Israeli officials ‘are taking pride in violating the status quo’
We spoke to Xavier Abu Eid, a political scientist and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization from occupied East Jerusalem, who explained that Jerusalem, “has a very central place” in the history of Palestinian Christians.
“We have to … understand what the Israeli occupation is doing to all Palestinians, because there is a concept. … It’s called the status quo. It’s understood and it’s under a very old agreement, centuries or older than the state of Israel,” he said.
Under the status quo, “the status of Christian and Muslim holy sites, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, for example, and the Holy Sepulchre, would be respected,” he explained.
Despite this, he says, “Israeli government officials are taking pride in violating the status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by allowing Israeli settlers to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque”.
He said the Israeli authorities are also trying to “turn Mount of Olives, a very important place for this [Easter] celebration, into an Israeli national park”.
“So you’re talking about a community that feels under threat, not just from a national point of view with the Israeli government, pushing for ethnic cleansing and annexation, but also from the traditions that religiously we have kept here for generations,” he noted.
Israeli forces restrict Christian worshippers in Jerusalem’s Old City on Holy Saturday: Report
Israeli forces have clamped down on worshippers and prevented dozens of families from reaching their homes in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem as Christians celebrated Holy Saturday, according to Wafa.
Quoting local sources, the Palestinian news agency reported that Israeli forces had “transformed” the Old City into “a military zone, erecting checkpoints throughout the area and its alleyways leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”.
Wafa said that witnesses reported that Israeli forces obstructed the movement of worshippers, including the Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Vatican representative to the State of Palestine, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, detaining them at checkpoints and denying them access to the church.
Silence of church leaders amid genocide ‘too loud’, says Christian pastor
We spoke to Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian, Reverend Munther Isaac, who lamented the fact that this is the second year in which Christians in the occupied West Bank “mark Easter in the shadow of the genocide unfolding in Gaza”.
“There is clearly an atmosphere of frustration and anger, even fear, that characterises our celebrations this year,” he said. “It’s really hard to fathom the idea that we’re still saying the same things about the need for a ceasefire, for this genocide to stop.”
However, he said there is also a sense of “defiance and resilience, whether it’s the faithful in Gaza insisting on holding prayers despite the risk, or the faithful here [in occupied East Jerusalem], who are celebrating in prayer, defiance and hope”.
He added that it is the duty of people to speak up, adding, “I think the silence of many people of faith around the world, including many church leaders … is too loud.”
Colombia’s president says it is important to ‘reflect’ on the ongoing genocide during Easter
Gustavo Petro has shared a post on X referring to the severe torture and abuse that the former director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, has suffered at the hands of the Israeli authorities.
The Colombian President also stated that “At the time of Jesus’s passion and death”, referring to Easter, it was important to “reflect” on the plight of Safia and the Palestinian people, who are “now under a bloody genocide”.
