WAFA – Palestine News Agency
Top clerics say new Israeli bill constitutes unprecedented attack on Christians in the Holy Land
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Top Christian leaders in Jerusalem warned on Tuesday that a new Israeli bill that is being quickly advanced for legislation constitutes an unprecedented attack on Christians and will have grave consequences on Christian presence in the Holy Land if adopted into law.
A letter by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theofilos III, the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Patton, and Nourhan Manugian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed the churches’ concerns of an attempt by Israeli legislators to advance a bill intended to expropriate rights of churches in their lands.
“The bill was one of the main reasons for the recent crisis that developed between the Christian community in the Holy Land and the State of Israel,” said the letter in reference to closing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem for three days in February in protest against new Israeli taxation policy of church property, which was seen as a flagrant violation of the Status Quo that existed in the Holy Land for centuries. The church was reopened only after Israel rescinded the decision.
The church leaders accused the Israeli government of “attempting to promote divisive, racist and subversive agendas, thereby undermining the Status Quo and targeting the Christian community on the basis of extraneous and populist considerations.”
They said, “We strongly believe that this bill constitutes a systematic and unprecedented attack against the Christians of the Holy Land and violates the most basic rights,” calling on Netanyahu “to act quickly and decisively to block the bill whose unilateral promotion will compel the Churches to reciprocate.”
The Islamic Christian Commission in Support of Jerusalem & Holy Sites also condemned in a statement on Tuesday the Israeli bill, saying it violates the Status Quo in the Holy Land.
M.K.