Chapter 24 20 Jerusalem

Holy places are not for sale. — "Bible Old Testament" On the day I came back from the Negev Desert to cover the Israeli armored forces exercise, I wanted to send back a few fax photos of the Israeli military exercise, but the international long-distance call from Jerusalem to Beijing could not be connected anyway, so I was so anxious that I scratched my head and scratched my head with four photos.In desperation, I dialed the Israel International Telephone Bureau. When I heard that I wanted China, the operators were very pleasantly surprised and said in English: "Please wait a moment, please wait a moment." Suddenly, I felt kind to the receiver. Chinese: "My name is Olite, and I will help you pick up Beijing right now."

When I got back to my room at night, I received a note from a hotel waiter: "Please call Miss Olite at 244101. She is the person who spoke Chinese with you this morning." Sade female spy.I dialed the number on the note, and the call went through. "I'm Olite, please wait for me in the lobby. My friends and I want to meet Chinese people from Beijing." The clear Chinese made me feel like I had returned to Beijing after fighting alone for more than two months. In the lobby on the first floor, the beautiful girlfriend I met on the phone has already arrived. Her legs are so long that they seem to grow directly on the shoulders.Olite in Hebrew means "light".Olite and her three female companions warmly invited me to the dance that night.I said I'm sorry, I never dance, I only talk about the mountains.They immediately changed their minds and started asking a series of sincere but stupid questions about China.

Olite is a student of the Department of Language and Literature of the Hebrew University. She once studied Chinese at National Taiwan University and is now returning to China to study as a graduate student.In his spare time, he worked as an operator at the telephone exchange to earn money.Olite's biggest dream is to climb the Great Wall.These girls told me that a young man here went to China to climb the Great Wall a year ago and also went to Tibet.After returning, he wrote a book about his experience in China, and became a hero in the hearts of Israeli youths.It is a pity that this young hero suffered from a strange disease from Tibet and unfortunately died young.Speaking of this, all the girls in this group burst into tears, like a group of red-eyed white rabbits.Seeing that they liked China so much, I told them about my experience of following the famous Chinese Great Wall photographer Cheng Dalin from Badaling to Shanhaiguan in 1987, about tracking wild giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains in the winter of 1988, and about how no one was on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 1990. Exploring the district... I heard them staring, as if I was St. Paul.Olite also said that she really wanted to make a TV film about China, and asked me if I would like to join the team.I said that I could no longer be with such a beautiful female "God's chosen people".According to Judaism, the Jews are God's chosen people (Chosen people).

The next day, at the invitation of Olite, I came to their residence in QueenHelennyNo.5.She shares this apartment with a girl who studies architecture. The brightly colored objects in the room create an atmosphere of surprise and happiness, filled with the unique atmosphere of college female dormitories.The girl who studied architecture was squatting on a chair with her legs crossed to draw a picture, and she grinned at me when she saw me coming in. Olite showed me the black-and-white photos she took, most of which were placed in eight inches, mostly of scenery, old people and children, and then she showed me her commemorative photos in Taiwan.Her house is full of Chinese goods.Hanging from the ceiling is a huge oil-paper umbrella, which depicts the story of Master Bodhidharma facing the wall for ten years.On the ground is a huge black mattress, on which Zhang Xinxin's "Peking People" and "Interesting Chinese Characters" are thrown.She said that these were all bought when she was studying abroad at National Taiwan University.I said that to learn Chinese, you have to go to Peking University. Liulichang in Beijing is the most famous for its calligraphy and paintings, such as Rongbaozhai.

Looking out from Olite's window is a Russian Orthodox church with a sky blue roof.Next to the church is a police station surrounded by barbed wire.I pointed to the hundreds of people queuing up on the promenade at the entrance of the police station and asked her what they were for. Olite said they were waiting to visit the prison. These people were all Palestinians, and their relatives were "arrested for participating in terrorist activities." .Olite blamed me and said: "Why are you so boring, you have lost all my interest." It dawned on me that I was going to visit the holy city today.

