THE HOLY LAND - WHERE HIS GREAT LOVE SOOTHES AND COOLS THE HOT SANDS OF HATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R000901210002-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 13, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 9, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

CIA-RDP83-00423R00
The garden?"So they took Jesus, and He
went out, bearing His own cross, to the
place called the Place of the Skull, whish
is called in Hebrew, Golgotha." (John
.19:17). "Now in the place where He was
crucified, there was a garden, and in the
)1k.
garden a new tomb where no one had ever
laid." (John 20:41). British archeologists
contend that the garden shown above near
a knoll whose rock formations outline a
skull is the place of the holy sepulchre.
The tomb?In the garden discovered by
the archeologists is a tomb that matches
New Testament descriptions of the place
where Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus.
However, all are not agreed on the site.
As Mary stood weeping outside the tomb
the day after the crucifixion, a voice
asked her, "Woman, why are you weep-
ing?" She replied, "Because they have
token away my Lord and I do not know
where they have laid Him." (John 20:13).
The Holy Land where His great love
soothes and cools the Hot Sands of Hate
THIS IS LAST in a series of 11 foreign travel articles by Aylce Billings Walker,
director of The News Women's Department. In them she has attempted to share with
readers the experiences of a recent study tour through the Near East and Middle East.
The itinerary included Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia,
France and Spain. The trip as far as Israel was made through a fellowship from the
American Christian Palestine Committee, supplemented by a group of friends in the
Birmingham Jewish community. She travelled with 22 persons from all parts of the coun-
try and from various walks of. life.
. BY ALYCE BILLINGS WALKER, News staff writer
THE "LITTLE TOWN." was lying very still in the June sun.
Memories of Sunday School pictures and all my Christmas Eves
great gush of tenderness.
We came upon it over a winding road from the Mount of Olives.
shepherds still watched their flocks.
I guess Miss Sarah was
ing more years than the oth-
ers to come where Christ
was born. This blessed sep-
tuagenerian, only woman
Ruling Elder of the Presby-
terian Church, the constant
joy and inspiration of our
trip, will now always be
"The Christmas Lady" to
me.
A long way
? WE HAD COME a long way
to visit the places where the
New Testament began and end-
ed. Both Bethlehem and Jerusa-
lem are in Arab Jordan. Travel-
ers cannot enter them from
Israel.
Our route was via Lebanon
and Syria. We crossed green
plains, climbed terraced moun-
tains, dipped into rocky valleys,
Spanned blazing deserts.
The ride was like flipping the
pages of the Old Testament.
Camels looked down their
haughty noses at our racing,
noisy motorcade. Bedouin shep-
herds piped their flat-tailed
sheep out of our way. Farmers
and oxen were threshing wheat
just as it was done centuries
ago. Men and Women, girls and
boys wrapped in layers of
clothing, tossed it to the winds
to remove the chaff.
In Damascus
OUR FIRST BIBLICAL STOP
was Damascus, but just for a
night. We arrived at sunset,
went immediately to the Street
Called Straight. The House of
Judah, where Paul found refuge
n his blindness, was there. The
use of Ananias, after he was
r converted and healed, was
'10
the most excited to see Bethlehem.
just where the New Testament
says it was.
We visited the great Omyyad
Mosque in Damascus, fourth
most sacred place to Moslems.
The head of John the Baptist,
the guide said, was in one of
the tombs. The remains of
Saladin who halted the last
Crusade are in another and
more elaborate one.
Jesus is supposed to appear
on one of the minarets of this
mosque for the final judgment.
I didn't question that the rugs
on which rich and ?poor were
kneeling eastward in prayer
were the most beautiful in the
world.
It-was no easy journey through
these Arab countries. Time and
again we waited in the pi,rching
heat while officials studied our
credentials. These included let-
ters stating our Christian faith.
Across the river
WE LUNCHED in Amman,
bustling new capital of Jordan.
The hotel faced ruins of a
Roman amphitheater.
By sundown we had crossed
the River Jordan, visited Jeri-
cho and were swimming in the
Dead Sea.
