Chapter IV. The euphoria of pain

A group of Jewish extremists decided to storm the courtyard of the mosque, and as usual, clashes took place between them and the so-called Jerusalem Marabouts, groups of Jerusalemites who never evacuate the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, exchanging guard shifts among themselves.

They came close to the eastern entrance

– Mom there are clashes! Let’s go back

Just before he finished, a group of young men came out in the street behind them, another group threw stones at the soldiers in front of them. The clashes spread out of the square; soldiers started firing tear gas canisters toward them.

In the midst of this hustle, trying to get back into the car, one of the gas bombs fell next to them, and his mother almost fainted.

Help! Help!

screaming at the soldiers, but they are busy with what is more important to them

His eyes turned red, he could not see anything anymore, his tears flowed, a fit of dry cough, shortness of breath, blinded by gas, he carried his mother and started walking aimlessly, feeling one hand holding him, another hand helping him to carry her, a man and a girl took them away.

He could barely open his eyes when he spotted old houses, old neighborhoods, and narrow alleys, they suddenly stopped, and someone put a bottle of water in his hands. asking him to wash his face with it quickly, his eyes burned hard, while his mother was aided inside a parked ambulance.

Once the effect of washing his face with gassed water to reduce the effects of tear gas began to take effect, the blur began to clear from his eyes, tanned in place, at a medical field post in the center of an Arab neighborhood, surrounded by Arabs, his mother in an ambulance dedicated to the injured of Jerusalem Marabouts.

-Don’t worry, we are going to aid your mother.

A male voice, speaking English beside him,

He looked up at him, his sweat was dripping, and he did not say a word.

A girl got out of the ambulance.

-She’s fine, don’t worry, it is just a slight rise in blood pressure, caused by gas and fear, she has regained consciousness.

The man extended his hand trying to shake

– I’m Mousa

– Welcome, I’m Robert

– Seems that you are not from here! Are you a foreigner?

-Yes, British, and so is my mother.

-Mousa laughed: Do not be afraid, we will not harm you, even if you are an Israeli. Then he added: Why are you here?

Bumble, sweat more…

-Mousa: Uh, you must be Jews, right?

-Robert: No, we are not Jews, believe me. We are here for tourism only.

However, the prayers of his mother, who does not yet know her whereabouts in the ambulance, revealed everything.

-He turned to him, saying: Actually, my mother is Jewish, yes, but I hope you understand…

-Mousa interrupted him: I told you, sir, we will not harm you, but we have to get out of the street, not everyone here can understand what I do.

The injured started to flock to the medical point. There were people in need of an ambulance too.

-“Take them home”, she said, “There is no one there. I will catch up with you when I’m done here.”

Mousa led them as the mother realized her place, she remained fearful silent, 100 meters away amid the noise and cheers coming from the courtyards of the mosque, they turned to the right, entered a small alley, and then took a right turn, as if they were returning to the mosque! Before the end of the alley, they entered an old house and closed the door behind them.

Mousa: Act as if you are home.

And he headed toward the kitchen.

– The mother whispered in Robert’s ear: Are we kidnapped? where is my phone?

She started looking in her purse.

– Robert: Do not do anything, do not try to call anyone, they are friendly yet if they sense something or decide to hurt us, your call won’t do us any good, let’s just keep up with them.

Mousa brought a jug of water and put it on the table in front of them

– She is my fiancée and she is a nurse, people need her now.

-Robert: I hope she comes back well, what a nice house by the way!

-No, it is not my house, it is the house of her family and they are outside the city at the moment. I am from Hebron and I live there

– Are you here to visit your fiancée’s family?

Robert said out loud, trying to find out if Mousa was one of the marabouts in Jerusalem, for they were the fiercest against the Jews of all.

– Musa: Yes, and I was going with my fiancée to pray when the clash began.

He sighed and rested his shoulders and body for the first time in an hour that seemed like an entire century, and so did his mother.

Mousa turned his face away towards the window

-It’s the city of peace, the city of the prophets, but they do this with it, and he pointed at the smoke of gas coming from the courtyards of the mosque.

Robert and his mother remained silent, not wanting to provoke him. In fact, his mother would like to say you are the reason, it is ours, this is our promised land, and you stole it one thousand five hundred years ago.

-Robert: Sir, thank you for hosting us. Can we leave? Someone is certainly worried about us.

– Mousa: You can call and reassure them, but I do not recommend going out now, wait until the situation outside calms down. He was right

The mother quickly reached out to her bag and took out her phone. She asked:” I would like to call my husband.” Mousa pointed towards a room. She came in and closed the door.

Robert feels more secure, they’re not really kidnapped. This man saved them.

-He took the initiative: Why did this happen? How did it start?

-A group of Jews suddenly decided to storm the courtyard of the mosque, and those marabouts in its squares confronted them.

–suddenly! Didn’t they announce this before? It is customary to announce their intention!

– No, not at all. It all happened by chance. I think some of the worshipers at the Al-Buraq Wall got excited and decided to do this.

He seemed to have a look of subconscious disapproval, in the blink of an eye he tried to hide, and the reason was Musa’s naming of the Wailing Wall as Al-Buraq.

-Mousa got this, he said: no matter what the name is, Robert, it all started at that pile of stones.

He knows exactly why the Muslims call the wall Al-Buraq! Just yesterday this story was one of their jokes. When they spoke of their plans to visit the Wailing Wall, Muslims say their prophet Mohammed traveled in minutes from Mecca in Arabia, thousands of miles away, on the back of a creature that seems like a donkey sent by God, to Jerusalem in just a few minutes! He did some rituals there, something about prayer with the other prophets then ascended to heaven and returned that same night, what a crazy tale and this legend says that he tied his creature to the Wailing Wall or Al-Buraq as they call him, taking his name to them from the name of the creature, Buraq. It is derived from lightning, and it is indicative of its very high speed.

