Hostility to religions other than Judaism

An Israeli police checkpoint blocks access to the Old City of Jerusalem, April 19, 2014. The day before Easter, thousands of Palestinian Christians and international pilgrims attempt to enter Jerusalem’s Old CIty to participate in the “Saturday of Light” or “Holy Fire” celebration in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

More PHOTOS: Christians face barriers to Easter worship in Jerusalem

Activestills 21 Apr Text and photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler —

Year after year, Palestinian Christians and international pilgrims face checkpoints and harsh treatment by Israeli police officers as they attempt to celebrate the Easter season in Jerusalem … While Palestinian Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and Gaza have to apply for permits to enter Jerusalem for their religious celebrations, Israeli Jews (and effectively, any Jew regardless of their nationality) participate in their religious celebrations in occupied East Jerusalem without any restriction. Even Jerusalem ID holders and Palestinian citizens of Israel needed special police-issued wristbands to pass checkpoints into the Old City on Saturday, while in at least some cases Jewish worshipers were allowed to pass freely by police while crowds of other pilgrims were forced to wait. Palestinians and others who face these checkpoints and barricades often report harsh treatment by police.

Last year, a Coptic priest was choked and beaten by police in an incident caught on video. While authorities claimed the case was a rare exception, and that the massive police presence is needed to maintain order, Palestinian Christians maintain that such abuses are commonplace.
http://972mag.com/photos-christians-face-barriers-to-easter-worship-in-jerusalem/89921/

Israeli forces fire tear gas at Christian pilgrims in al-Eizariya


More Photos here

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Dozens of Christian pilgrims suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation on Friday after Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters as they performed religious rites at the Tomb of Lazarus in al-Eizariya [Biblical 'Bethany'] in East Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers reportedly refused to stop firing tear gas canisters despite the presence of pilgrims after clashes had broken out between local youths and Israeli forces in the area. Witnesses told Ma‘an that a tour guide who was escorting the pilgrims asked an Israeli officer to stop firing tear gas canisters until pilgrims left, but the officer continued to fire. The pilgrims had to take shelter in a souvenir shop before they could complete their prayers.The owner of the souvenir shop also tried to convince the Israeli officer to stop firing tear gas so that the pilgrims could leave, but instead the officer “asked a soldier to fire tear gas canisters at the church and at the pilgrims,” witnesses added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=691171

MAALUL (Ma‘an) 19 Apr by Alex Shams — As thousands of Palestinian Christians descend on Jerusalem for Holy Week festivities, the villagers of Maalul [Ma‘loul] are busy preparing their own Easter celebration for the one day a year Israeli authorities allow them to hold services in their village church. Their forefathers were expelled from their homes in the village in 1948 by Israeli forces, and today hundreds of their descendants live in nearby Nazareth, Yafa al-Naseriyye, and Haifa. They are forbidden from returning to the village, even though it sits mere kilometers away from their new homes. But in 2003, more than 50 years after they were forced to flee their homes, villagers returned to Maalul to celebrate Easter in the Catholic Church, one of the few structures that had not been demolished by authorities … The vast majority of the village’s homes have been bulldozed, their clean-cut stones now collected in haphazard piles across the gently rolling hill that once was home to 800 people. But at the peak of the small hill stand two churches — one Catholic and one Greek Orthodox — while a humble mosque sits in a small valley down below, beside the Christian and Muslim cemeteries. “The area is open, so we went to pray there in the church,” Jeraisy said of the first year they began organizing Easter celebrations in the village. “The Muslim community of Maalul also came then and prayed at the mosque.” Since then, villagers have come back on a yearly basis to hold services here, and more than 800 attended last time, he said … Although most Palestinian refugees were forced to flee into Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan, tens of thousands managed to remain inside the borders of the newly-established state. Like the villagers of Maalul, these refugees found themselves living only a few kilometers away from their old homes, yet forbidden from returning. For decades, Israeli authorities have kept strict watch over the more than 400 Palestinian villages that were forcibly depopulated in 1948. The vast majority were systematically demolished in the 1950s, part of an effort to ensure that the refugees not be allowed to exercise their right to return to their homes. Although most of Maalul’s buildings were destroyed, the churches and mosque remained standing…. [good photos here]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=690714