This Sunday, Israel prevented entry to one of the most important places in Christianity, the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, where tradition places the death and resurrection of Jesus, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and three other officials, to pray on the occasion of Palm Sunday. The decision has led to a controversy of international dimensions, with condemnations from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez; the top leaders of France and Italy, Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni; and even the US ambassador and ardent defender of Israel, Mike Huckabee. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded by defending the police action.
The Holy Week celebrations had been canceled for days, in a situation only comparable to 2020. The traditionally festive Palm Sunday procession, in which thousands of people descend from the Mount of Olives between branches and songs, had already been suspended, and replaced by a mass, finally celebrated in the Church of Gethsemane with barely thirty attendees.
Before, however, as has been a tradition for centuries, four senior Catholic officials (including Pizzaballa) went to pray at the Holy Sepulchre, which has remained closed since Israel and the United States launched the war against Iran a month ago, as well as (in the middle of the month of Ramadan) and the Western Wall, the most emblematic places of worship of the other two main monotheistic religions, Islam and Judaism. The three places are located within the old walled citadel, where the Israeli authorities apply stricter regulations, due to the lack of air-raid shelters and the difficulties of treating any injured people in its pedestrian alleys.
The four leaders (Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, and Francesco Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land) were heading to the Holy Sepulcher in the morning, “privately and without any type of procession or ceremonial act,” when the police “intercepted them on the way,” so “they were forced to return,” the Patriarchate says in a statement. It is, he emphasizes, “the first time in centuries” that “the heads of the Church were not able to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass at the Holy Sepulchre”, which “constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and disproportionate measure” that sets “a serious precedent and attacks the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, have their eyes fixed on Jerusalem.”
The Patriarchate recalls that those responsible for the churches “have acted with full responsibility since the beginning of the war”, canceling public meetings, at a time that not only affects the thousands of Catholics in the city (especially Palestinians), but also those who live in the West Bank and do not have permission to cross military checkpoints and all the pilgrims who have not been able to come because commercial flights to Tel Aviv airport remain minimal due to the war.
Netanyahu has justified the action of the police, which is under the umbrella of one of his most ultra-nationalist coalition partners. The agents, he said, prevented him from passing “without bad intentions”, only “especially concerned about his safety.” The president, Isaac Herzog, has been more conciliatory, calling Pizzaballa to express his “deep regret over the incident.”
Reactions
As the hours have passed, reactions have arrived from different capitals, turning the matter into something that the police who prevented the mass probably did not imagine.
The first, from Rome, by Meloni, with a harsh tone. He considers it “an offense not only for believers, but for every community that recognizes religious freedom.” Macron then offered his “full support to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Christians of the Holy Land.”
Huckabee, the ambassador to Jerusalem appointed by Donald Trump and known for his close postulates, has lamented the “unfortunate excess,” with “important global repercussions.” “It is difficult to understand or justify preventing the Patriarch from entering the church on Palm Sunday for a private ceremony,” he added in a message on the X social network.
The police have issued a statement in which they ignore the specific case (with four participants) to emphasize that they cannot “allow mass gatherings” to “protect the lives of Christian faithful”, as they do with those of other religions. And he insists that the old city (with almost all businesses and entrances closed) is a “complex area” due to the lack of air raid shelters and the impossibility of accessing large rescue vehicles in the event that a missile causes a large number of victims.
The incident touches, on the one hand, with a feeling of grievance that has deepened for years, with desecrations, attacks on churches and spitting on priests and pilgrims.
On the other hand, the double standard in the application of the rules by the Israeli authorities. The same police that this Sunday prevented four prominent Catholic leaders from celebrating an important date in a key place of their religion is the same one that, at the beginning of the war, turned a blind eye to different mass celebrations (which far exceeded the maximum of 50 people) in different parts of the country during the Purim festival, a type of Jewish carnival. There are numerous videos of up to hundreds of people celebrating outdoors and in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem, concentrations that exceed the limit set by the army can be seen from the street. Also these days, no rabbi has reported problems entering the synagogues of the Jewish quarter of the old city, one of the four that make up it along with the Muslim and Christian Palestinians, and the Armenian.
