the
Harmandir Saheb or the Golden Temple as it is more
famously known.
I was giddy with the sense of history which surrounded and
enveloped me as I realized that 3 of the major religions of the world jostled
with each other for space within a few hundred metres of each other, often
violently, throughout history, right up till today. The irony of the disharmony
between religions became all the more apparent as we climbed down the steps
from the Temple Mount. I saw a few bearded young men lounging around the gate.
One of them saw me, pointed me to the rest of his companions and exclaimed “Amitabh
Bachan, Amitabh Bachan” Though I felt ecstatic at being compared to India’s
silver screen God, I immediately realized that they meant Indian and I gave the
traditional Hebrew greeting of Shalom, meaning Peace. Instantly I
could see a mask of hostility, of dismay and resentment come over them and one
of them quietly replied “Salaam Alai Kum”, meaning peace be unto you.
I realized I had mistaken the Palestinians for Jews and wondered at the irony;
both the words meant peace but it was anything but………
We were seated in a conference hall
about 15 to 18 of us and if I remember on the 4th or 5th floor. The meeting was
going on and I remember that I was helping myself to a cup of coffee
from a machine kept on the side and one of the Israelis was briefing to us
using a PowerPoint presentation when all of a sudden there was a strange wailing
siren which went off. Each and every one of the Israelis reacted like as if they
had been shot up their butt, they all stood
up and much to our surprise the head of
the team shouted “drop everything and just run. Follow us”. We were like What??? He screamed loudly
“drop everything and follow us right now”. So we just left everything
and ran behind them. We all jogged down the corridor and went down about two
flights of stairs and into a corridor which connected two buildings and that is
where we came to a stop. We could see that it was filled with people and all of
them seem to be taking shelter over there so I turned to one of the people I
had made friends with and asked him what the hell was going on
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