No Room for the Dead on the Mount of Olives

From thestar.com:

For the past 3,000 years, Jewish families have been bringing their dead to the Mount of Olives cemetery.

A maze of hillside tombs, this graveyard is the holiest place for those in the Jewish faith to be laid to rest.

Many Jews believe that when the Messiah comes to Earth riding on a white donkey, the dead will rise from their graves and walk to the holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.

From the Mount of Olives cemetery, that’s only a few hundred metres.

“Everyone in that cemetery is buried with their feet facing the Temple Mount so they come straight up and don’t even have to turn around. No one is going to get confused on the walk,” said Ira Rappaport, 67, who moved from New York to Israel 41 years ago and whose parents are buried in the cemetery.

“Some Jews also believe in a mystic interpretation of the scriptures that the dead roll over in the grave to get rid of their sins,” Rappaport said. “But because the land at the Mount of Olives is so pure, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Authorities have identified more than 150,000 burials here — the cemetery has been used for more than 3,000 years so there are surely other undiscovered plots — but administrators say new plots are becoming scarce.

In as few as 10 years, there will be no room for new graves, said Chananya Shachor, manager of the Jerusalem Burial Society, the largest of 13 societies that arrange funerals.

The rest of the article gives some more history and gives the price of a plot. It is interesting that the author connects the resurrection with Zechariah 9 and the Messiah on the donkey and not Zechariah 14 where the Lord lands on the Mount of Olives to save Jerusalem…

Cemetery on the Mount of Olives.     

Source

Israeli Military Base to be Built on Mount of Olives

The Way:

Plans by the Israeli Government  to build a military base on the Mount of Olives, have been condemned by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and secular commentators.

The area, which includes the site at which Jesus is believed to have been arrested, has sacred and historical significance in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is also in East Jerusalem, Palestinian land that is occupied by the Israeli army.

According to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, the building will cover 42,000 square metres and house colleges for training Israeli soldiers. Israeli citizens have until mid-December to object to the plans, although momentum is building for an international campaign.

Israel’s Ministry of the Interior declared, “The site that was eventually chosen is the optimal one, in view of its proximity to the university on the one hand and the possibility to contribute to the life of the city on the other”.

But Hagit Ofran of the Israeli group Peace Now insisted, “The location, at one of the most sensitive and disputed areas in Jerusalem, is a little more than provocative”.

She added, “One can’t think of Mount of Olives as real estate. It is important for the three monotheistic religions.”

At the base of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested prior to his crucifixion by the Roman imperial authorities. According to Luke’s Gospel, the Mount of Olives was also the site of Jesus’ final meeting with his disciples before his ascent to heaven.

There has been a Jewish cemetery on the Mount for over 3,000 years. A number of Jews have chosen to be buried in it in the belief that the resurrection of the dead will begin there when the Messiah comes.

Within Islamic teaching, a thin bridge will connect the Mount of Olives and the Haram A-Sharif (the Dome of the Rock mosque) at the end of days.

Ofran said, “On top of all this holiness, the Mount of Olives is under dispute between us and the Palestinians, and we will have to solve this dispute only through an agreement. Bringing the military academy to this spot is quite insensitive and if I may add, not so smart, of our government.”

Israeli peace campaigners have accused their government of fast-tracking the planning process for political reasons.
Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer specialising in conflict resolution, said, “I have received a number of phone calls from foreign governments saying, ‘What can you possibly be thinking? You are engaged in an act of self-ostracism.’”.

British Quaker Hannah Brock, who has previously worked on human rights issues in Bethlehem, has worked with other campaigners to set up a petition calling on the Israeli government not to go ahead with the plans.

She points out that the site is on occupied land, and adds that she would oppose a military base by any army or government on such a sacred and sensitive site.

She told news reporters, “A military college is yet another poignant and potent reminder of the militarisation and militarism of this ‘Holy Land’: the threats of violence, the visibility of machines that can hurt, maim and kill people, and the willingness to use them. The contrast in this place where Jesus was gathered up to heaven couldn’t be more stark.”

 

Hopes on the Slope to Jerusalem

Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah; both for Jews and for Christians.