Jerusalem is a holy city that combines the Bible and Hollywood.This world-famous ancient city has always been regarded as the common holy land of the three major religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.It is located on the top of the Judea Mountains in central Palestine, at an altitude of 790 meters, and its residents are mainly Arabs and Jews.The city covers an area of ​​about 160 square kilometers and was called Jebus City in ancient times. Around 3000 BC, the Canaanite Jebus tribe moved from the Arabian Peninsula and settled here, hence the name "Jebush".According to legend, in 1020 BC, the first Hebrew kingdom was established in Palestine. During the reign of Jebus King Melchizedek, he established the capital and named it Jerusalem (Jerusallem), which was later Jerusalem. The word "Jerusalem" comes from Hebrew, meaning "City of Peace". The Jews built large-scale temples here successively and became the political and religious center of ancient Judaism. Si", that is, the holy city.

Jerusalem is divided into east and west districts. The west district is a newly built urban district since the 19th century, with a unique layout and beautiful scenery.The Eastern District includes the old city with many religious relics, which is twice the size of the Western District.The old city has experienced war trauma and has been rebuilt and repaired as many as 18 times since it was built.In 1049 BC, it was the old city of the ancient kingdom of Israel under the rule of King David.In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Neo-Babylon (present-day Iraq) captured the city and razed it to the ground.In 532 BC, it was invaded by King Persia Darius.After the 4th century BC, Jerusalem was successively attached to the kingdoms of Macedonia, Ptolemy, and Seleucid.When Rome captured Jerusalem in 63 BC, they expelled the Jews from the city.The tyranny of the Romans against the Jews in Palestine caused four large-scale uprisings. The Romans carried out bloody suppression, massacred more than one million Jews, and a large number of Jews were plundered to Europe and became slaves.The Jews who survived the catastrophe fled abroad one after another, mainly to today's Britain, France, Italy, Germany and other regions, and later to Russia, Eastern Europe, and North America in large numbers. From then on, the tragic history of Jewish diaspora began.In 636 AD, the Arabs defeated the Romans, and since then, Jerusalem has been under Muslim rule for a long time.

At the end of the 11th century, the Pope and European monarchs launched many Crusades in the name of "recovering the Holy City". In 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, and then established the "Kingdom of Jerusalem" here, which lasted for nearly a century. In 1187, the Arab Sultan Saladin defeated the Crusaders in the battle of Hedian in northern Palestine and regained Jerusalem.Jerusalem was under Ottoman rule from 1517 until World War I. Allied forces occupied Jerusalem in 1917. It has been "managed" by the United Kingdom since 1922. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine, stipulating that Jerusalem be administered by the United Nations.

After the outbreak of the first Middle East war in May 1948, Israel immediately occupied the west side of Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem as its capital in 1950.The eastern part of Jerusalem was then controlled by Jordan. During the third Middle East war in 1967, Israel then occupied the whole city. In July 1980, the Knesset passed a bill designating Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital.This move has aroused strong reactions from the Arab world and international public opinion. What's more interesting is that according to their own legends, the three major religions all regard Jerusalem as a holy place.

In the 10th century BC, after Solomon, the son of the king of ancient Israel, succeeded to the throne, he built the first Jewish temple on Mount Zion in Lushaleng.The believers came here to worship God, and Jerusalem became the center of the religious and political activities of the ancient Jews.Mount Zion, where the Jewish Temple was built, thus became a holy mountain. Christianity emerged in Palestine in the first century AD.Legend has it that Jesus, the "Savior" of Christianity, was born in Bethlehem, a small town in the southern suburbs of Jerusalem. After he grew up, he spread the "Gospel" of God in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas.It is said that Jesus was resurrected on the third day after his crucifixion and ascended to heaven 40 days later.In 335 AD, when the Queen Mother Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I, toured Jerusalem, she built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the Crucifixion and the cemetery, so it is also a holy place for Christianity.