Anthony gave Jericho to
Cleopatra as a Winter resort.
The devil offered it to Jesus,
along with "all the kingdoms of
the earth." We climbed over its
tumbled walls to the rock where
the proposition was made and
refused.
Below, women came winding
along the road to fill their
water jugs at the well Elisha
had sweetened. Marthas, Ruths,
Rachels?they hid their faces
from our eager photographers.
We passed two clapping,
dancing, singing processions
welled up in a
Along the way,
She had been
wait-
along Jericho's streets. One was
bound for a wedding, other
for a circumcision.
Nothing had changed.
the
Holy City
THE MOON ROSE out of the
Dead Sea as our drivers headed
the cars upward toward Jeru-
salem. Truly, these drivers are
"Sons of the Road." The craggy
mountains were magical in the
silver spilled all around us that
night and every night_ we were
in the Holy City.
"The Star Spangled Banner,"
tooted by a uniformed band of
youngsters from the Christian
Approach Orphanage, welcomed
us to our hotel and reminded
us this was Circa 1953.
Every day we had to remem-
ber that. Present was swallowed
by the past everywhere we went.
We choked on heavy incense as
Armenian priests, in heavy gold
robes, led candlebearing choir-
isters through the dark passages
of the Church of the Holy Sep-
ulchure. Roman Catholics were
saying "Hail Marys" at the end
of another passage. Coptics and
Greek Orthodox also have
chapels in this holy place. i
Mosque of Omar
I LIKE THE STORY of the
Mosque of Omar, near the Holy
Sepulchure Churc h, When
Patriarch Sophronias surren-
dered Jerusalem to Omar in
A.D. 637,he invited the conqueror
to pray with him in the Holy
Sepulchre..0mar declined, ex-
plaining that if he did his fol-
lowers would consider the
church theirs. The mosque was
built in honor of his thought-
fulness.
It stands where Solomon built
his temple, and Herod the one
In which Jesus taught. Under its
great dome is the rock said to
be the one to which Abraham
took Issac for sacrifice and
from which the Prophet Mo-
hammed ascended into heaven
on his winged horse. It is the
third holiest place to Moslems.
Mecca is first, Medina, second.
In the Garden
THE GARDEN OF GETHSE-
MANE was a carpet of flowers
the Sunday morning we walked
in it. Blue phlox, bluer morn-
ing glories and crimson bou-
gainvillea were having a riot-
ous beauty contest along its
walls.
We went there from the Gar-
den of the Tomb. All holy
places but this spot are in the
custody of Franciscan monks.
In the garden, with the open
tomb archeologists says is the
place where they laid Him, the
22 of us worshipped together.
The 10 ordained ministers in
our group, representing almost
as many Protestant creeds, read
the story of the events that led
to the tomb, wherever it is, and
then the resurrection.
The story finished, each of
us "walked in the garden alone,"
each hearing The Voice in his
own way.
In His footsteps Back to past
THE CHURCH OF ST. ANNE,
the Milk Grotto, the Jewish
Wailing Wall, the pool of Si-
loam where Christ opened the
eyes of a blind man ? these
and all the holy places, we vis-
ited. For three days we walked
in the footsteps of Jesus, in and
around the old Walled City.
We followed the way of His tri-
umphal entry into Jerusalem,
and along Via Dolorsa, the
route to His crucifixion.
Present in focus
THE PRESENT was brought
sharply into focus on the last
afternoon in Jerusalem. While
we drank tea on the hotel ter-
race, we heard how Arab youth
feel about the partition of Jor-
dan.
Pretty, bright Mary Attalla,
Smith College graduate and
now a government worker, re-
minded us', "There are 70 mil-
lion of us living astride the most
strategic area in the world. We
are surprised that America did
not realize this sooner."
She was full of resentment
toward the British, contended
that Israel did not defeat the
Arab by arms, but by political
decisions.
''Our feelings toward the Jews
are not based on intolerance.
Moslem tolerance is too well
known for that. Our resentment
is not toward Jewry, but toward
Zionism."
