Israeli restrictions on Orthodox church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter spark outrage

A Greek Orthodox priest in the courtyard of Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre church, during the Holy Fire ceremony, Apr. 23, 2022. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 12 April 2023
Follow

Israeli restrictions on Orthodox church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter spark outrage

  • The decision to limit access on Saturday to the Holy Fire, the most important Easter celebration for the Eastern Orthodox Church, angered church leaders
  • In contrast to previous years, when as many as 10,000 worshippers packed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, only 1,800 will be allowed inside this year

RAMALLAH: Israeli police will curb the number of worshippers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during Orthodox Easter ceremonies on Saturday, drawing anger from church leaders who said they would not cooperate.

The decision to limit access on Saturday to the Holy Fire, the most important Easter celebration for the Eastern Orthodox Church, angered church leaders who see it as part of what they consider long-standing efforts by Israel to restrict the rights and freedoms of the local Christian community.

Complaining of “heavy-handed” measures, they said they would not cooperate with the police.

In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate said that they would “continue to uphold” their customs and that the ceremony would be conducted as it has been for two millennia, adding that all those who wished to worship were invited to attend.

In contrast to previous years, when as many as 10,000 worshippers packed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, only 1,800 will be allowed inside this year, with another 1,200 outside. Additional checkpoints around the Old City will also restrict access to the area around the church.

This year, sensitivity around religious festivals in the Old City has been particularly high, with Ramadan, the Jewish Passover holiday and Easter coinciding at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Israel’s revocation of 739 permits granted to Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip has also sparked outrage among community members in Gaza and their leaders.

About 1,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip among its 2 million population. Most of them are Greek Orthodox and celebrate Easter a week after the Western celebration at the Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

Gaza residents must have a permit from Israeli authorities to leave the enclave, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007.

Gaza houses three churches — the Orthodox church, the Gaza Baptist Church for Evangelical and Protestant Christians and the Roman Catholic Holy Family Church. Most Christians in the Gaza Strip are of the Orthodox denomination.

Samer Tarzi, an Orthodox Christian from Gaza, told Arab News that Israeli authorities informed the community officially that their permits had been rejected.

Israeli authorities contacted the Christians who had previously left Gaza for Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday, asking them to return home by April 13.

“Every Easter brings up an obstacle that the Israelis use as a pretext to cancel permits and preserve Jerusalem. Holy Week is the basis of the Christian faith, and we are forced to spend it, as well as Easter, in Gaza this year,” said Tarzi, who is usually not granted a permit to Jerusalem for unknown reasons, while the rest of his family is.

“This is a holy week for Christians, as whoever prays, fasts, walks the Path of Sorrow, and attends Easter is considered as if he performed a Christian pilgrimage,” Tarzi added.

George Anton from the Catholic Church in Gaza told Arab News that “revoking permits for Orthodox Christians and depriving them of a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during Easter means canceling Easter and canceling the pilgrimage of Orthodox Christians this year because the main holiday of the Resurrection is in Jerusalem.”

He added: “In this case, all pilgrimage visits and all religious ceremonies related to the holiday will end, and Orthodox Christians will have to celebrate Easter in the local church in Gaza.”

Gaza Christians are allowed to visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem twice a year, during Christmas and Easter only, and they were denied the visits for nearly two years during COVID-19 restrictions.

Church leaders in Jerusalem and Bethlehem told Arab News that Palestinian Christians were at risk of suffering the repercussions of a rise in right-wing violence, spurred by Israel’s new government.

The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights based in Gaza has denounced the Israeli move and called on the international community to perform its duty to ensure respect for the rules of international law in the region.

It said that Palestinians “take the trouble to apply for a permit and suffer anxiety and tension while awaiting the response of the Israeli authorities, even though the restriction violates the international humanitarian law that protects the right of people living under occupation to move freely within the occupied territory.”

The Gaza-based Human Rights Center said that Christians from the Gaza Strip “are repeatedly denied access to the holy places in the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in a...perpetuation of violations of the rights of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians to practice their religious rites.”

The Palestinian presidency said: “We strongly support the demands of the churches in Jerusalem to allow free access smoothly and without problems for Christian pilgrims to attend the Holy Saturday ceremonies.”

It also called on all pilgrims to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, participate in the celebration of the Holy Saturday activities, and worship in freedom and peace, urging the international community, especially the US administration, to intervene immediately to stop the Israeli crimes, which affect the freedom of worship of Christian and Muslim believers alike.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the right-wing Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Old City of Jerusalem in protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to prevent settlers’ incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last 10 days of Ramadan to avoid any possible escalation.