In the seventh century AD, it is said that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, came to Jerusalem from Mecca with an angel one night when he was 52 years old, stepped on a rock, ascended to the seventh heaven, received the apocalypse, and rushed back to Mecca at dawn.This miraculous "night travel and ascent to the sky" is recorded in the chapter on night travel.In this way, Jerusalem has become the third holy place of Islam after Mecca and Medina. There are three Sabbaths in Jerusalem, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the Sabbaths of Muslims, Jews and Christians respectively.Street signs and shop windows in the city are marked in at least three languages—Hebrew, Arabic and English, which are used by Jews. The long history of Jerusalem has left many religious holy sites. Almost all the names, events and related places mentioned in the "Bible Old Testament" and "New Testament" can be found in the city.On Mount Zion in West Jerusalem, there is the tomb of King David and the "Supper Room", which is said to be the place where Jesus held the "Last Supper" with 12 disciples on the eve of his crucifixion.There are more holy sites in the old city. There is an Islamic holy site in the east, which is located on Mount Morris, covering an area of ​​260,000 square meters.On the south side of the Holy Land is the magnificent Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the center is the gorgeous Sahlai Mosque (that is, the rock or holy stone mosque), four minarets towering into the clouds, a library and an Islamic museum.The Mount of Olives in the east of the city is another holy place for Christianity and Judaism, and cemeteries of different religions are scattered throughout the Mount of Olives. Turn from Queen Helenny Street to the Old City of Jerusalem.I wanted to enter the famous Damascus Gate, but Olite was determined not to do it because there were Arabs living there. She said she never went to the Damascus Gate since she was a child. Jewish Addition Gate.I had no choice but to follow behind her. The Old City of Jerusalem consists of four districts, the largest of which is the Southeast District, where all the Arabs live, and the famous Arab market is located on the narrow streets.Fresh fruits, vegetables and all kinds of unnamed Arabic snacks are sold everywhere.Cauliflower, oranges, and bananas are all two sheqs (one dollar) a kilo.Glittering jewelry shops are everywhere. The world-famous black-domed Al-Aqsa Mosque stands side by side with the resplendent Holy Stone Mosque.The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest mosque in Islam after the Holy Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. "Aqsa" means "extremely far" in Arabic, and the name comes from the legend of the miraculous night tour of the seven heavens by the founder of Islam, Muhammad.The temple was first built in 709 A.D. in the era of the Malik Caliphate. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 780 A.D. and then rebuilt several times.The main building of the mosque is 88 meters high and 35 meters wide, with 53 marble columns and 49 square columns standing inside.The dome and the north gate were additions in the 11th century. When the Crusaders occupied Jerusalem in 1099, part of the mosque was converted into a church, and the other part was used as the barracks and arsenal of the Knights of the Temple. In 1187, the Egyptian Sultan Saladin, who recovered Jerusalem from the Crusaders, ordered the mosque restored, rebuilding the shrine, embellishing the dome with a mosaic of colored stones, and installing a wooden pulpit inside the mosque. There is also a large rectangular mosque in the mosque - Omer Mosque (Omer is the second caliph after the death of Muhammad, the founder of Islam).The north gate of the mosque has a tall porch, which was built by Sultan Isa of the Ayu Dynasty in 1217. It consists of 7 independent arches, each of which is opposite to a door of the main hall of the mosque.There is a "Kas" pool in front of the mosque, and people often gather by the pool to perform wudu before worship (Xiaojing is a free translation of Arwen Wudu, originally meaning "clean and beautiful". After that, when praying, you must first wash your hands, face, elbows, mouth, nostrils, wipe your head with wet hands, and rinse your feet, etc. If you go to the toilet, you must also wash your lower body, commonly known as "cleaning". The above are collectively referred to as wudoo.) . The Israeli military police check the Arabs entering the mosque at the gate. Young Arab men must mortgage their ID cards to the military police in exchange for a white card before they can enter.Olite didn't dare to approach, and kept urging me to leave, as if this was the entrance to hell. Close to the west wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, there is a tunnel about 50 meters long. Israeli soldiers with Ghalil rifles and bulletproof vests are checking the vegetable basket of an Arab woman at the entrance. Kindness" is