The Israeli authorities announced this Sunday night the approval of a “limited prayer plan” in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hours after the diocese of Jerusalem denounced the Israeli Police, the cardinal, to the traditional Palm Sunday mass.
“In an evaluation meeting held this afternoon by the commander of the Jerusalem district, Commissioner Avshalom Peled, together with the commander of the David zone, Chief Superintendent Dvir Tamam, and in coordination with the representative of the Latin Patriarchate, in order to allow all Christian denominations freedom of worship in the church of the, a limited prayer plan has been approved,” the Israel Police reported on its social networks.
In that same communication, the police force has defended that the “restriction” on sacred places “that lack a standard protection area, including the church of the Holy Sepulchre” derives “from the guidelines of the command of the Internal Front out of concern for the safety of the faithful.”
Finally, the Israel Police has highlighted that both the Western Wall plaza and the Temple Mount are “closed to the faithful” for “security” reasons, following the attacks by Iran, a response to the .
So far, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has not yet commented on the matter, after having regretted yesterday in a statement that the Israeli uniformed officers intercepted this Sunday the private delegation led by Pizzaballa, when it was heading to one of the most important places of worship in the world, and a symbol of religious harmony in the city, forcing them to turn around.
They insist that they were not going to celebrate a mass mass, but rather a private event with very few people, understanding the security circumstances, but Israel prevented them from doing so, a situation not known in the holy places of Jerusalem.
“It is true that the police had said that the orders of the internal command prevented any type of gathering in places without shelter, but we had not requested anything public, only a brief and small private ceremony to preserve the idea of the celebration in the Holy Sepulchre,” he explained in statements reported by the Italian channel TV2000.
“Full and immediate access”
For his part, the Prime Minister of Israel, has assured that he has “given instructions” to the competent authorities to grant the religious leader “full and immediate access” to the aforementioned temple.
“Today, out of special concern for his safety, Cardinal Pizzaballa was asked to refrain from celebrating mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Netanyahu noted after specifying that “in recent days, Iran has repeatedly attacked the holy places of the three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem with ballistic missiles,” one of them occurring, as he stated, “a few meters” from that temple where “missile fragments” fell.
Next, the Israeli Prime Minister insisted that, “as soon as” he learned of the “incident with Cardinal Pizzaballa” he gave “instructions to the authorities to allow the Patriarch to celebrate the services according to his wish.”
Avalanche of criticism
This situation has also been rejected by the custodian of the Holy Land, the Reverend Francesco Ielpo, guardian of the church of the Holy Sepulchre; as well as by the international community itself, from the Italian or Hungarian Government, has urged Israel to respect “the diversity of faiths and international law” after this “unjustified attack on religious freedom.”
Shortly afterwards, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Saar, responded to Sánchez, reproaching him for saying that when an “Iranian missile” hit near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, “he had nothing to say”, while also defending, in line, that his country “is committed to freedom of religion and worship”, and that “it will continue to defend it, unlike the Iranian regime”.
The president of Israel himself, has called the patriarch to express his “regret” over the “unfortunate incident”, just as the country’s deputies have questioned the validity of the police action, an example being the Arab-Israeli Ayman Odeh, who has presented an “urgent complaint” to the Ministry of Defense “after Cardinal Pizzaballa was prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the Palm Sunday ceremony, despite prior coordination and the fact that public assistance was not expected.”
