Photo credit: the Guardian
The crowd that assembled outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Thursday morning was small and muted. International pilgrims jostled with dark-robed Greek Orthodox monks, but one group of native worshippers was absent.
The Guardian reports that for generations, tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians living in Israeli-occupied West Bank villages and cities like Ramallah, Bethlehem and Taybeh normally traveled to take part in the prayers, professions and rituals such as Holy Fire ceremony. The church is in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the six-day war of 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1980.
Centuries of tradition have been ruptured by Israel’s increasingly draconian control over Palestinian movement. Palestinians in the West Bank living outside Jerusalem have to obtain military permits if they want to enter the city.
For years, Christians in Palestinian territories were regularly granted permits to enter Jerusalem around Easter. However, since the ongoing war broke out, they have become almost impossible to obtain.
This Easter, the government announced it had issued 6,000 permits, though there are 50,000 Christians, living in the West Bank beyond East Jerusalem. However, only 4,000 were given permits, according to Christian leaders.
The permits are valid for just one week and do not allow Palestinian pilgrims to stay in Jerusalem overnight. The few who could make it have been met with increased police brutally in recent years.
In April 2023, Palestinian Christian worshippers and international pilgrims were beaten by Israeli police and armed forces as they attempted to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
A great source of distress among the Christian community is the introduction of blockade and aggressive policing that prevented thousands of Christians being able to take part in the Holy Fire festivities marking the resurrection on Easter Saturday afternoon, as they have done for hundreds of years in the Old City.
The spectre of Gaza also hangs over this year’s festivities. Palestinian Christians are among the 51,000 people killed in Gaza since the war started and on Palm Sunday, an Israeli missile hit the only Christian-run hospital in the strip.
Over 500 Christians are sheltering in Holy Family church. It is one of the two left standing.
Jerusalem’s Old City has become increasingly dangerous for all Christians, not just those from Arab backgrounds. Religious intolerance and antichristian sentiment has been made mainstream by Israeli political leadership.