the word to describe it.But the girl stared at the muzzle of the gun silently and affectionately.A soldier glanced roughly at my camera bag and let me and Olite go.Passing through the tunnel is the famous Jewish holy site - Wailing Wall (Wailing Wall, also known as the Western Wall). Olite told me that in the 11th century BC, King David of ancient Israel unified the various tribes of Judah and established the Kingdom of Israel with Jerusalem as its capital.In the 10th century BC, King David's son Solomon succeeded to the throne. It took him seven years to build the first Jewish temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the magnificent and magnificent Solomon's Temple.Solomon personally presided over the inauguration ceremony of the temple and prayed to the Lord God on behalf of all the subjects. This grand festival lasted for two weeks.The completion of the temple not only greatly increased Solomon's prestige, but also made Jerusalem a holy place of worship for the Israelites.Believers come here for pilgrimage and offering sacrifices in an endless stream, thus becoming the center of ancient Jewish political and religious activities.In 586 BC, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and burned the temple.It was rebuilt later, but it was burned down by the ancient Romans.The Arabs built the Al-Aqsa Mosque on this basis, and the only remaining wall of Solomon's Temple.But the Jews still cherish it, and this section of the wall is regarded as a symbol of Jewish faith and unity.It is said that when the Romans occupied Jerusalem, the Jews often gathered here to cry.Since then, for thousands of years, generations of Jews from all over the world often come here to cry, to express their thoughts of their homeland.This is similar to the sorrow of millet separation written in ancient China, so the wall is named "Weeping Wall".Today, on the Jewish Sabbath, thousands of people go to the Wailing Wall to express their condolences, pray, and stuff notes with wishes into the cracks of the Wailing Wall for God's help.Olite said that when she was a child, she often came here to peek at the Jewish wishing paper balls.At the invitation of Olite, I also secretly wrote my wish: "Be a good reporter, marry a good girl, and have a good son." I respectfully stuffed it into the Wailing Wall. The "Wailing Wall" has an iron fence to separate the men and women who come forward. Several "Jews in black" dressed in black, with pigtails and two long ropes behind them, yelled Shabbath (Sabbath) at me. A group of six The seven-year-old pointed to the camera on my body and said "Sabah" quite seriously.A group of "Jews in black" surrounded Orit shouting and making strange faces.I was puzzled and asked what happened to Olite, but she blushed and refused to tell.After I asked her again and again, she said that they were calling her, very ugly words, because she took pictures on the Sabbath. "Sabah" means "rest" in Hebrew, and it is a "holy day" in Judaism every week.According to reports, God instructed Moses: The Israelites should work for six days and rest on the seventh day as a covenant with God; anyone who desecrates the holy day should be punished by death.Judaism stipulates that work should be stopped on this day and dedicated to worshiping God.Olite said that these "Jews in black" claim to be the purest Jews, and they only speak Hebrew and Idish (Yiddish, a language close to German).Authentic "Jews in black" have nothing to do but read scriptures and sleep with their wives, and their women work outside to earn money in addition to giving birth to children and doing housework.They do not work on the Sabbath, so we are not allowed to take pictures. In the Jewish residential area north of the "Wailing Wall", there is an exhibition area for relics recording Jewish history.Across the area is the famous King David's Tower.David, the ancient Israel-King of the Jewish Kingdom (about 1000 BC to about 960 BC), was originally the leader of the Jewish tribe, inherited Saul’s career, defeated Phillips, merged the northern part of Israel, and established a unified Israel - Kingdom of Judea.During his reign, he strengthened the state power, built a standing army, fought against the tribes east of the Jordan River, established the capital in Jerusalem, built gorgeous royal officials and the Temple of Jehovah, and tried to unify the religious beliefs. In the "Bible Old Testament", he is described as a hero who defeated the Philistines, unified Israel-the wise king of Judea, and is known as a musician and poet who compiled hymns for devotion. Further forward is the Jewish Victims Memorial, which commemorates the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust in World War II.Next to the memorial is the famous Tomb of King David.Again, photography is strictly prohibited due to the Sabbath. Walking out of the tomb of King David, I pointed to a small piece of wood on the door frame and asked Olite what it was.Because I found such small