Life in Jerusalem’s Old City is difficult for the Christians who continue to live there, many of whom are poor. ACN has been providing help to struggling families through projects carried out by the Latin Patriarchate
The Old City of Jerusalem is a magical place to visit. The narrow, cobbled streets exude millennia of history and tradition, suffering and joy, victory and defeat, where Christians, Muslims and Jews walk, work and pray in a close proximity which is as prone to deep friendship as to tension. Tourists and pilgrims often find themselves deeply affected by the city and its environment, describing it as one of the highlights of a visit to the Holy Land.
Living in the Old City of Jerusalem, however, can be a challenge. During a recent trip to the Holy Land, a delegation from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), accompanied Dima Khoury and George Halis from the Social Services department of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, visited some of the families that still live in the Christian quarter of the Old City.
A narrow arch leads into a courtyard which is shared by nine different families. The houses all belong to the Custody of the Holy Land and are given to Christian families such as Jeanette’s. Her tiny apartment has a small kitchen, a common area, a bathroom and one bedroom which she has partitioned so that she and her husband sleep on one side and her four children on the other.
Because Jerusalem’s streets are mostly covered, there is little exposure to sunlight and houses are often humid. Those people who can tend to move out of the Old City, meaning that the current residents are mostly the poorest of the poor. Still, Jeanette considers it a privilege to live in the city where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.
“Of course I do, because Jesus was here. I am a good believer, I am always in Church, always praying. I take my children to Mass every Sunday. We collect all the children from the Old City, and I help to teach them about their faith and do different activities with them, such as choir practice,” she tells ACN.
Life in Jerusalem is extremely expensive. Jeanette earns some money as a cleaner, but her husband, a labourer, has only worked sporadically since the war in Gaza started. Their income is not sufficient to cover expenses.
Fortunately, ACN has been able to help through several projects in cooperation with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “I depend on ACN to help me with food coupons. ACN also covers the tuition fees of my son, who is attending Bethlehem University, as well as my electricity and water bills,” she explains.
“Sometimes my refrigerator was empty, and I called Dima at the Latin Patriarchate in tears, asking for help. Other times they called me before I reached out to them, to tell me I have food coupons, and to go to the supplier or to the supermarket to collect my food,” she adds, expressing her gratitude to ACN for the help she receives.
“Without Christians there is no life here”
George and Dima lead the ACN delegation through a few more streets, then into a similar courtyard with equally cramped apartments.
Iyad is a chef at the Dormition Abbey, but with the decline in tourism he now only works three days a week, while his wife, Samar, has been one of the beneficiaries of the ACN-funded job creation programme and recently started working at the private Catholic school which her children attend. No matter how poor, Christian families make a point of sending their children to private Christian schools, to ensure they get the best possible education and social environment.
Iyad’s family has lived in the Old City for generations, and he and Samar have no intention of leaving. “We are from the Holy Land and we will stay here. We are following Jesus, we are good believers, and we want to stay in our land. Without Christian people there is no life here,” Iyad says.
For their three children, however, things are different. Samar says that her daughter constantly talks of leaving, “but I worry, because I want to stay, and if they move abroad, I will always be worried about them”.
ACN’s many projects through the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem are aimed precisely at trying to ensure that Christians have the opportunity to remain in Jerusalem, and in the Holy Land in general, but the current situation caused by conflict in Gaza and in the West Bank keeps making conditions more difficult. “It is difficult, but we depend on our faith, and we always believe and still hope. This is what we can do,” says Samar.
Besides the job-creation programme, the family also benefit from food coupons and scholarships for their children. “Thank you for everything you do to keep the Christian presence alive in the Holy Land, and in the Old City in particular,” they tell ACN.
By Filipe d’Avillez.