An undisguised lie of Muhammad’s lies yet believe him! Crazy Arabs, Flash Man! or lightning man! That’s how his mother used to name him, mocking him and his story.

-Mousa: What do you do?

-Robert: Currently studying.

-Oh really! Looks old enough to work, right?

– Laughing: Yes, I finished my Bachelor of Business Administration, and I am now studying physics.

-Mousa with enthusiasm: Physics?

-Yes, what is so strange about it?

– Lots of oddities. Have you studied the theory of Einstein?

– Of course, are you interested in it?

– Yes, and so was the Prophet of God, Mohammad!

-He tightened his eyes curiously and shook his head once, not understanding exactly what he was trying to say: Excuse me, could you please explain?

-Mousa laughed: We are standing in the first place where relativity was mentioned, don’t you know?

Robert remained silent with a look of astonishment on his face.

– He added: Rather, the first practical application of it that we knew was at that pile of stones, and he pointed his head towards the Al-Buraq Wall.

Robert smiled,” what is this madman saying”, and he started to get frightened.

Mousa: Yes, this land is full of strangeness and secrets, so do not be surprised.

His mother saved him from this astonishment when she stretched her head from the door with the phone still in her hand: Your father says, “Can this man drive us out of the neighborhood?”

He turned to him, and Mousa shook his head in agreement.

After a while, the girl came back: things have calmed down a little, it’s your chance to get out.

They left the house, passing through narrow alleys away from the eyes of intruders until they reach outside the neighborhood. He bid them farewell and turned his back when Robert’s voice called him out:

-Wait, please wait.

-He turned back: Yes?

-Robert: You didn’t give me your phone number; I guess I would like to return the favor. We should meet.

– It is my pleasure, you may visit me in Hebron, it is a beautiful city.

He drove his car to a hospital:

– You must check on your health, Mom.

-Mother: Yes, I think that would be better, I do not trust those Arabs, perhaps they did something to me without me knowing.

Going to a hospital in Jerusalem? A perfect opportunity to teach Robert a renewed old lesson of the suffering of God’s chosen people in his land, she shook her head in denunciation: they used its Jewish people’s need to force them to change their religion!

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and knew what she meant:

– It’s not the time, Mom, we have to check on you. I

-Indifference continued: They needed medical care, so they were treated in exchange for their conversion to Christianity.

-Wait, now you’re talking about my grandparents.

He joked in an attempt to soften the atmosphere

-Mother: Who gave them the right to invite people to Christianity after their treatment for free! They set up missionary hospitals everywhere, allocated them to the Jews, and made many of them change their religion in exchange for treatment!

-Robert: It is not like that, they just found a need and fulfilled it for them, then they tried to convince them and they did not force them.

-Mother: Didn’t they force them? Exploiting the moment of your need and weakness, then filling up your head with poisonous thoughts, is this persuasion?

She turned her face to the window: not persuasion, but soft coercion, minds-, seducing them with a mask of mercy.

In the 18th century, several missionary hospitals were set up in Palestine and Jerusalem, one of which had its old building not far from them, the English Missionary Hospital, set up in the Jewish quarter of the Old City in 1844, a century before the establishment of the State of Israel, close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, provided advanced health care at the time, specialized only in treating Jews, the aim was to persuade them to convert to Christianity, which is why people at the time called the Jewish Hospital.

Many refused treatments and all who entered it were boycotted, yet some turned to it. After waves of protest, the building was moved to Prophets Street in 1895, adjacent to which was a missionary school for girls; in 1969 it was moved again to Ein Kerem Hospital as Hadassah Hospital; the old hospital building was converted into a private school attended by the sons of diplomats; the building of the girls’ missionary school on Prophets Street was demolished and a hotel was set up, while the rest were returned to their original owners.

He always had a lesson in his story, or that is how she wanted it to be.

You must know, son, that exploiting the need of human beings to change their convictions in the mask of mercy and humanity is no different than changing their convictions with iron and fire. If the missionaries had been merciful and angelic, as they claimed, they would have been healed and it is over, without any attempts to persuade them to change anything. If their calling is true, why do they exploit people’s needs? What difference does it make if I torture you and cause you pain, then stop it after you change your conviction, or if you become ill, I prevent you from receiving treatment if you do not?

-She said, No difference. Either way, if you change your conviction, the pain will vanish, no matter why.

– But they did not stop them from receiving the treatment even if they refused to convert to Christianity.

-Poor you, they made their minds understand in an indirect way, that the demise of pain in embracing Christianity, and that Christianity is the cause of its demise.

Turn to him,

– you don’t know how vile they are, son.

-She smiled, and added, “Yes, yes, your grandparents. Don’t look at me like that.”

Perhaps the mother was right, as pain of all kinds, physical and psychological, has magic and ecstasy, which you do not feel until its demise. Rather, one of the methods of enslavement and gaining followers is by exposing them to pain, and then removing it, thanks to the master, so that they all become his slaves, and at his disposal.

What is the difference between this pain being the result of accidental, or intentional? The pain is the same, the ecstasy of its demise is the same, and the result is often the same.

Perhaps Robert himself is under the influence of unknowingly euphoric pain. He had just experienced a new kind of experience, frightening, gas bombs, bloody clashes, an Arab neighborhood, the horror of kidnapping, a medical point, salvation, and then safety!

After a moment of silence, she turned to him again! He just burst out laughing!

-What is wrong with you?

-Damn the theory of relativity!

Then another fit of hysterical laughter