After I had been in the Damascus Gate area for about fifteen minutes, watching all the activity, the Israeli police decided it was time to clear the steps. So, they went about doing just that.
I took pictures, in the first two photos, and you can see I am still lower down on the steps than the rest of the crowd, as the soldiers move people (again, mostly Palestinians) up the steps, out of the plaza, and onto the street above, outside of the Old City. Lots of pushing and shouting and shoving, with a little face-to-face challenge every now and then. Just your everyday conflict around this place, I supposed.
I felt like an outside observer. This isn't my issues. Just a guy from Hastings on a study tour, taking in the sites and the Friday afternoon confrontation.
Moving on to the two photos below. I now call the soldier with the headband and the green-striped vest in the bottom two photos ‘Tie Domie-stein’. (More about that later. Only John O'K and Wally will probably get the reference initially.) “Tie” didn’t know my background. Probably had no clue I was more on his side of the issue. About the time I finished taking the two pictures, he came to me and in pretty strident Hebrew said something. Not speaking Hebrew, I can’t tell you exactly what that may have been, but I don't think it was along the lines of "Welcome to Jerusalem, how are you enjoying the nice weather here?" Before I could say something about “Hastings, MN” or “Study trip”, he showed me how the military uses black batons to move people. No, I didn’t get hit or anything other than strongly pushed backwards with his baton. A little faster than I was planning on going, but I know he had his agenda and it was a little different than mine. No, I am not stupid, I do understand pleasant chats aren’t part of crowd control, and that you don’t argue with an Israeli soldier, ever. So I just let his cute little baton push me firmly up a few steps before I made the rest of the journey on my own. No harm, no foul. (Though it was with enough of a firmness that he sure would have been called for cross-checking in any hockey game I have ever seen. )
By the way, if you never have heard of famed NHL hockey fighter Tie Domi, here is one of his classic YouTube videos where he fights a fan in the penalty box a few years back. Almost looks like it could have been an afternoon skirmish today in Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECEsZVrbMA
I felt like an outside observer. This isn't my issues. Just a guy from Hastings on a study tour, taking in the sites and the Friday afternoon confrontation.
Moving on to the two photos below. I now call the soldier with the headband and the green-striped vest in the bottom two photos ‘Tie Domie-stein’. (More about that later. Only John O'K and Wally will probably get the reference initially.) “Tie” didn’t know my background. Probably had no clue I was more on his side of the issue. About the time I finished taking the two pictures, he came to me and in pretty strident Hebrew said something. Not speaking Hebrew, I can’t tell you exactly what that may have been, but I don't think it was along the lines of "Welcome to Jerusalem, how are you enjoying the nice weather here?" Before I could say something about “Hastings, MN” or “Study trip”, he showed me how the military uses black batons to move people. No, I didn’t get hit or anything other than strongly pushed backwards with his baton. A little faster than I was planning on going, but I know he had his agenda and it was a little different than mine. No, I am not stupid, I do understand pleasant chats aren’t part of crowd control, and that you don’t argue with an Israeli soldier, ever. So I just let his cute little baton push me firmly up a few steps before I made the rest of the journey on my own. No harm, no foul. (Though it was with enough of a firmness that he sure would have been called for cross-checking in any hockey game I have ever seen. )
By the way, if you never have heard of famed NHL hockey fighter Tie Domi, here is one of his classic YouTube videos where he fights a fan in the penalty box a few years back. Almost looks like it could have been an afternoon skirmish today in Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECEsZVrbMA
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