Muslim Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem

Tuesday night till Thursday night I stayed at my cousin's house in the Muslim Quarter. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be scary or not, because I don't know if most people are scared or not. And even if they are, is that "normal" to be scared in your own country?

Jews living in the Muslim Quarter have security around them 24/7. each complex where Jews live there's also a guard that sits in a booth there and looks at the cameras and watches who comes and goes and also checks the premises. Then there are also guards to escort the families through the streets and protect them from Arabs. Being that my cousins live there it entitles me to escorts too. Usually I don't use them though and just walk myself. Sometimes it's better to have escorts. I'm not sure when though. Maybe at certain times of night when Arabs are just out and about. once it gets past a certain time though I don't think it's so bad. I've been out at all hours. At night before 1 am is probably when you would want to walk with guards. after that I really don't think it's so bad. But then again, it's just me. I also think it's different for a girl than a guy. Guys are targets for getting killed. I think women would be more of a rape target or something. Either way, I don't let my friends walk alone.

Thursday night I decided that I had time to visit a friend before the buses stopped running, so I walked to the bus stop near the Shechem Gate. Shechem Gate is at the end of the street that my cousins live on which goes from the Western Wall courtyard all the way through the Muslim quarter. I was talking on the phone when I noticed an Arab man in front of the that was staring at me. Usually I'm not so bothered by Arabs staring. For some reason this guy really annoyed me. He was walking ahead of me and slowed down and kept looking, so I paused my phone conversation and told him in Hebrew "Excuse me! Do you have a problem? What are you staring at!" Yes, there was plenty of chutzpah in there. He got mad and started cursing, and i don't even remember what he said except he was like, "just pass already!" I didn't like that, and I said something to him about his cursing and walked by him and went back to my phone conversation. My friend said it was the first time she's ever heard me get mad. Well, I wasn't really so mad, it was partially an act. Me mad would be kinda scary... But it got my point across to the Arab enough I guess.
Later that night on my way back I was waiting at a meeting place for two guards to walk me to my cousin's house and twice Arabs noticed me and started talking to me. I don't understand, they don't get it that we don't like them? Or maybe there are enough Israeli girls that go with them that they figure it's worth a shot? So first an Arab man sees me just stop walking and stand there, so he asks me if I need help. It could be that he really meant to help me out. I wouldn't know. I just shook my head and after he asked twice he just kept going. So then I'm sitting there and some stupid Arab guy walks by and sees me sitting there so he comes over to me and asks me the time. I don't think I even looked at him when I shrugged my shoulders in an I-couldn't-care-less-about-you kind of way. He gave a laugh as he walked away and I think he said thanks maybe, but I don't remember that well.

My friend didn't have any plans for Yom Kippur so I wanted her to stay with my at my cousins' since they were going away anyway and we would have the place to ourselves. At first she was really scared about it, but after talking to some friends she called me back and told me she would come. Apparently she spoke to one friend that asked her if she trusted me. She said yes, and then her friend said, "ok, so if you trust her and she doesn't do anything stupid..." ok and then my friend started cracking up. I do stupid stuff even though she trusts me. :D
She came to the Muslim Quarter for Yom Kippur and even brought a friend along.
So for the first time she was walking through to get to my cousins' house I had guards with us. After that we didn't use guards until after Yom Kippur. My friend said she thought it was okay to go without guards. I thought that was pretty awesome since she was petrified of the Muslim Quarter before she came to visit me.
It's beautiful to think that now she isn't afraid of the Arabs and now it's another Jew that can Walk with their head up in the Muslim Quarter.

There's a new Sephardic shul that I went to pray in today for the end of Yom Kippur and someone told me that it was the first time it was being used. It isn't complete yet on the outside, but the sanctuary where the prayers take place is stunning. The outside is still being worked on. I was told that it hasn't been used in 80 years. Neturei Karta people used to pray there. I'm glad we have it now!

For some reason today Arabs were talking to me. As I walked by an Arab on the street waved to me and my friend and said over and over (probably because we weren't responding to him) "Hi! What's going on!" Wow, he was so weird! Then another Arab told me to have an easy fast as I was going into my cousins' complex. And when I left he saw me again and asked when the fast was over. I didn't know so that made it easy and I just turned my palms up and shrugged. I thought that was not too rude and not too nice at the same time.

On my way out of the Muslim Quarter I went with my friend and she wanted guards so we got guards. I was a bit nervous about missing my bus, so when the guards said that they needed to wait and get some guys from the yeshiva (Ateret Cohanim is the yeshiva in the Muslim Quarter) I wanted to just continue on my own. When a group of guys left the yeshiva and were going where I was going I left my friend with the guards and went with them. Then they had to wait two seconds while their friend ran to get something and I just kept going on my own. As I was two seconds away from the security place I walked by some kids hanging out on the street. Two kids were throwing a stick and as I walked by one of them tried to throw it at me. I just turned around with an evil cold stare, and the kid that I think threw it pointed at the other kid and said "he did it!" The kid was scared. Then this other kid that was there noticed that I stopped walking and started making retarded sounds and faces and was just really stupid and annoying so I just left. It's hard to bully a kid, even though really I should have scared them to teach them not to start up with Jews. Maybe next time I'll have a better idea. I just can't believe the kid was stupid enough to throw the stick at me. Then my friend told me that a guard saw that the kids bothered me so when they walked by he pointed at one of the kids and told him to come. My friend said that one kid ran and one said "what?" in a scared way. The kids were just so pathetic...

I think I should have done something scary to the kids to that they would learn not to mess with Jews. I know that they're not learning that at home or in school but being that kids are so impressionable I think it would have been a smart move.