Jews buying property in the Arab Quarter

B"H

Already last Sukkot, I did the tour but decided repeating it. And, in fact, Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim was offering the same free tour again on this Chol HaMoed Pessach. Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim is a national religious Yeshiva located in the Arab Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. Ironically right next to the Christian Via Dolorosa.
Some consider the Yeshiva and its more than 200 students as extremely right wing and those opinions are probably right. Rosh Yeshiva (the Head of the Yeshiva) is the famous Rabbi Shlomo Aviner.

The weather was hot on Pessach, and thus we had the ideal weather for making all kinds of trips. Israelis just love to tour around on Chol HaMoed; no matter if it is Sukkot or Pessach. As an ordinary tourist you should never make the mistake traveling to the Dead Sea, Eilat or the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) when Israelis occupy every centimeter (inch) of free beach space. You are definitely going to loose the battle and thus rather concentrate on going after Chol HaMoed. And every time, Jerusalem's Old City is among the big attractions. Thousands of visitors walk through the Jewish Quarter in order to get to the Western Wall (Kotel). The majority of those visitors is either national religious, litvish or chassidic. And especially the religious don't bring any income to the Arab merchants. There are basically two reasons for religious Jews not buying too much from Arabs. The first reason is that nothing in the other Quarters of the Old City (Arab, Armenian or Christian) is kosher for Pessach. Secondly, there is something called "Ideology" which is extremely important to the national religious. None of them wants to buy anything from the enemy.

A huge sign was hung up right of the tunnel leading from the Kotel into the Arab Shuk (market):
"Tour through the Moslem Quarter by Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim. Free of charge".

Our guide's name was Avi'ad and he is a student at Ateret Cohanim. He carried a head phone and including a loud speaker when he led us through the tunnel right into the Arab Quarter. Avi'ad was in his early Twenties and his reddish hair and beard were cut short. We were about 20 participants including children and their parents, religious as well as secular, Sephardi as well as Ashekenazi. By the way, it seemed that I was the only one not being born in Israel. Officially our tour began outside the tunnel. We turned right and after a few meters stopped at the relatively new Yeshiva of the Breslover Rabbi Eliezer Berland. Rabbi Berland became famous in Breslov because he founded a new Baal Teshuva movement and the necessary study institutions.

Ateret Cohanim is, as mentioned before, not run by Breslov but by the national religious settler movement. Within the past years, the Yeshiva bought quite a few Arab houses in the Moslem Quarter. Usually the deals are made secretly in order not to endanger the life of an Arab who agrees to sell his property to Jews. Other Arabs would surely kill him for that and Ateret Cohanim even provides shelter and new names for such people. The main goal of Ateret Cohanim is to renovate the houses and then put Jewish families inside. This way, slowly slowly the Arab Quarter is becoming more Jewish or at least the Arabs cannot deny a Jewish presents.

One could argue that all those actions are illegal and unfair. Unfair to the Arabs trying to turn their quarter into something Jewish and thus causing more tensions. But what might be even worse – what about the Jews moving in ? Aren't they putting their kids into danger ? Every single day these kids are confronted with the danger of terrorism and have to fear for their lives. How can parents take such risks ?
As I already said, our first stop was the Yeshiva of Rabbi Eliezer Berland. And it was there where Avi'ad explained us that once the Arab Quarter was full of Jewish inhabitants. Several hundred Jews used to live there before the Moslem riots started in 1929 and 1936. Jews used to built and live in Yeshivot and when you pay attention today, you can still see the signs of former Mezuzot. Already in 1929, the Moslems decided to make their quarter "Judenrein" (Nazi expression for "Free of Jews"). They started building more and more mosques and told the Jews to leave. Due to the uprising danger, the Jews got scared and many moved to the Jewish Quarter. Others who didn't were killed by the Moslems in Pogroms. At that time, the British were occupying Palestine and as we all know, British soldiers didn't anything to protect Jews from Arabs. In order not to causing tensions, the British let the Moslems do whatever they wanted and kept quiet. The same happened when the Pogroms in the Old City took place.

However, Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim sees different meanings in their actions by buying Arab property. The first reason is that more and more religious Jews should settle inside the Arab Quarter in order to make Jerusalem more Jewish. And doesn't Israel and Jerusalem belong to the Jews anyway ? What do the Moslems want here at all ? They have no right whatsoever to be here ? It is extremely important that Jews walk through the Arab Quarter because otherwise the Arabs might think that they won. The more Jews they see in their areas, the more they realize that war is not over yet and that the Jews will always be around; no matter what.
I have to admit that I admire this way of thinking and personally consider these Jews doing this as very brave. I am anything but a frequent visitor of the Arab Quarter, as I cannot stand the mentality there. However, I could not live with all the security around me. Walls, high fences, guards and cameras. Every Jewish home in the Arab Quarter has a camera at the entrance. No one is going in and out without be checked thoroughly.

Someone in our tour group asked why there are hardly any Mezuzot in the doorways of the Jewish property. Avi'ad responded that the Mezuzot would only last for a few hours. If at all. The Arabs would just pull them off and throw them into the garbage. This has happened countless times before. Someone else from the tour group had a useful suggestion; why not putting the Mezuzot right into the concrete of the wall. Thus it would be impossible pulling them out.

Our route was very different from the one I took last Sukkot. This time we even went to the Armenian Quarter where I found out that the famous Israeli Youth Hostel in the former Bikur Cholim building doesn’t exist anymore. Instead it was turned into a Yeshiva. Today's Bikur Cholim Hospital in Strauss Street was originally founded in the Old City. One of the first Jerusalem hospitals was actually founded by Christians but when they started missionizing Jews, religious Jews founded the Jewish Bikur Cholim Hospital as well as Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. Today both hospitals are to be found in the new city.

Throughout the whole tour, Avi'ad showed us all the signs of former Jewish life in the Arab Quarter. We climbed over roofs and small stairs which was actually quite adventurous. We visited two Jewish houses where the kids of the family greeted us with cold drinks. In this heat we were all more than grateful for this. And whoever thinks that those kids living there must be scared is wrong. Those kids are more brave than most of us. They know how to live with the permanent danger and later in their lives, they become excellent soldiers in the army. They follow their parent's ideals and Oi Vavoi, a Palestinian is getting too close to them.

At the end of the tour, we watched a short documentary about the Israeli army winning the Six – Day – War in June 1967. The army conquered the Temple Mount (Har HaBait) and kicked out the Jordanian soldiers. But then Moshe Dayan made his famous mistake. He gave the keys to the Temple Mount back to the Moslems. What would have happened if he had not ? Would Meschiach have come ? Or was it just not the time yet and G – d caused another reality ?

Whatever the answer might be, one thing seems to be very clear: Ateret Cohanim inspires many tour participants to think. Even the secular and left – wingers suddenly realize the situation in Jerusalem's Old City and the Arab danger. And after the tour most people know that they won't vote for Olmert again. Israel is better off without him and his corrupt government.