Easter in Jerusalem: Palestinians continue to live the suffering of Christ
SOURCE: WAFA
BY: KHALIL FAWADLEH
JERUSALEM, March 29, 2018 (WAFA) – As the Holy Week during which Christians commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ draws nearer, Palestinians in general and the Christians in particular continue to experience the suffering of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago, according to Palestinian Christian activists.
Noura Carmi, member of the Armenian Orthodox Church, said during a tour of Jerusalem’s Old City organized by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department on the occasion of Easter celebrations, and specifically through Via Dolorosa, which marks the 14 stations that Christian tradition identifies as the path which Jesus Christ took before his crucifixion, that Palestinians today were still living the suffering of the Christ, who walked that road more than 2000 years ago, bloodied from wearing a crown of thorns on his head and carrying a heavy cross on his shoulder.
She pointed to buildings taken over by fanatic Jewish settler organizations, many of them were owned by Arab Christian residents of East Jerusalem, as part of a broad Israeli scheme to turn the Old City into a purely Jewish city.
Carmi took visitors on a tour titled The Contemporary Way of the Cross: A Liturgical Journey along the Palestinian Via Dolorosa, which links the sacred geography of the 14 Stations of the Cross that took place on Good Friday with the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people who live under Israeli occupation.
The tour featured stages such as “the Nakba” (catastrophe), which stands for the condemnation of the Palestinian people to death and forced expulsion, and “Checkpoints”, which allow tourists to identify with the suffering of Palestinian people and their struggle for justice and freedom, and eventual resurrection.
Rev. Ibrahim Shomali, Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, focused on the impact of Israeli policies on Palestinian Christians and their religious celebrations.
He recalled Israeli police assault on Palestinian Christians during the Palm Sunday procession that started from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for hoisting the Palestinian flag, just as the participants in the procession from other countries have hoisted their flags. He pointed out that Christians in the Gaza Strip have not yet received any permits to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter.
According to him, the church authorities have applied for around 600 permits for Gaza Christians, but had not received any, three days before Good Friday.
For Shomali, worshippers should not even be required to obtain permits. “Jerusalem should be open to all without any discrimination. We should have free access to Jerusalem, free access to our holy places,” he insisted.
Yousef Daher, director of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center, considered that Israel has “escalated its aggression” against Jerusalem and the Christian community when its parliament passed a bill targeting church property and the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem implemented measures to seize church assets and accounts for alleged property tax.
“Before Israel, under Jordanian and British mandate, churches and church institutions were exempted from taxation. Historically, churches were exempted as places for worship but also for their charitable services such as schools, clinics, hospitals and guest houses,” said Daher.
“It is true that some church institutions, such as hostels, generate revenues, but this money is usually used to cover deficits from other charitable organizations, such as schools and hospitals, and to help many from the elderly and disadvantaged in the Holy Land,” he added.
Commenting on the gravity of US President Donald Trump’s recent decision recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Daher said it has encouraged the Israeli occupation authorities to take more measures that are hostile to the Christian presence in Jerusalem, forcing church heads to protest these measures by closing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for three days at the end of February.
Since June 1967, Israeli occupation authorities have taken a combination of measures against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in general but most particularly in occupied East Jerusalem. This included home demolitions, residency status revocations, settlement construction with infrastructure, infringements upon holy sites, not to mention the wave of anti-Palestinian laws.
The ultimate goal of these measures, according to Fouad Hallak, policy advisor for the Negotiations Affairs Department, is to maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem and if possible end all Palestinian presence in it, particularly in the Old City.
These Israeli measures have resulted in the economic collapse in East Jerusalem, as exemplified in the tourism sector, a strategic economic asset, and entrenched the marginalization and isolation of the city from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly after encircling it with an 8-meter high concrete wall that totally separated the city from its West Bank environs.
Raed Saadeh, tourism expert, noted that at least 50 percent of Jerusalem’s hotels and approximately 30 percent of its businesses, particularly in the Old City, have closed following years of repressive Israeli measures.
Walid Dajani, manager of the Imperial Hotel located in Jaffa Gate, said that Ateret Cohanim, a settler group which aims to create a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem at the expense of Palestinians, has made relentless attempts to control this landmark property as part of the wider systematic efforts to seize church property.
Dajani is well aware of what being under a new Jewish settler landowner will most likely entail.
“It would be a nightmare if Jaffa Gate falls under the control of settler groups. If Jaffa Gate is gone, no Christians will remain.”
K.F./M.K.
