Christians in Jerusalem Want Jews to Stop Spitting on Them
By Amiram Barkat
www.haaretz.com
A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in 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 ******** When the clergyman let the window down, the
passerby spat in his face.
The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and
told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many
Jerusalem clergy 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 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 were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought
to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student
from approaching the Old City for 75 days.
But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say
this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan
Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.
"When there is an attack against 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."
Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of
view of time and ******** to the 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."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during
the entire 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
instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the
Christian religion 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 in an attempt
to keep order.
