The Nun Danielia from the Mount of Olives: "Hate from their promiscuity"

  

“Do you mind if I talk to you on the go? I'm on my little scooter, wearing wireless headphones, of course. I am returning from Jerusalem, with provisions, chiefly preserves and other long-lasting provisions, together with some meat. We will put it in the freezer, in small portions. Of course, if the electricity and water are cut off, as has been rumored for the last few hours, this choice of mine will not prove to be particularly successful...".

Sister Danielia is sixty-one years old. She lives in Little Galilee, at the top of the Mount of Olives, where, according to Christian tradition, Christ appeared to his eleven disciples, on the Sunday afternoon after His Resurrection. In her own hands and in the hands of another nun, a few years older than her, also Greek, is today the historic monastery that belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. They keep her alive.

How is the situation there? Are you afraid? Do you feel threatened?
"Apart from the disturbance and concern caused by the attack by Hamas last Saturday, things are relatively calm in the greater Jerusalem area. We have no rockets and no hostilities. As for the fear? I'm probably not qualified to answer you, I have my "madness". I like vivere pericolasmente'.

"Life in the Middle East is a constant challenge, often for what we take for granted. It has impressed me that for everything that happens, the blame and the anathema are thrown on the "opposite".

"I was a DJ"
Doesn't it sound contradictory to live dangerously in combination with monasticism? 

"On the contrary. When you make your renunciation and decide to give up everything, enter a monastery and dedicate yourself to God, it's like falling out of a plane without a parachute. I experienced it at the age of twenty-nine. Until then I was living a secular life, working as a dj. But when I said "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me", tears began to flow from my eyes, my call from above was made", says nun Danielia.

Thirty-two years have passed since she made that decision; twelve in Israel. And yet, they have not stopped long enough to fully decode the social complexity of this corner of the planet.
“It's all so confusing. And the hell, the polarization, continues. Sometimes I think people here can't live any other way, they are inoculated with hatred from their birthrights. It may sound far-fetched - and it certainly does not apply to everyone - but life in the Middle East is a constant claim, often for what we take for granted. It has struck me that for everything that happens, the blame and the curse are thrown on the "other side" . In our parts only Arab Israelis live, there are no Jews at all. 
If anything bad happens, even if a tree falls, they will say that the Jews are to blame. The demonization of one side by the other – or the others – has been imprinted on everything for centuries. Just when we are going to be optimistic that peace will come, something happens and the fire flares up again. As now with Hamas, a terrorist organization whose actions are essentially directed against the Palestinians, harming them. If Gaza is flattened, it will be their responsibility. My soul is bleeding with what is happening to this people."

The Haredim

And the Christians? How is the Christian community treated?
"Our enemies are mainly the ultra-Orthodox Jews, the Haredim. You will see in the Old City illiterate children as a rule, lumpen figures, spitting on Christians in the street or throwing stones at them, because that is how they have been taught. As far as Muslims are concerned, the biggest crisis was in 2014. And rockets had fallen then, and we had stealth warfare around the monastery every night after the eight o'clock prayer. Again, children were causing the problems. I understand these guys. Islam forbids them to look at girls, drink alcohol (at least openly), have no creative occupation, gang violence is their only way out. Do you know what I experience every now and then? If I write what I live in a book, it will become a bestseller and I will cover all the expenses of the monastery."

Despite this, she does not think of leaving, returning to Greece and her birthplace, Thessaloniki (her father's place is in the area of ​​Charilaos). “Sometimes when I'm at my limit, it crosses my mind as a possibility, but I immediately regret it. Christ chose these places to incarnate and become a man, he did not go to Belgium or Luxembourg. Who am I to grumble, to complain?'

Tasoula Eptakoili/kathimerini.gr