Page 39 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - nr 6

Muro della preghiera, impropriamente detto Muro del pianto Basilica della Dormizione della Madonna
dietro di esso; guidano l’auto, e una volta, ad Haifa, una in the face, ask for passports and then let us pass. A normal
ragazza del nostro gruppo che aveva ascoltato la musi- control, certainly legitimate, in the name of security. But for
ca proveniente da un cellullare di un gruppo di musul- this wall and in the name of this security are divided cities
mane in gita, le ha pure coinvolte in una coreografia di like Bethlehem and Jerusalem that are only 8.5 km away. In
reggaeton. Poi però c’è un muro, quello vero. Se quello the name of this safety to cross the wall you have to travel
del pregiudizio è facilmente abbattuto, quello fatto di miles more, and if the checks, always in the name of security,
cemento trapassa l’anima e non lo si dimentica più. È il become more scrupulous, a person who has to go to work
muro che separa Israele dalla Cisgiordania ed è alto in beyond the wall does not know if he will have time or if you
realtà otto metri, mentre la sensazione è che voglia ar- even manage to pass the check-points. And if a child is in an
rivare fino in cielo per vanificare la straordinaria realtà emergency in Palestine and has to be urgently transported
che cielo e terra sono davvero congiunti. È la ferita più to Israel, where there are better hospitals (for a fee), there
drammatica e più forte inferta a chi ha dato la sua vita is a need for a Palestinian ambulance to take him to the
perché tutti siano una cosa sola. checkpoint and another Israeli ambulance to pick it up. Je-
rusalem is a hurricane of emotions: usually the first impact is
Quando si attraversa il check-point, un misto di stupore experienced by the Mount of Olives, known because it is
e tristezza ti pervade; i militari che chiedono informa- from here that Jesus went to the city on the back of a donkey,
zioni all’autista ci guardano in viso, chiedono i passa- when he made his triumphal entry welcomed by the crowds
porti e poi ci lasciano passare. Un normale controllo, in celebration (Mc 11.1 to 11). Here Jesus wept over the Holy
sicuramente legittimo, in nome della sicurezza. Ma per City and, according to tradition, taught the Our Father to
questo muro e in nome di questa sicurezza vengono the disciples: the Evangelist Luke remembers that Jesus of-
divise città come Betlemme e Gerusalemme che dista- ten came to pray on the Mount of Olives, both to spend the
no soltanto 8,5 km. In nome di questa sicurezza per at- night and to teach his disciples (Lk. 22,39). It is a height of
traversare il muro bisogna percorrere chilometri in più, about eight hundred meters, located just outside the city
e se i controlli sempre in nome della sicurezza si fanno walls of Jerusalem, east of the city and separated from it by
più scrupolosi, una persona che deve andare a lavorare the so-called Cedron valley, crossed by Jesus to reach Geth-
al di là del muro non sa se farà in tempo o se addirittu- semane after the last supper. From this height the landscape
that opens up to the visitor’s eyes is truly spectacular. Nine
doors open access to the holy city, each with its own history,
each with its own suggestion. The most famous, the Gate of
Damascus, leads to the Suq of Jerusalem, while from the Li-
on’s Gate one enters directly into the Arab quarter and from
that of Sion to the Armenian and Christian quarter. Here
one perceives the awareness not only of being in the city
of the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christi-
anity and Islamism), but of perceiving something that has
never been taken into account in life. A complex made up
of shops of craftsmen, spices, food, sweets, carpets, clothes,
photographs, music, perfumes of incense and myrrh that
mix with that of fried fish. It is here that the clichés are defin-
itively dismantled: the most important sign is the peaceful
coexistence of more cultures, the story is transformed into
everyday life. The sky belongs to everyone in the holy city.
And under the sky there is no distinction. You move from