Israel cannot be trusted to protect freedom of religion in Jerusalem

Israel prevented thousands of Christian pilgrims from participating in Saturday’s “Holy Fire” celebrations in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem. Of the West Bank’s 50,000 Palestinian Christians, only about 6,000 permits were issued by Israel. And on Saturday, many foreign pilgrims were prevented from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christianity’s holiest site. Israeli authorities denied entry to the Vatican Ambassador to Palestine Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, an act that violates diplomatic protocols and international conventions.

Among the many misconceptions about the Palestine saga is that Palestinians are Muslims and that the historical struggle over the Holy Land is between Jews and Muslims. That is a gross misapprehension of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and independence, as well as a failure to understand the diverse social and cultural tapestry of the Palestinian people.

Most Palestinians are indeed Sunni Arabs — they constituted about 85 percent of historical Palestine in 1948, with Christians making up about 10 percent. Despite being a minority, Christians of all denominations were integral to Palestine’s political, economic and cultural life.

As for the Jews who lived in Palestine and were considered Palestinian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, it is estimated that, by the early 1900s, there were about 25,000 Jews in the Holy Land, about 4 percent of the total population.

Today, Palestinian Christians in the West Bank represent no more than 1.5 percent of the population, or 50,000, while another 1,100 were living in Gaza before the start of the ongoing Israeli war on the enclave.

Until the creation of Israel, Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisted peacefully within the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. But the 1948 and 1967 wars drove many Palestinian Christians out of historical Palestine. The Christians now living in Israel — and not all are Palestinian — make up 1.8 percent of its population.

Until the creation of Israel, Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisted peacefully within the walls of the Old City

Osama Al-Sharif

The Old City has become the fulcrum of the ongoing struggle between Palestinians and Israelis. With Israel in full military control of the walled city, with its sacred Muslim and Christian holy sites, the conflict eventually evolved into a religious one.

In East Jerusalem, the Arab Christian population is estimated to be about 12,850. This is about 1.1 percent of Jerusalem’s total population. The Christian population has been declining and the current number is similar to what it was more than 120 years ago. With Jewish settlers, most of whom are religious fundamentalists, flooding the city and terrorizing its inhabitants, Palestinian Christians have opted to emigrate.

In fact, the number of Palestinian Christians has been declining for decades. And it is Israel’s aggressive settler-based policies that have driven most to leave. Such policies do not differentiate between Muslim and Christian Palestinians — Israel targets both.

What has increased in recent years are the attacks and harassment of Christian worshippers, particularly Palestinians, by extremist Jews in the Old City. The world is used to seeing Jewish ultranationalists and ultrareligious Zionists storming Al-Haram Al-Sharif, what Jews call the Temple Mount, resulting in skirmishes and attacks against Muslim worshippers by Israeli soldiers. Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Muslim compound in 2000 triggered the Second Intifada, which resulted in the collapse of the Oslo Accords and the killing by Israel of no less than 3,000 Palestinians.

But rarely reported by the mainstream media are the attacks and insults that Christian worshippers in Jerusalem endure from Jewish extremists. The documented attacks include reports of ultra-Orthodox extremists spitting at Christian clergy, particularly monks and priests wearing religious garb, while walking in the Old City. Also, some churches and monasteries in East Jerusalem have experienced graffiti, property damage and desecration.

Some Christian pilgrims and clergy have reported verbal harassment or being impeded while trying to access Christian holy sites, particularly during religious processions or celebrations. There have been incidents of tombstones being damaged and anti-Christian graffiti in Christian burial grounds. Some Jewish extremist groups have organized protests against Christian ceremonies, particularly during the Christmas and Easter celebrations.

Ironically, support of Israel among evangelical Christians in the US has added to tensions between extremist Jews and Christians in general. Many of the evangelicals who visit the Holy Land believe that the creation of Israel fulfills a biblical prophecy. Some who visit Jerusalem try to convert Jews to Christianity, provoking retaliation.

Despite mounting evidence of extremist Jews insulting and attacking Christian pilgrims, there has been no denunciation by Western countries of such attacks or any move to pressure Israel to respect freedom of worship in the Holy Land.

With Jewish settlers flooding the city and terrorizing its inhabitants, Palestinian Christians have opted to emigrate

Osama Al-Sharif

Donald Trump’s new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is an ordained minister and an evangelical who is on record denying any rights for the Palestinians and advocating Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territories. Such religious intolerance did not exist before the fall of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Many Palestinian Christians, both at large and in Palestine, are known to the world. These include Edward Said, Emile Habibi, George Habash, Hanan Ashrawi, Zuhdi Tarazi, Shireen Abu Akleh, George Antonius, Khalil Al-Sakakini, May Ziadeh, George Saliba, Hasib Sabbagh and Hanna Siniora. Palestinian Christians have been contributing to civilization for centuries.

It is, therefore, sad to see Palestinian Christians being forced by the Israeli occupation to leave the land of their ancestors. It is even more concerning to see Christian pilgrims insulted and attacked by Jewish extremists and Christian holy sites vandalized.

These attacks on Christian worshippers and holy sites have intensified in recent years, with little international attention or condemnation. The pattern of harassment and vandalism seems to be part of a larger effort to eliminate any non-Jewish religious presence in Jerusalem, particularly in and around the Old City, where the most sacred sites are located.

Israel cannot be trusted to secure and guarantee freedom of worship in the Holy City. Jerusalem must remain open to the followers of all monotheistic religions. That is the premise of the Abraham Accords. But since the signing of those accords, Jewish attacks on Al-Aqsa have spiked, with calls to blow up the third-holiest site for billions of Muslims. What happened to Christian worshippers in Jerusalem on Saturday and Sunday cannot be excused.

Jewish extremists openly say they want to make Jerusalem a 100 percent Jewish city, with no religious rights for Muslims or Christians. They and the evangelists have conflicting prophecies about the future. Still, in the process, they are uprooting Palestinian Christians from their ancestral lands and imposing a dark and sinister reality onto the Holy City and beyond.

The international community bears responsibility for protecting the multireligious character of Jerusalem. Under international law and numerous UN resolutions, the Old City’s status as an occupied territory is clear, while unilateral efforts to change its demographic and religious composition are illegal. Yet actions on the ground continue to erode the city’s diverse heritage, with Christian communities paying a heavy price alongside their Muslim neighbors.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator in Amman. X: @plato010