Palestinian Christians Mark Easter in Jerusalem Amid Closures and War Restrictions

Holy sites in Jerusalem have reopened after being largely closed for 40 days during the war with Iran. During Holy Week, the Old City should have been crowded with pilgrims, but its stone passageways were quiet. On Good Friday, the Via Dolorosa, the path that marks Jesus’ final steps to the cross, stood mostly empty.

Rafi Ghattas, an official at the Catholic St. James Church who also works as a tour guide, described the war’s effect on the city’s holiest shrines. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile landed beside the Old City walls, with other pieces landing near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Christ’s resurrection, and outside the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. Israeli police then restricted who could enter the Old City and limited the number of people who could come to worship.

A few of the faithful were still able to walk the route carrying crosses and whispering prayers, stopping at the Stations of the Cross where Jesus is traditionally said to have paused. One speaker in the report said the authorities had forbidden the Way of the Cross and prayer at the Stations, and said, “today, our heart is broken and we are feeling sad and emotions because it’s our right to pray in this place.”

With large groups barred from the Old City, Palestinian Christians improvised. In East Jerusalem, they recreated the Stations of the Cross in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in part of Jerusalem that Israel captured in 1967. The report notes that many residents there are known as Jerusalemites, a identity shaped by being from this city and by being both Christian and Palestinian.

Across Israel and the West Bank, about 220,000 Palestinian Christians observed the same ritual on that day. Among the youngest participants was 6-year-old Alexander, son of Sami Helou. His father’s family’s faith, carried into a child’s participation in the ritual, reflects the handing down of faith from one generation to the next (Psalm 78:4).

Alexander’s father, Sami Helou, spoke about the closure. He said, “If they close the Old City for us, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it hurts, but it will not stop me from living my faith and practicing my faith. I will practice it anyhow, regardless. I will always have my Via Dolorosa. Nobody can take it from me.”

Source: Read the original report