Christian Community in Jerusalem Calls on Pope Francis as Israel Continues Judaization

Jerusalem’s Christian community warns that the Israeli authorities attempt to negate the Christian presence in Jerusalem, creating the impression of a Jewish-only city.

by Christof Lehmann

(nsnbc) : Palestinian Christians are calling on Pope Francis to take initiative for justice as Israeli authorities prevent worshippers’ access to the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the vicinity of the Christian Quarter. Palestinians call on the head of the Roman Catholic Church, who will visit the Holy Land next month, to take a strong stand. In 2005, Israeli authorities began implementing the systematic Judaization and destruction of holy Christian and Muslim sites.

The Christian community of Jerusalem issued a statement, warning that the mobility of worshippers inside the Old City of Jerusalem is heavily restricted by checkpoints and gates, preventing worshippers from free access to the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulcre, and the vicinity of the Christian Quarter.

Jerusalem’s Christian community warns that the Israeli authorities attempt to negate the Christian presence in Jerusalem, creating the impression of a Jewish-only city.

The Christian community stressed that it perceives the restrictive measures as a grave violation of the freedom of worship and reiterated that measures to deny the Christian and Muslim presence, especially in East Jerusalem, have escalated over recent years.

Israel began implementing these measures in 2005 and justifies them as necessary security measures to counter the threat of terrorism. Jerusalem’s Christian community for their part, many of which are Israeli citizens, describes the measures as unnecessary and politically as well as racially motivated.

The Christian community of Jerusalem carried a bold message as part of the annual Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives to the Old City in East Jerusalem,reports AIC, adding that the parishes of various Palestinian villages carried banners reading:

 ”Pope Francis: Palestine Wants Justice.” The pontiff will be visiting the Holy Land next month, and those who have kept the faith in the land where Christianity was born are calling on the Pope to make a strong stand with those struggling under Israeli occupation.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem after the 1967 war and has since then implemented an aggressive settlement policy and Judaization program in Jerusalem and other sites of special importance for Christians and Muslims.

In 2012, the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) issued a fact sheet titled “Colonizing Christmas”, warning that Israel’s land grabs, annexations and settlements are destroying the country’s Christian heritage.

In 2012, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage warned that Israeli bulldozers destroyed and demolished historic Islamic sites dating back to the Umayyad, Abbasid eras, and Ottoman eras in occupied Jerusalem.

The Foundation said that Israel’s so-called Archeological Authority has destroyed and burned ancient Islamic sites over the last five years during excavations in Al-Boraq, 100 meters west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Some of the demolished sites are a mosque and a school building dating back to the Umayyad era.

Christian monasteries in the occupied Palestinian West Bank are frequently subject to arson and vandalism.

August 2013, the Christian monastery in the Deir Jamal area between Jerusalem and Ramla was attacked with a Molotov cocktail while its walls were desecrated with racist graffiti known as “price tag” graffiti.

Patriarch Fuad Twal, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, visited the monastery and strongly denounced the repeated attacks carried out by Israeli Price Tag extremists against churches and mosques in different parts of Palestine.

May 24 – 26, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Amman and Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus of Nazarath.

His visit will mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s visit to the Holy Land. In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the Holy Land. His visit was followed by a visit by Pope Benedict XVIs in 2009.

The Christian community of Jerusalem is calling on Francis to take a strong stand with those who are struggling under Israeli occupation – one might add that the Judaization of Jerusalem and the Colonization of Christmas, if unchallenged, soon will have the non-Jewish or non-Zionist communities in the Holy Land to call for “a last stand”.

Special Thanks to Dr. Christof Lehmann and nsnbc