wooden strips on all door frames in Israel, even in modern Hilton hotels.Olite told me it was an ancient rune.In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II, king of New Babylon, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the kingdom of Judah, burned down the temple, captured a large number of Jews and returned, known as the "Babylonian Prisoner", and thus ended the last period in the history of the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. one page.In 64 BC, the cavalry of the Roman Empire broke into Palestine and imposed barbaric rule on the Jews. Most of the surviving Jews were expelled or escaped from Palestine and flowed to all parts of the world, thus ending the existence of this nation in Palestine. years of history.A large number of Jews went into exile in North Africa and were bullied by the Egyptians.Moved by the suffering of the Jews, God decided to punish the Egyptians with ten disasters.One of them was to kill the firstborn son of the Egyptians.God told Moses, the leader of the Jews, to put amulets on the doorposts of all the Jews so that their firstborn son would be safe.Later, Moses led the Jews back to Jerusalem, and the custom of the gods has been passed down to this day.According to records, when Moses led the Jews to conquer Egypt, God ordered the lamb to be slaughtered and the blood to be smeared on the lintel so that when the angel hunted down the eldest son of the Egyptian, he would pass by the house with blood, so it is also called "Passover". In the Christian residential area, Olite took me to see the place where Jesus met his mother, the tomb of Jesus and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the tomb of Jesus is located.The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, stands on the Calvari Hill in the Old City of East Jerusalem.Both the tomb of Jesus and the entrance to the tomb are within this church.Therefore, Christians, regardless of denominations and churches, regard Jerusalem as a holy place. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a priest in black asked me if I believed in Jesus?I shake my head.He asked if he believed in Muslims?I shook my head again. "Then what do you believe?" He stared at me with piercing eyes.I said that I believe in science, history, and the value of people.He took out a cross and hung it around my neck, and then asked, "My child, do you have any brothers or sisters?" I said I had a younger brother and a younger sister.He took out two more crosses and stuffed them into my hand: "Jesus bless you." Then he reached out and asked me for 30 sheks ($15).I said, "I put all my money in the taxi." He immediately took back the three crosses he had just given me in the name of God without hesitation. The granite walls outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are covered with slogans, as well as the flags of Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq, the largest of which is the Soviet Union's sickle and ax flag.Olite said it was all done by the Palestinians.I also visited the quaint King David Hotel, built of granite stones. Forty years ago, the former Israeli Prime Minister Begin, who was engaged in the Restoration Movement, used a bomb to assassinate 70 British people in the King David Hotel. Due to the heavy rain and lack of time, we were unable to go to the urban area of ​​the Armenian Church.The spring rain is like crisp, and Miss Olite is beautifully embarrassed in the rain, which blurs my eyes.Olite took me into a Christian church to shelter from the rain.There was no one here, and it was so quiet that we could hear each other's heartbeats. We sat on a row of benches silently facing God, everything was silent, and the world was pure.With my eyes closed, I enjoy the short silence of intense work, as if I have become a steam, rising, rising... Jerusalem, an ancient city for thousands of years, not only gave birth to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but also The magical and weird people here.In order to fight for this piece of land, blood flowed into rivers for thousands of years... No wonder the "Bible Old Testament" said: "Holy land is not for sale." Going west of Jaffa Gate in the old city of Jerusalem, you can see an old windmill and a patch of red houses.Olite said that this was the home of the first Jewish people who left the city.In ancient times, all the Jews lived collectively in the city, and only a few warriors dared to live outside the city. In memory of their bravery, these buildings have been preserved to this day.Now that area has been turned into a residential area for artists: "Because once people live there, they will have a creative passion." At dusk, I dragged my tired legs back to my residence.Tomorrow, I will bid farewell to Cyprus, and then return to Baghdad through Cairo.I added a snow-white vest with a picture of Saddam Hussein that Olite gave me in my luggage, and there was a letter in bold English: "When the Gulf War was raging, I was in Israel."