Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

By Amiram Barkat

Edited by +KJB

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in the Jewish occupied land known as "Israel" attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The Christian clergyman prefered not to lodge a useless complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by modern-day "Jews." Many Christian clergy in Jerusalem have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it -- but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the Holy Cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both the Archbishop and the yeshiva student were questioned by occupying police and the yeshiva student will supposedly be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for only 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of prejudiced behavior against Christians has been going on for years. Still Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the Education Minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against [so-called] Jews anywhere in the world, the 'Israeli' government is incensed! So why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country." The Faithful, whose families have lived in this area ever since Our Lord walked this earth, are no better off living under the government of the occupying descendants of those who refused to recognize their Promised Savior than they would be if they lived under a Satanic government controlled by the tenets of Islam.

Rossing says there are certain common characteristics from the point of view of time and location to all the anti-Christian incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where "Jews" and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

"There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the Mayor on Christian Affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the criminal instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the New Testament Jewish religion [i.e., Christianity] with disdain.

"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the "Jewish" quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched."

Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and "punished."

He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings due to such uncivilized behavior by mostly yeshiva students in an attempt to keep order.