<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/18/jerusalem-christians-easter-israeli-crackdown-church-holy-sepulchre>
"As the bells rang out across the courtyard of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, the priests began to sing a deep, low prayer. Heads bowed over
candles, and escorted by people bearing aloft large gold crosses, they made
their way to a platform at the heart of the ancient square.
The ceremony on Holy Thursday, in which the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of
Jerusalem washes the feet of 12 monastic priests to commemorate the Last
Supper, is one of many Easter rituals that have taken place in the Old City of
Jerusalem for hundreds of years. For Christians, there is no holier place to
commemorate Easter than here, the site where they believe Jesus Christ was
crucified, buried and resurrected.
Yet the crowd that assembled outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on
Thursday morning was small and muted. International pilgrims jostled with
dark-robed Greek Orthodox monks, but one group of native worshippers was
noticeably absent.
For generations, the tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians living in
Israeli-occupied West Bank villages and cities such as Ramallah, Bethlehem and
Taybeh would travel to Jerusalem’s Old City at Easter to take part in the
prayers, processions and rituals such as the Holy Fire ceremony. The Church of
the Holy Sepulchre itself is in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel
from Jordan in the six-day war of 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1980.
Yet centuries of tradition have been ruptured by Israel’s increasingly
draconian control over Palestinian movement – which means any Palestinian in
the West Bank living outside Jerusalem, must obtain a military permit if they
want to enter the city. For years, Christians in Palestinian territories were
regularly granted permits to visit Jerusalem around Easter but since the war
with Hamas broke out on 7 October 2023, they have become almost impossible to
obtain."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