Wayne Stiles in the Jerusalem Post:

People often ask me if I have a favorite place I’ve visited in Israel. “You  mean other than Jerusalem?” I usually reply with a smile.

No other city in history comes close to Jerusalem’s significance.

Others have had more power, more land, more people, more natural  resources—even more prestige—but none has more significance. And none  ever will.

Yet when you see Jerusalem for the  first time, you may wonder why all the fuss. Except for the Temple Mount with its golden Dome of the Rock, the city seems drab. No skyscrapers  pierce the skyline of Israel’s capital city. Only some scattered  antennae, towers, domes, cranes, crosses and crescent moons protrude in a tangled mess—like wheat and tares. Myriads of dumpy buildings and  uneven rooftops betray the hodgepodge of intentions each era has imposed on the city’s fixed spaces.

The tour group I  traveled with began the sharp descent from the Mount of Olives by  following a narrow road with high walls on either side. On top of the  walls, colored pieces of broken glass jutted up from the concrete as a  primitive barbed-wire fence. Immediately to my left was a sign: “Tombs  of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.” Although the first- century kokhim (shaft) tombs could not have belonged to  these sixth- and fifth-century B.C. prophets, I found it interesting  that Zechariah, who foresaw Israel’s King coming on a donkey, would  allegedly rest on the slope where his words found fulfillment.

The high wall on my left overlooked a vast Jewish graveyard—the largest in  the world. Literally thousands of white tombs give testimony to the  Jewish hope that when the Messiah comes, “His feet will stand on the  Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4), and those buried there will stand first  in line for blessing (see Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:11-15). Just last  week I saw a group of mourners surrounding a grave.

The high wall to my right enclosed the grounds of the Dominus Flevit  Church. The chapel’s name means, “the Lord wept,” memorializing the moment Jesus wept over Jerusalem (see Luke 19:41). The roof of the  quaint chapel resembles the shape of an inverted teardrop. I entered and walked to the altar on the right and the large arced window that frames the city of Jerusalem. The window’s decorative wrought-iron bars depict a cup, a loaf, thorns and a cross. A few potted plants and candles sat  on the sill. The capstone above the window supports a stone relief of  Jesus riding a donkey with his face in his hands.

As I stared out the window at the city over which the Lord had wept, it  seemed as though I gazed through a porthole of time. The wrought-iron elements of Jesus’ Passion overshadowed the city. I couldn’t see  Jerusalem without also seeing the cross.

As I  continued down the steep road, I had to marvel at the contrast on either side of me. One wall guarded the hope that the Messiah will come one day. The other wall guarded the belief that he already had come. Only a  narrow, steep road separated these two walls. Somehow the distance seemed much greater.

Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah—both for Jews and for Christians. The  Mount of Olives echoes these hopes from its slopes…

 

A Snow Storm from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem

Snow in Jerusalem! I’ll make this my pic of the day:

The Jerusalem Post also has more on the weather here.

 

Dominus Flevit, Where Jesus Wept over Jerusalem

Dominus flevit. In the middle of the Mount of Olives lies the Franciscan sanctuary that preserves the memory of the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. It’s also an important place for valuable archaeological evidence about early Christianity.

 

Olive Harvest at Gethsemane

At Gethsemane, in the place where Jesus prayed before he was arrested, the Franciscans carry on the tradition of the olive harvest with volunteers from all nations.

Me in Gethsemane last year. A really awesome place!

Olives of Jerusalem

Via Journey to Jerusalem:

There could hardly be a plant more important or more associated with spiritual themes in Jerusalem than the olive. If you encounter Arab children in tourist spots in Jerusalem, one will almost certainly give you an olive branch and request a donation. The ancient symbol of peace also symbolizes many other things in Israel.

They say you plant an olive tree for your grandchildren, not for yourself. This is because a tree requires twenty years to mature. The hard wood of an olive makes for a long-lived and resilient fruit-bearing tree. 

In Jewish scripture, the olive represents the holiness and purity of worship, as it says in Exodus 27:20, “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may be set up to burn continually.” And it represents the place of anguished prayer in Gethsemane the night before Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified: “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Mark 14:26). In the last days, we read that God will make Israel as beautiful as an olive tree (Hosea 14:6).