Demands for intervention are repeated to ensure freedom of worship in Jerusalem because the attacks affect the essence of the city’s sanctity and safety (Al Jazeera)

Occupied Jerusalem -

The attack on the Christian cleric inside the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday, Saturday, was not surprising, but it was not acceptable and did not go unnoticed.

The incident prompted the Supreme Presidential Committee for Follow-up of Church Affairs in Palestine and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates to issue statements denouncing the incident. The Israeli police also published news that they had arrested two minors who had assaulted the cleric by insulting and spitting.

While the German Abbot of the Benedictine Fathers and the head of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Nicodemus Schnebel, was walking in the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem, two settlers intercepted his way, spat on him, then called him and Mr. Jesus, peace be upon him, obscene words and tried to physically assault him.

The cleric responded to the attack by trying to take pictures of them and saying to one of them, “You are touching me and you have no right to do that,” adding that the Israeli police always ask for pictures to identify the attackers, and this is what he tried to do, as a video clip widely circulated on social media shows.

In its statement, the police said that “the two minors were arrested and subjected to house arrest,” which means that they were released after being interrogated for hours.

Yesterday, Saturday, two settlers attacked a Christian cleric while he was walking in the Old City of #occupied Jerusalem, spitting and cursing with offensive words.


Settlers’ attacks were repeated on Christian clergy, as well as on places of worship, and spitting on their doors, as happened months ago at the doorstep of the “Imprisonment of Christ” church in the Old City… pic.twitter.com/8RRoof46Ch

- Al Jazeera Net | Jerusalem (@Aljazeeraquds) February 4, 2024

Hatred and pressure

Archimandrite Abdullah July - the former head of the Greek Melkite Catholic Monastery in Ramallah - described the attack as “very serious,” and said that Christian clergy are responsible and perform official duties, and reside in Jerusalem under residencies granted to them by Israel, “and the repetition of these attacks only indicates Religious hatred and rejection of others.”

July added in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that the war on Gaza revealed the hatred in the hearts of those who occupy Jerusalem.

Regarding the role of Christian religious authorities and church heads towards these attacks, July confirmed that the voice of these authorities is weak, and that many people live in fear that their presence will not be recognized or their residency in the country will be canceled and they will be harassed while traveling, and with these measures they are constantly pressured and silenced.

When asked whether the attacks on foreign Christian clergy in Jerusalem might push them to leave service in the Holy Land, July replied: If the clergy do not have a belonging to this land and this people, it is not easy for them to stay in this country.

Archimandrite July concluded his speech by saying that Israel does not want to see these people in the country “because they are considered eyewitnesses to what is happening, and the settlers’ repeated attacks on them fall within the framework of pressure on them to leave Palestine.”

Sectarian and racist violence

For his part, advocacy officer at the World Council of Churches office in Jerusalem, George Sahar, told Al Jazeera Net that the Council raised the issue of attacks on Christian clergy several times, and took a position against these attacks by emphasizing that the occupying authority in Jerusalem has the responsibility to provide protection and dignity fairly to everyone. Religions.

Sahar confirmed that the office in Jerusalem puts all the churches of the world under the threat of repeated attacks, and demands that they intervene to ensure freedom of worship in the city, because the attacks affect the essence of Jerusalem as a holy city and a safe place.

In a statement reached Al Jazeera Net, the Supreme Presidential Committee for Follow-up of Church Affairs in Palestine said, through its Chairman Ramzi Khoury, that there is an “urgent need for immediate and urgent intervention by the United Nations and the Security Council to put an end to the Israeli fascist crimes.”

Khoury appealed to the churches of the world "to put pressure on their governments to put an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip, and to stop all forms of sectarian and racist violence carried out by flocks of settlers against the Palestinian people and their sanctities."

The statement stated that the recent attack on the Christian cleric is in addition to 9 attacks carried out by extremists in Jerusalem against churches, their property, and Christian clergy during the past year 2023.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates - in a statement reached Al Jazeera Net - also condemned the attack, which it described as "provocative, arrogant, colonial and racist, which reflects a culture of hatred, malice, and denial of the existence of the other."

Eyewitnesses: The head of the Benedictine monks in the Holy Land, Father Nicodemus Schnabel, was subjected to an incident of assault and “spitting” by a colonialist, while another insulted Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, with profanity.

Monks in Jerusalem have been subjected to continuous attacks in recent years by extremist colonialists, as...

- Al-Quds Newspaper (@alqudsnewspaper) February 4, 2024

Mobilization and incitement

The ministry added that the attack reflects the extent of the racist incitement and mobilization received by members of extremist settler organizations and associations, whether through religious schools or the fatwas of extremist rabbis, and the inflammatory campaigns and positions declared by ministers in the Israeli government, such as Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of Finance Beztalel Smotrich, and others at the highest level. Official Israeli.

The Ministry believed that "the settler militias' sense of political and legal protection encourages them to persist in sowing seeds of hatred, igniting fires in the conflict arena, and committing the most heinous crimes and provocative attacks against Palestinian citizens and followers of other religions."

It is noteworthy that the religious premise that drives settlers to attack churches and Christian clergy is that the Jewish faith considers Christians to be “idolaters” and rejects the Christian religion because it is “pagan.”

Source: Al Jazeera