Ben-Gvir strongly criticized Netanyahu’s decision, calling it a “grave mistake that will lead to further escalation.”


US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says 5 members killed in Hamas attack

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says 5 members killed in Hamas attack

  • “We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the group said in its statement

WASHINGTON: The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Wednesday accused militant group Hamas of attacking a bus carrying its staffers to an aid distribution center, saying at least five people were killed and multiple others injured.
The group said in a statement that around 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) “a bus carrying more than two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team... were brutally attacked by Hamas.”
“We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” the statement read.
In an email to AFP the group said all the passengers on the bus were Palestinian and all were aid workers. They were en route to GHF’s distribution center in the area west of Khan Younis.
“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the group said in its statement. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.”
An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.
But GHF’s first week of operations, in which it said it had distributed more than seven million meals’ worth of food, has been marred by criticism.
The Israeli military faces allegations of shooting into crowds of civilians rushing to pick up aid packages near GHF sites.
Israeli authorities and the GHF — which uses contracted US security — denied any such incident took place.
The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.


Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

  • According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza

MILAN: A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on Wednesday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan’s Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city’s Niguarda Hospital.
The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports.
The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza.
Adam “is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged,” his 36-year-old mother, Alaa Al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
Adam’s father, Hamdi Al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack.
“The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can’t feel my fingers. There’s still a lot of pain,” Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel’s Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday.
The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza.
Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said.
The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
In recent months, Rome has criticized the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions.
Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations.

 


Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

  • All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years
  • France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict

JERUSALEM: Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French nationals held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat, France’s foreign minister said Wednesday, as an Israeli NGO said one of the French campaigners was briefly put in solitary confinement.
The announcement came as France’s prime minister accused activists aboard the boat — who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza — of capitalizing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention.
The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
They were among 12 people on board the Madleen sailboat which was carrying food and supplies for Gaza before it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday.
Four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately.
The remaining eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily, according to Adalah, an Israeli rights NGO representing most of the activists.
All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years.
Adalah said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had placed French MEP Hassan and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila in solitary confinement, with Hassan later removed.

“Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers — the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan — to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement,” Adalah said in a statement.
The NGO later said that Hassan had been moved back to Givon prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, while Avila remained in isolation.
When asked for comment, Israel’s prison authority referred AFP to the foreign ministry, which said it was checking the reports.
Adalah said Hassan was put in isolation after writing “Free Palestine” on a prison wall.
The NGO said Brazilian activist Avila was placed in isolation “due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago.”
“He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,” it added.
The leader of Hassan’s LFI party in parliament, Mathilde Panot, said France’s prime minister Francois Bayrou had failed to condemn Israel’s actions.
The party’s boss, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accused Bayrou of “abandoning the French prisoners,” and called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in.
“These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it’s a form of instrumentalization to which we should not lend ourselves,” Bayrou responded in the National Assembly.
It’s “through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution” to the conflict, he added.
Foreign Minister Barrot also rejected Panot’s criticism, saying “the admirable mobilization” of French officials had made a rapid resolution of the situation possible “despite the harassment and defamation that they have been subjected to.”

France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict.
Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, whose entire population the United Nations has warned is at risk of famine.
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Egypt to block a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian activist convoy from reaching Gaza, as the group arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.

 


Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

Updated 11 June 2025
Follow

Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

  • Yair Yaakov was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military said Wednesday, as Israel presses its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and “an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication” from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day.
The military statement said he had been abducted and killed by fighters from Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally.
Yaakov was abducted along with his partner Meirav Tal, as they sheltered in their safe room in Nir Oz.
She was freed on November 28, 2023 during the first truce.
Abducted separately at the home of their mother, Yair’s two children Yagil and Or were also released on November 27 during the first truce.
Nir Oz was one of the communities hit hardest by the attack, with nearly a quarter of its residents killed or taken hostage.


Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

Argentine President Javier Milei attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem. (Reuters)
Updated 11 June 2025
Follow

Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

  • “I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei told Israeli parliament Wednesday

JERUSALEM: Argentine President Javier Milei said Wednesday his country would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the status of which is one of the most delicate issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei said in a speech in the Israeli parliament during an official state visit.
Argentina’s embassy is currently located near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Several countries, including the United States, Paraguay, Guatemala and Kosovo, have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, breaking with international consensus.
Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel treats the city as its capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem to become the capital of a future state.
Most foreign embassies to Israel are located in the coastal hub city of Tel Aviv in order to avoid interfering with negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2017, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking Palestinian anger and the international community’s disapproval.
The United States transferred its embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018.