the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

spiritual truths are dogmatically defined and jealously guarded, preachers aren't welcome. In this volatile city, they risk deportation or even their lives. On Christmas Day I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at dawn. The sun had not yet reached the stones of the church, which were smooth and cool. I entered through the arched stone doorway. It reeked of kerosene. The floor of the Chapel of the Angel was being cleaned in preparation for Christmas. Something standing out amongst the somber colors and brown habits of the monks caught my eye. I drew nearer to investigate. A colorful stick, wrapped in tie-dye cloth and decorated with beads, lay beside a jeans-clad Californian in his early thirties, writing in a journal. Stuart looked up and told me that he'd seen me in a dream, a couple of weeks before he came to Jerusalem. We walked out into the church courtyard and he said that as soon as he arrived in the Holy City, he was detained by the Israeli military police for questioning. Since then, he'd been pulled in on three separate occasions and was issued a restraining order: he was forbidden from going within 200 meters of the Haram ai-Sharif. Why? He looks like a normal, if slightly New Age, Californian. But apparently something about him made the authorities suspicious. "I'm really pissed about this," he told me. "The first time, I was arrested at the Western Wall for kneeling and praying in the plaza. The Jews tried to tell me I wasn't allowed to kneel and pray, and that I had to hide my crucifix; which is baloney." "You were just kneeling there and praying'" I asked. "You weren't proselytizing?" (Preaching for purposes of conversion is taboo in Jerusalem.) "Nope, I was just praying. But the second time I was arrested, I did proselytize. I shouted, 'Glory to God" It just came out-boom-across the whole friggin' plaza," Stuart laughed. The authorities took him to a small police headquarters near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Anticipating the increase in Jerusalem Syndrome at the time of the new millennium, Israel spent US$I2 million trying to secure the Old City against anyone who might attempt to destroy the buildings on the Haram ai-Sharif or incite violence and by deporting people and liberally issuing restraining orders. "Those who suffer from Jerusalem Syndrome, all those who have been arrested and released, will not be given the permission to come over again [to Israell," said Israeli Public Security spokesperson Linda Menuchin. Israel also invested four million dollars in a communications system throughout the Old City, which included installing a few hundred video cameras and creating three new police stations. "Our basic working assumption is that there is the potential of some crazy people (or not crazy) planning a violent act. But this is our basic assumption for everyday," continued Menuhe. "We are a country that has been dealing with every kind of trick. The threats are 365 days a year. This is how we live." "So I argued with them," Stuart said. "I told them 'I'm calling my embassy, you're releasing me NOW' And they said, 'Well, we'd like to have a doctor look you over for a couple of days, would you mind?' And I told them, 'Fuck you,' just like that. They held me for another four hours, gave me a really horrible sandwich and then they let me loose." Many of the people afflicted with Jerusalem Syndrome are not considered psychologically unstable enough to be admitted to Kfar Shaul Hospital, according to Dr Katz. Some are detained, then deported. Others are given a restraining order: they are not allowed within 200 meters of the Dome of the Rock. After their hospitalization and return to reality, apparently most are embarrassed and claim they simply didn't know what had overcome them. Not so with Benkhai. Three days after I met him, Benkhai returned to the Petra escorted by an Israeli police officer. "I'm checking out," he shouted as he passed the front desk. The officer waited as Benkhai gathered up his belongings, his notebooks, his annotated Bible. His last words to the residents of the hostel were, "Beware of the earthquake." One morning, as I sat at a small outdoor cafe in the Christian Quarter enjoying the winter sunshine, I heard a loud voice wish me good morning. I looked up into the face of a rotund Russian Orthodox priest. The only polite thing to do was to invite him to join me in a Turkish coffee. Father Aleksandr sat down heavily and said I caught his eye because of the angels surrounding me at my table. He told me he had been unofficially studyingJerusalem Syndrome from in the city for the past few years. So had other priests I met in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Father Louis, 106 52 "The color of the ground is in front of us, but prophetic light is hidden." -Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th-century Persian poet

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