15,000 attend Holy Saturday ceremony
By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST STAFF

Jerusalem Post
April 22 2006

Some 15,000 people attended Holy Saturday ceremonies Jerusalem on
Saturday. Thousands of police were positioned around the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher in east Jerusalem, hoping to prevent confrontations
between various groups of worshippers expected to make their way to
the church.

Police were also patrolling streets and alleys adjacent to the church,
and closed the Old City to cars, requesting that visitors park outside
the walls, Israel Radio reported.

Holy Saturday, which falls between Good Friday and Easter Day, marks
the day on which Christ’s body lay in his tomb.

Easter rites at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have been marked by
violence in the past. Since the Crusades, three major denominations
have controlled the church – Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and
(Latin) Roman Catholic – with the rights and privileges of all of
the communities protected by the Status Quo of the Holy Places set
up in 1852.

According to Dep.-Cmdr. Asher Ben- Atrzi, head of the Israel Police
Interpol and Foreign Liaison Section, almost every year a dispute
erupts between the Armenians and the Greeks over who enters the cave
where Jesus is believed to be buried first. The different denominations
also argue over prayer times. ‘The police really need to be hands
on at the churches,’ he explained, ‘to prevent them from arguing
and fighting.’