Tuesday morning we woke up and found that our entire apartment had been covered in a thick layer of dust. Disoriented and still sleepy we stumbled into the living room where Tal announced “it’s from Syria.” Hunter and I decided that despite the dust we would attempt to see the old city again, and visit the Al Aqsa mosque during visiting hours. Walking through the old city we asked directions to the mosque again, this time to a different pair of Israeli soldiers who, thankfully, pointed us in the right direction without asking us questions about our personal lives. They did share that I needed to be covered from my ankles to my wrists, which was fine with us as I had left the house in long pants, and then would put a sweater on over my dress when we arrived at the mosque. In addition I had a scarf with which to cover my head, as the soldiers the day before told us that it was necessary.

We filed into the line for the security checkpoint, and were able to go through with just Hunter’s copy of his passport. We were concerned that I would also need a passport but apparently this is not the case. This security guard/soldier asked us if we were Jewish. “She is, but I’m not,” Hunter answered.

“Ok,” the soldier said, “no praying. Don’t go in the mosque”

“Thank you” I said, none of this information was new to me, as it had been written on at least three signs in line, and beyond that it was very well known information to visitors of this site. Due to recent warring between Palestine and Israel, one of the elements of the peace negotiations was to no longer allow Jewish visitors the opportunity to pray at the temple mount. Don’t worry, if this sounds confusing you’re not alone – this is one of the most contested religious sites in the world. The temple mount, as jews call this site, is the holiest site in Judaism, as it stands on the site of the first temple of the Hebrews. In addition, per wikipedia, it is believed that this is where God gathered dust in order to create Adam. For Sunni Muslims, this is the third holiest site in Islam, as it is believed to be the place where Mohammed ascended to heaven. After the second intifadah, the law stands that Jewish people are not allowed to pray on this site. In addition visiting times are restricted to only a few hours a day, and they are not allowed to enter the Mosque. For this last rule, it applies to all non-muslims, not just Jews. In addition, as we were about to learn, there are some questionable rules for the way that women are required to dress. We also learned that there is a strict ‘no touching’ rule between men and women.

Upon entering the site, I was covered from my ankles to my wrists, with a scarf around my neck for additional modesty. A man pointed me in a direction other than the majority of the other visitors, towards a guy with long fabric that he wanted us to tie around our waist. I thought I had heard him say it was one shekel, but in fact it was 20 shekels. I was outraged by this cost, because I had followed all of the rules as they had been explained to me. Another woman in our group, who was very modestly dress, and who, unlike me, appeared to dress like this every day, said “that is ridiculous, I will not pay you” and walked away with her family. I followed her lead and handed the scarf back to the man, and walked away. Unlike her, I wandered into the site, instead of being led out of the site by the man and his friends. This was a pretty sad attempt at profiting off of a holy site, and it angered both me and that woman.

The site was absolutely beautiful, but due to the heat and the dust we were ready to head out of the site within 30 minutes. We then decided that we should leave the Old City and go get some lunch, but the city being the way it is, we were unable to find our way out and instead of finding one of the exits we ended up at the Site of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in Christianity.