Friday, October 22, 2010
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Memorial Day in Jerusalem
Today being the occasion for Israel to honour its war dead, I strolled to the park at the end of our street in Jerusalem, overlooking the beautiful Valley of Sorek through which the Philistines marched up 3000 years ago to invade Judea, and were trounced by King David.
There, amid blue and white flags, sat hundreds of little children from the neighbourhood school. They held a very impressive and moving ceremony that concluded with a fervent prayer for peace. The children behaved with a dignity far beyond their years.
I then moved on to a small memorial nearby where clusters of mourners had gathered for prayers.
Here the names of four young neighbours are carved into a rock set in a little garden. They were all murdered by a Palestinian terrorist suicide bomber in a city bus on their way to work.
I went there to honour my neighbours and their sacrifice. Also to give thanks that my eldest daughter had missed the bus that fateful morning.
Today we rejoice in the grandson she has given us. Her life was saved because the battery went dead in her bedside alarm clock. She was late for work. But she is with us.
If I had been religious I might have seen the hand of God. As a secular Israeli-and hopefully still a rational one- I know it was pure chance that kept my daughter alive.
Such is the stuff of life in Jerusalem.
There, amid blue and white flags, sat hundreds of little children from the neighbourhood school. They held a very impressive and moving ceremony that concluded with a fervent prayer for peace. The children behaved with a dignity far beyond their years.
I then moved on to a small memorial nearby where clusters of mourners had gathered for prayers.
Here the names of four young neighbours are carved into a rock set in a little garden. They were all murdered by a Palestinian terrorist suicide bomber in a city bus on their way to work.
I went there to honour my neighbours and their sacrifice. Also to give thanks that my eldest daughter had missed the bus that fateful morning.
Today we rejoice in the grandson she has given us. Her life was saved because the battery went dead in her bedside alarm clock. She was late for work. But she is with us.
If I had been religious I might have seen the hand of God. As a secular Israeli-and hopefully still a rational one- I know it was pure chance that kept my daughter alive.
Such is the stuff of life in Jerusalem.
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