The head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land has accused Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Israeli government of making life worse for Christians.
The comments in an Easter interview by Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa follow restrictions imposed on worshippers at the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem’s Old City and the ongoing failure of the Israeli police to stop the harassment of Christian clergy by Jewish extremists.
“The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” Archbishop Pizzaballa said. “These people feel they are protected… that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”
About 15,000 Christians, mostly Palestinian and Armenian, live in the Old City- a dwindling minority amongst a Muslim majority.
Christian clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City say they are regularly spat at and pushed, and sometimes hit, while walking in the narrow cobbled alleys. The overwhelming majority of instances are not reported but those that are rarely result in prosecutions even though the Old City is extensively monitored by CCTV cameras.
The police claim that all reported incidents are investigated and suspects are charged if there is sufficient evidence.
There has also been a sharp increase in more serious cases of violence and vandalism.
In January, two Jewish teenagers were charged after more than 30 graves were desecrated at a Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.
In February, an American Jewish religious tourist knocked down and defaced a statue of Jesus in a church in the Old City, shouting out “No idols in the holy city of Jerusalem!”
The incidents are an embarrassment to Israel which has always boasted that the Christian communities in the Holy Land are the safest in the Middle East and enjoy unrestricted freedom of worship.
This Saturday, Orthodox Christians will celebrate the traditional Easter Holy Fire ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus’s tomb, when the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem produces a lighted candle and lights candles for hundreds of clergy and pilgrims.
This year Israeli police have set a limit of 1,800 worshippers, citing public safety concerns after a deadly stampede during a Jewish festival two years ago, when 45 people were killed in northern Israel, underlining the risks of large crowds of worshipers gathering in restricted spaces.
Jordan, the custodian of the holy places in Jerusalem, criticised the limits and the Orthodox churches said they will refuse to comply.
“We shall continue to uphold the status quo customs and the ceremony will be held as customary for two millennia and all who wish to worship with us are invited to attend,” the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Patriarchate said in a joint statement.
