Israel/Palestinian Territories: Christians show understanding for al-Aqsa protests

Middle East | 20 August 2017

According to the Church Times on 21 July 2017, thirteen church leaders from Jerusalem signed a declaration asking the Israeli authorities to respect "the prevailing Status Quo", after metal detectors had been installed at the entrance to the Temple Mount following the shooting of two police officers on 14 July. Among a delegation of Palestinian church and community leaders who went to the al-Aqsa mosque to express their support for opposition to such security measures were the Greek-Orthodox Archbishop Hanna Atallah, Roman Catholic priest Jamal Khader and Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb, as reported by Friends of Sabeel UK on 27 July 2017. According to a BBC report on 25 July 2017, Israel had already removed the security measures in the night of 24 July after discussions with Jordan (regarded as custodian of the site). Michael Bosch, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, considers the involvement of Christians in opposing the security measures to be an important signal: "The Temple Mount crisis is portrayed as being a clash between Judaism and Islam. This is understandable as the Temple Mount is also known as the Noble Sanctuary in the Arab world and is seen as the third holiest site in Islam. However, this whole crisis is also about sovereignty. Many Palestinians see the compound as the last place where they can freely go in and out without being checked or monitored by the Israeli security forces. For them, the compound is a safe haven. The Palestinian Christians went there to say "˜no" to any escalation in the violence between Israelis and Palestinians, but they also wanted to underline their compatriots" desire of having a free place of their own, or in the words of Mitri Raheb: "˜we demonstrated [-] Christian-Muslim unity as a tool of creative resistance." Another Palestinian Christian said that this was a "˜symbolic gesture to tell the whole world we need your help and prayers; we need your action to reach peace and justice in the Holy Land." Palestinian Christians face a lot of problems because of the ongoing conflict. The world should not forget them."