For the first time in nearly 100 years, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, whose doors were closed because of the new Corona virus, will not receive Christian pilgrims celebrating Easter in the Holy Land, as families try to live with the matter and celebrate in their homes according to possibilities.
Christian denominations that follow the Western calendar of Catholics and Protestants celebrate Easter or Easter next Sunday, while Orthodox Christians celebrate the feast on the 19th of this month. The authorities closed the religious sites in front of the visitors, among them the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in which Christians believe that Christ was buried in the year 30 or 33 AD, and they arrived in tens of thousands during the holiday.
Palestinian historian Johnny Mansour confirms that this is the first time that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been closed during Easter in the last 100 years.
In 2018, the church closed its doors for several days in protest of the taxes imposed by the Israeli authorities.
On Good Friday, only four people walked in the footsteps of Christ in the path of suffering, and their voices were raised in religious hymns.
The Old City witnessed an intense presence of the Israeli police, which filed a financial violation against a foreign journalist for not obeying the rules of social estrangement. The narrow, intertwined alleys of the Old City were placed under heavy surveillance by the Israeli police. This year, only six clergy attend the mass that will be chaired by the Apostolic Patriarch of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Bishop Perpattista Pitsapala, inside the church, compared to about 1500 people who attended it last year, according to the Secretary of the Patriarch, Father Ibrahim Shomali.
The occupation authorities closed the religious places to visitors, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.