Our EAs this year provided protective presence and monitored the human rights situation throughout the Easter celebrations. This is the 3rd account from our EAs sharing from Easter 2014 in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Holy Saturday was full of joyful celebrations as Local Christians waited for the arrival of the Holy Fire to be passed on throughout the world. Photo EAPPI/J. Valkama.
by Juhani, Jerusalem Ar Ram team
At the plaza of the Holy Sepulchre Church there’s a group of Christian pilgrims standing – a very squashed crowd in the middle of the steel fences. It’s the Holy Saturday just before Easter and they are waiting for the Holy Fire ceremony to start. The fire is lit in a place where they believe Jesus was crucified and buried. So for the Christians it’s a very special and holy place. From there the fire is passed throughout the Christian world, from candle to candle.
There are dozens of Israeli police and guards moving around the plaza, looking nervous and suspicious. The pilgrim group, on the other hand, is not able to move. The sun is parching and their waiting just goes on.
“It’s the biggest wish in my life to be here”, says Janus, a pilgrim from Romania. “It’s not pleasant to be waiting like this, but in my heart I always knew that one day I must come here.”
At last, half an hour before the ceremony starts, they open the fences and let the people into the church. They are a lucky, but a very small band. When they’re in, the plaza of the Holy Sepulchre remains almost completely empty. Even though it is one of the most important Christian celebrations, one would think that there aren’t very many people interested.
The truth is different. All roads leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are cut off. Everywhere around the Old City of Jerusalem there are great number of local Christians and pilgrims behind the barriers trying to participate in Easter celebrations, but they are hampered by the Israeli police. The ceremony starts at 2pm, but the streets are closed already at 9am. No explanations are given by the Israeli troops. There’s a small tourist group near the Jaffa gate reading their maps and even they are evicted by the police.
The restrictions of Easter go even further. Already in the Palm Sunday procession it is clear that not all who would like to be there are present. There is just handful of Palestinian Christians from the occupied West Bank in Jerusalem because the permits have been very difficult to get. There is a simultaneous Jewish celebration too, Passover, that has tightened the restrictions for the Christians and Muslims even more, especially in Jerusalem. Also the Separation Barrier divides Palestinian Christians from accessing Jerusalem and Bethlehem freely. It’s a very concrete reminder of the severe restrictions of Palestinians mobility and lack of their human rights.
The separation barrier is illegal according to the International Court of Justice and in 2012 US State Department published a report about Israeli policies restricting freedom of worship for Palestinian Christians and Muslims. The report says:
“Strict closures and curfews imposed by the Israeli government negatively affected residents’ ability to practice their religion at holy sites” and that “the separation barrier significantly impeded Bethlehem-area Christians from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and made visits to Christian sites in Bethany (al-Eizariya) and Bethlehem difficult for Palestinian Christians who live on the Jerusalem side of the barrier.”
So the long-term conflict between the occupying state and the occupied is visible also on Easter at least through the fences, barriers and permits declined. The ongoing peace negotiations are not believed to make any significant results, but the hope lives on.
“I’m going to pray”, replies Janus when asked what he is going to do when he gets into the church. “I’m going to pray for peace. What could be more important?”
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