Old City

Jerusalem Night Run

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 December 12, 2011 was the first run of the Jerusalem Night Run.

A sign in Mamilla Mall showed the way to the race starting point.

Maps of the route were posted,

as the run was not around the walls of the Old City, but on city streets.

Runners signed up and received an official yellow race shirt

in a special tent in the plaza outside Jaffa Gate.

A dry, but cold night, cups of complimentary hot tea were really appreciated.

An aerobic warm up to loud music for runners before the race,

got even more attention from the press when a Santa decided to loosen up.

As the last taxi left the Old City and the road was closed to traffic,

a blue carpet was laid to the official starting line.

Mayor Nir Barkat and his wife Beverly were front and center,

 but he was not smiling as he looked at his watch.

The 10 kilometer race was to start at 8:00pm “sharp”.

The runners were ready at the starting line on time,

but had to wait another ten minutes for the race to begin.

Over a 1000 runners ran to the starting line

and down the road on the Jerusalem Night Run.

The plaza area was mostly empty during the run,

 the tent with runners’  backpacks was full.

Most spectators did not hang around in the dark and cold

to watch for the runners to return.

The Jerusalem Night Run was advertised to be a warm up

to the Jerusalem Marathon in March.

Warm up…  now that sounds really nice.

More pictures from the Night Run can be found at this Facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288863494489796.67021.152997821409698&type=1

Mughrabi Bridge

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 The Mughrabi Bridge ascent to the Temple Mount

was destroyed by severe weather in 2004.

This temporary bridge was constructed

and is still in use.

It is the only way for non-Muslims to enter the Temple Mount

and is used by tourists from around the world.

For a while the lower part of the structure was covered with white fabric.

The women’s area near the Kotel, the Western Wall was made much smaller.

For some time now, engineers have said that the structure is no longer safe.

Yesterday the Prime Minister Netanyahu stopped a project, approved in March,

  to replace the Mughrabi Bridge with a permanent structure.

With the dark sky as background…

this is what the fuss is about,

this simple wooden ramp.

Jordan and Egypt have warned against proceeding with repair work.

There were rockets fired overnight from Lebanon into the North.

  Rocket fire from Gaza continues to threaten Israeli citizens in the South.

What is the greater threat to peace?

Demon Israel

rjstreets

What a brilliant piece of work by the anti-Israel PR machine,

demonize Israel and the media loves it.

As I watched the AP (they used to be press associated with news, now views)

report on the “Palestinian Freedom Riders” tweeted around the world.

I could only think of the talk by Professor Robert Wistrich,

Head of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The claim that Israel is “stealing of indigenous people’s land

by the colonial whites” is becoming respectable.

The liberal center and moderate left in Britain find it

  “legitimate to be anti-Israel” using this narrative.

What could be better than a comparison to the Old South in the US

and the non-violent resistance of black public bus passengers.

One photo of the ‘orchestrated arrest’ was used by Newsday for an item,

“Gaza Militants fire rockets after Israeli threat,”

so much for a balanced report of

 a Gazan missile hit on an Israeli kindergarten building.

One of the best views of the Old City

and Jerusalem is from the Tayalet.

On the tayalet, by the Sherover Promenade, at the Haas Promenade

at the time “Freedom Riders” were starting out,

two Muslim men were praying,

facing to Mecca with their back sides to the Old City and Jerusalem.

So many photographers were occupied “capturing” the bus publicity stunt,

they once again missed seeing

what is really happening on the Jerusalem streets.