SPITTING ON CHRISTIANS IN JERUSALEM RAISES EYEBROWS
By Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
205/spitting-on-christians-in-jerusalem-raises-eye brows
Jan 18 2010
JERUSALEM (JTA) — From his ceramics gallery along Armenian
Patriarchate Road, Garo Sandrouni has a sweeping view of one of the
Old City of Jerusalem’s longest thoroughfares, stretching from Jaffa
Gate deep into the Jewish Quarter.
Jewish worshipers heading to and from the Western Wall jostle for
space along the narrow passage with Armenian priests and seminarians,
and Sandrouni says about once a week he finds himself breaking up
fights between them.
Typically the skirmishes begin when a young yeshiva student spits on
or near a group of teenage seminarians, who occasionally respond by
beating up their attacker. Several years ago, a young religious man
pulled a gun when Sandrouni moved to intervene in a fight.
"Most of the incidents that happen, unfortunately, they happen in front
of my store," said Sandrouni, who more than once has come to the aid of
a yeshiva student bloodied after a run-in with a group of seminarians.
"Almost everybody, after the fight, they apologized," Sandrouni said.
"They say, ‘We are sorry. We didn’t know that their reaction would
be so strong.’ "
Attacks on Christian clergyman in Jerusalem are not a new phenomenon,
and may result from an extreme interpretation of the Bible’s injunction
to "abhor" idol worshipers. Five years ago, in what many say is the
worst incident on record, a crucifix hanging from the neck of the
Armenian archbishop, Nourhan Manougian, was broken in the course of
an altercation with a yeshiva student who had spit on him.
Christian leaders stress that the problem is not one of
Christian-Jewish relations in Israel. Most Israelis, they say,
are peaceful and welcoming. In an interview with several Armenian
Jerusalemites, they emphasized repeatedly that their relations with
the largely religious community in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter
are normal.
The assaults, according to George Hintlian, a spokesman for the
Armenian community in Jerusalem, are carried out by people from
the outside — visitors to Jerusalem from other towns, and even
from abroad.
Several people familiar with the issue say the attacks recently have
reached epidemic proportions — or at least enough that government
officials and Orthodox rabbinic figures have begun to take notice.
A recent meeting between Foreign Ministry officials, the Jerusalem
municipality and fervently Orthodox, or haredi, leaders resulted in a
statement by Beth Din Tzedek, a haredi rabbinic tribunal, denouncing
the phenomenon. In a sign of the ministry’s concern over the issue,
both the meeting and the statement were publicized on the Web site
of Israel’s diplomatic mission to the Vatican.
"Besides desecrating the Holy Name, which in itself represents a very
grave sin, provoking gentiles is, according to our sages — blessed be
their holy and righteous memory — forbidden and is liable to bring
tragic consequences upon our own community, may God have mercy,"
said the statement.
The incident that appears to have gotten the ministry’s attention
occurred last September, when a pair of teenage Armenian seminarians
reportedly fought with a young yeshiva student who spit on them.
Police intervened, arrested the seminarians and referred the matter
to the Interior Ministry.
According to Hintlian, the seminarians are now facing deportation —
a decision the Armenians have officially protested. Carrying out the
order would require the police to seize the boys from their seminary
in the Old City, Hintlian said, which likely would result in a public
relations disaster.
"It won’t happen easily," Hintlian said. "They’ll think twice."
Though they may bear the brunt of the phenomenon, given the proximity
of the Armenian and Jewish quarters, cases of spitting are confined
neither to Armenian clergy nor the Old City.
Athanasius Macora, a Texas-born Franciscan friar who lives in western
Jerusalem, frequently has been the target of spitting during his
nearly two decades residing in the Israeli capital.
Macora, whose brown habit easily identifies him as a Christian
clergyman, says that while he has not endured any spitting incidents
recently, recollections of past incidents started flowing over the
course of 30-minute interview.
In a sitting room at Terra Sancta College, where he is the superior,
Macora recalled the blond-haired man who spit at him on Agron Street,
not far from the U.S. Consulate. Another time, walking with an Armenian
priest in the same area, a man in a car opened his window to let the
spittle fly. Once it was a group of yeshiva students in the Old City,
another time a young girl.
Sometimes the assailants are clad in distinctive haredi garb;
other times the attackers are wearing the knitted yarmulkes of the
national religious camp. In almost all cases, though, they are young
religious men.
A Franciscan church just outside the Old City walls was vandalized
recently with anti-Christian graffiti, Macora said.
"I think it’s just a small group of people who are hostile, and a
very small group of people," Macora said. "If I go to offices or
other places, a lot of people are very friendly."
Meanwhile, the Beth Din Tzedek statement, and an earlier one from
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, have impressed the Christians
and raised hopes that the spitting may soon end.
"We hope that this problem will be solved one day," Sandrouni said,
"for the sake of mutual coexistence."