Noha Saad

In contrast to some of the dramas in the Ramadan race that raise the idea of ​​normalization with Israel, the Syrian series "Guardian of Jerusalem", which deals with the life story of Bishop Hilarion Capucci, presents the Syrian cleric who spent his life defending Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause until he was arrested and imprisoned and then exiled by the Israeli authorities. And prevented him from entering Palestine until his death.

The series is distinguished as being the first artwork in the Arab world that embodies the personality of a Christian cleric, to tell about the historical period that the bishop lived between Aleppo, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Rome, and the most important events that he contemplated and his national positions.

The idea of ​​the series began days after the bishop's death, when the General Television and Radio Production Corporation contacted the writer Hassan Youssef to produce a series that embodies the life of the bishop. Youssef agreed and stipulated that the series Basil Al-Khatib be directed, which was already achieved, and 28 key representatives participated in it, including: Rashid Assaf, who played the bishop, and Sabah Al-Jazaery, who played the role of bishop, Amal Arafa, Samia Al-Jazaery, Salim Sabri, and Ihab Shaaban.

38 years is forbidden from publishing
and writer Hassan Youssef spoke in a television interview about the difficulties he faced while writing the series because of the lack of information, and he said that during his research trip he was surprised that the story of the bishop's life was already written by the journalists Sarkis Abu Zaid and Antoine Francis, who came to the bishop in Rome in 1979 after He was released, and they wrote his life story in a 500-page book called "My Memories in Prison."

But then the bishop asked them not to publish the book after coming under pressure from the Vatican, and he requested that it be published after his death. In 2017 - when Hassan worked on writing the series - the book had not yet been published, but he managed to reach the authors and sent him an electronic copy of it before it was published, so that he can rely on him to write the series.

Nidal Bishop Kabucci Bishop Kabucci
was born on 2 March 1922 in the city of Aleppo, and his name is George. He lost his father when he was five years old, then he joined the school when he was eight years old in Lebanon and completed his basic education, then he moved to Palestine to study in St. Ann's Monastery in Jerusalem.

During his years in Jerusalem, the bishop witnessed many violations against the Palestinian people, including the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1964, which he witnessed with a particular impact on his life.

He then returned to Lebanon and chose for himself the name Hilarion, after Hilarion the hermit who lived in Gaza 1,800 years ago, which shows the spiritual connection of the Archbishop to Palestine.

Capuchi was elected bishop of Jerusalem and deputy patriarch of the Roman Catholic Church in 1965, moved to Jerusalem, and used his position in favor of the Palestinian cause.

June 5, 1967 was a turning point in his life, when Israel attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupied Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and Golan, and the occupation army entered Jerusalem, as the bishop witnessed what the occupation forces did against the Palestinians, and he saw the bodies that filled the streets, and buried 400 of them Himself and prayed with them accompanied by elders

The bishop was not only urging resistance, as he mentioned in his memoirs that three days after the occupation of Jerusalem he struck himself an Israeli soldier with a stick when the soldier spat on him, and said, "I am convinced that these invaders benefit only with the whip, and violence must be broken to break their sting and fierce."

The bishop lived refusing any cooperation with Israel, boycotting the protocol events, and therefore arrested him on August 18, 1974 on charges of smuggling weapons to the resistance, and he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, but he spent only 3 years and 3 months, and was released after the intervention of Pope Paul VI of the Church Catholicism and negotiations from the Pope of the Vatican with the occupation lasted for months, and he was released from Ramla prison in 1977, but on conditions that he would be away from Palestine.

The bishop suffered for his separation of Jerusalem and its people, but he continued his struggle and used his relationship with the Vatican to denounce what the Israeli army is doing in Palestine, and his wish remained to return to Jerusalem until his death, but he did not stop and provided everything he could for the Palestinian cause.

The bishop expressed solidarity with the campaigns to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and participated in the Freedom Flotilla in 2009 to transport food aid to the Strip. He was also on board the Turkish Marmara ship that started to break the siege on the Gaza Strip in 2010 and was attacked by the Israeli forces.

His position on the Arab Spring
despite the bishop's life full of militant stances, he announced his rejection of the Arab Spring revolutions and the support of the Syrian regime, which is shown in the first minutes of the series when he receives a phone call informing him of "liberating Aleppo", and the bishop expresses his joy with this news and celebrations appear in the streets Carrier of the system flags.

Bishop Capuchi died on January 1, 2017, at the age of 94, in the Italian capital, Rome, and was buried in Lebanon.