AWhen the Crusaders conquered the “Holy Land” almost a thousand years ago, they converted the Dome of the Rock into a church and used the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a palace. However, in today’s conflict over the Esplanade in the Old City of Jerusalem, Christians play practically no role. It is fought between Muslims and Jews, with a national, Palestinian-Israeli level added to the religious level. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu temporarily defused the latest conflict on Tuesday night when he ruled that, as in previous years, only Muslims would be allowed in during the last ten days of Ramadan.
The churches, meanwhile, have also had problems with the Israeli rule over East Jerusalem since 1967. They complain about restrictions and increasing attacks by settlers. The relationship between the Christian communities is not free of conflicts. Not only on the Al-Aqsa Plateau, but also in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is a status quo that regulates exactly which faith community is allowed to do what, when and where. Nevertheless, in the past few decades there have been repeated arguments and even fisticuffs, for example over the question of which community is allowed to clean a certain step.
Greek Orthodox Easter
External pressure, however, welds the Christians closer together. Several denominations held a joint press conference on Wednesday. They chose the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as the location – Greek Orthodox according to the status quo (even if a few meters away Coptic and Ethiopian Christians are fighting over a small monastery). The Greek Orthodox Church was also in charge, as their Easter celebrations are coming up this weekend. The climax takes place on Saturday. Then the miracle of the Holy Fire is celebrated, which, according to tradition, arises by itself every year in the small burial chapel of Jesus inside the church.
In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Patriarchates and the Catholic Custody of the Holy Land have now lamented “unreasonable and unprecedented restrictions on access to the Holy Sepulchre” by the Israeli authorities. The Greek-Orthodox Archimandrite Father Meletios criticized the fact that the police had been restricting the number of believers who could attend the more than 1,200-year-old celebration for years. The police had announced that only 1,800 people could be in the church at the same time on Orthodox Holy Saturday. Patriarch Theophilus III. then demanded that all Christians “must be able to exercise their natural, God-given right to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”.
The conflict has been smoldering for years. In earlier times more than 10,000 visitors attended the liturgy of the Holy Fire. The police have tried again and again to reduce the number. She justifies this with the cramped conditions in the church and the fact that there are no emergency exits. Last year, on Orthodox Holy Saturday, there was a fight when believers tried to break through barriers in front of the church.
Conversely, the Jerusalem church leaders closed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 2018 for several days in protest, until a dispute with the government, among other things, about outstanding tax payments, was settled. Even then they spoke of a “systematic campaign” against the Christians in the Holy Land. Their complaints have since grown louder. The Christians in Jerusalem are not only being harassed by settler organizations that are systematically trying to take over church property. They see themselves being increasingly exposed to attacks, especially in the old town. According to church leaders, these come primarily from fundamentalist Jews – and have increased in parallel with the growing influence of radical settlers in Israel.
This year alone there have been several incidents, including an attack on two priests on the Mount of Olives, vandalism in the Mount Zion cemetery and a “Death to Christians” graffiti on an Armenian monastery wall. In the conflict over the liturgy on Saturday, the church leaders do not want to back down. Their statement said the ceremony would be “held as usual for two millennia” and that all believers were invited.
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