Very strict restrictions and hostility by both Israel’s authorities and Jewish settlers denounce thousands of Palestinians Christians who want to celebrate Easter in its old town Jerusalem.
British Guardian’s revealing report is extensively presented the tension and violence prevailing in the old town of Jerusalem on the sacred days of Easteras Palestinian Christians face ‘Capsons’ by the authorities of Israel, making the situation “unbearable”, as they typically say.
Indicative was the operation of Good Thursday, during which the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem washes the legs of 12 monastic priests to honor the memory of the Last Supper, one of the many Easter rituals that take place in the old city of Jerusalem.
For Christians, there is no more sacred place to celebrate Easter from the place where Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected. However, the crowd gathered outside the church of the Holy Sepulcher on Thursday morning (17.04.2025) was small and silent and the absence of several Palestinian Christians was noticeable.
For generations, the tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians who lived, in Israel -occupied villages and cities of the West Bank, such as Ramala and Bethlehem, traveled to the Old Town of Jerusalem, Easter, to participate in prayers and functions.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Temple of the Resurrection is located in Eastern Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel from Jordan to the six -day war of 1967 and was unilaterally attached in 1980.
The Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III / Reuters / Ammar Awad
However, Centuries of tradition have been broken by the ever -draconian control of Israel on these territories, which means that any Palestinian on the West Bank living outside Jerusalem must obtain a military permit if he wants to enter the city. For years, they were regularly granted licenses to Christians in the Palestinian territories to visit Jerusalem during Easter, but since the War with Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, it was almost impossible to acquire.
For this year’s Easter, the government announced that it had issued 6,000 licenses, although there are 50,000 Christians, mainly Catholics or Greek Orthodox, who live on the West Bank beyond Eastern Jerusalem. But in fact, only 4,000 were given, according to Christian leaders, while in most cases only a few members of each family applied to obtain the relevant licenses.
Them Licenses apply only for one week and do not allow Palestinian pilgrims to stay in Jerusalem at nightwhich means that they have to make the exhausting journey of returning to the West Bank by bus or taxi, crossing many army checkpoints every night, limiting the festivities they can take part, despite having valid licenses.
The few who have managed to find themselves in the old city of Jerusalem have been facing increased police violence in recent years. In April 2023, Palestinian Christian faithful and international pilgrims were beaten by Israeli police and the Israeli army as they were trying to reach the Temple of Resurrection.
“People are very afraid and many will not risk watching Easter ceremonies,” said Omar Harami, the director of Sabeel, a Christian organization based in Jerusalem. He added that Many people were beaten in 2024 as he tried to attend Easter festivities in the Old Town And the Christians in the Old Town regularly encountered hostility outside churches.
«I will go to the celebrations on Good Saturday because my family has been part of this tradition for thousands of years, but I am not going to bring my children, the situation is very dangerous now, with police violence“, Harami said.
The Christian community is also afraid of the Israeli police because it excludes and violently prevents thousands of believers who want to participate in the festivities of the Resurrection on the day of Holy Saturday, as their ancestors did for hundreds of years in the old city.
REUTERS / Ammar Awad
On their side, Israeli authorities cite security issues due to the war in the Gaza Strip and the presence of “terrorist elements” on the West BankBut the Christian community believes that this is an unfounded excuse used by Israel to put pressure on Christians.
It is recalled that Palestinian Christians are among the 51,000 people killed in Gaza since the war with Israel and Sunday of the Saints (13.04.2025) began, an Israeli rocket hit the only Christian hospital in the lane.
Such as The British Guardian is typically reportedthe old town of Jerusalem is becoming more and more dangerous for all Christians, not just for those of Arab origin.
OR Rise of Jewish nationalism in Israel and the election of the most far -right government in the history of the country have encouraged extremist Jewish settlerswho want to claim all Israel and territories controlled by the Palestinians as a state only for the Jews, in provocative and violent actions both against Christians and against Muslims.
At the same time, religious intolerance and anti -Christian sentiment have become dominant by Israeli political leadership, the extremely hard -core national Minister of National Security, Ithamar Ben Gvir, described the fact that the Israeli spit on Christians.
REUTERS / Ammar Awad
A recent report by Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue recorded a sharp increase in scale and severity of Christian attacks in Jerusalem and throughout Israel in 2024, From the spitting of priests and public rhetoric to hate to desecration, incendiary attacks and vandalism of church.
“They are usually young Israeli Jews who make these attacks without punishment,” said John Munayer, director of the Rossing Center department, stressing: “It is a clear effort by hard -core Zionists to make the situation unbearable in the old city of Jerusalem.”
For his part, father Nikon Golovko from the Russian ecclesiastical mission said that “In the last 9 years he sees the situation change for the worse“And he added:” We accept much more hostility and aggression than the Jewish community. Spit on priestseven when we walk in the Christian district. They send a message that the city does not belong to all communities but only to the Jews. It wasn’t so before».
After an incident, in which a video showed Orthodox Jews to spit Christians, Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime minister’s office said that Israel was fully committed to safeguarding the sacred right of worship and pilgrimage to the sacred places of all religions».