The stars came out as Mary
spoke. I am sure they shine
more brilliantly in the East than
any where else?beacons of
hope and faith to a leadership
that could solve man's differ-
ences with man.
Approved For Release 2000/09/01 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000901210002-6
IN ISRAEL, we filled in other
events of Christ's ministry.
Mount Tabor, said to be the
place of His transfiguration, and
Mount Carmel became as fa-
miliar as Red and Shades Moun-
tains.
We paused at Kfar Cona
where Jesus turned water into
wine, and at Tabgha where He
fed the multitude with a little
boy's loaves and fishes. We went
to Tiberias. Communist slogans
on walls, filthy streets made
Nazareth, the scene of His child-
hood, a sad place.
We traveled over the Mount
of the Beatitudes, crossed the
Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.
In the ruins of the synagogue
built by the centurion whose
servant Christ healed, one of us
read aloud the Sermon on the
-Mount. "
Up Mount Zion we trudged
to the temple area. The room of
the Last Supper is there, and
so is the tomb of King David.
Whatever Biblical doubts one
might have, they lose their
force in the land holy to Chris-
tion, Jew and Moslem.
Unforgettable
MANY MORE MILES that
led to Egypt, Tunisia, France,
Spain were traveled before
journey's end in Birmingham. I
returned in the still-dark hours
of early morning, weary, but
sleepless. Faces and scenes in
faraway lands were still to real
to be just memories.
I watched the dawn chisel
familiar sights out of darkness.
Once m o e, "goodness and
mercy had followed me."
I was at home.
"My cup runneth over."
EIGHT
Asa ? -?
View is breat -t g?
Tunis is two cities?one smartly modern, the other colorful Arabic
El'
Ill
IDA?, AUGUST V, 1951'
BY ALICE BILLINGS WALKER, News staff writer
Of all places!
I hod gig-Fagged the Mediterranean from Cairo, via
Rome, Palermo, Pcntelleria to get to Tunis. And what
did I find>
A city apparently surrendered to the flies. They were
the only living things the least bit interested in my arival.
In the 10 miles horn the
airport to the hotel, I saw
three persons.
A sleep-soused bus driver.
A sleep-walking porter.
A sleep-talking clerk.
Of all places!
AH, OF ALL P L A CBS?
Tunis, 01000 you almost the hest.
Especially beecause you nap
from 1 to 3 p.m., weekdays, and
go sound asleep on Sundays.
111.1.gUrgr5../.kttY oil the
sa beautify y a lye. The vlew folitTffaleMa'nd laugh-pleated
C 11110, 0 00 -03.
nine Two-Horned Mountain)
Is so breath-taking. I wonder
more travelers don't come your
way
Mn. and Mrs. Jacques Marmey,
Pea Vulc a n, Abdullah, Ra-
phael and "Garcon" give me
many more reasons for loving
You.
THE MARMEYS are charm-
ing friends of Birmingham's Bill
and Crete Lathrop. They live
at lovely Sidi Bou Said one of
the cluster of little villages
along the coast. He literally
dug their house out of the
ground. for its walls are Roman
remains.
He hag lust finished one of
the most beautiful, functional,
economical schools I ever too.
I went with him In visit the
American World War IIceme-
tery which be is developing. tin
a beautiful resting place for 2000
of our lads.
BEA VUL C A N. from New
York via war duty hi the South
Pacific and Europe, is social
WOOS director of the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee, Jewish
Red Cross that has reached all
over the world to rescue and
help its needy.
There are 100,000 Sews in Tun-
isia, 70,000 of them In Tunis.
Until the 12th century they were
confined in a ghetto. Thousands
still live there of economic ne-
cessity.
A tour of schools, clinics hy-
giene demonstration renters,
milk and food canteens, adult
education projects impressed
anew that Jews take care of
their own needy.
Bea had taken a house for the
Slimmer at La Mersa, just a
crane's step f r o nt the beach.
You had to push through olean-
der, bougainvillea and phlox to
get into the patio.
RAPHAEL, 0110chauffer,
is a handsome young Tripoli-
Milian hew.