The Jewish holiday of Sukkot is coming to an end, marking a turbulent week for Jerusalem’s Christians who have had to endure being spat on, mainly by ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The Christians include Armenians, who have had a presence in the Holy Land for 2,000 years. The National saw two separate incidents at the entrance to the Convent of St James, the spiritual home and residential area for many of the Armenian Quarter’s residents. The incidents happened within 20 minutes of each other.
They also include foreign pilgrims, who provide a significant part of Israel’s tourism revenue. Footage emerged early this week of Jewish adults and children spitting on Christian pilgrims carrying a cross on Via Dolorosa, drawing widespread condemnation from Jews and Christians, Israelis and non-Israelis alike.
There are reports that Pope Francis is furious. The UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “It is difficult to find the words to adequately condemn such disgraceful behaviour, which is the very antithesis of Torah values.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be “zero tolerance” for such attacks, despite being in government with ministers who played down the incidents.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of policing, said spitting was “not a criminal case” and “we need to act on it through instruction and education – not everything justifies an arrest”.
Knesset member Simcha Rothman said the incidents were being “blown out of proportion”.
Nonetheless, Jerusalem police arrested five suspects and called the incidents “disgraceful acts of hatred”, harsh words that Christians in the city have told The National are long overdue at best, empty at worst.
Not all was bad. Just outside the walls of the Old City, pro-Israel Christians from across the world congregated in West Jerusalem on Wednesday for the annual Jerusalem March, part of a series of events organised by the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem. It was a celebratory event, cheered on by crowds of Israeli Jews.
The contrasting events of the week paint a complex picture of Israel’s interaction with Christianity, particularly during the course of its current government, the most right-wing in the country's history.
Christian Zionists, especially numerous in the evangelical community, have for decades been a pillar of western support for Israel. Israel frequently says it is the only safe place for Christians in the Middle East, a region where religious minorities have been suffering persecution and decline for years.
On the other hand, Palestinian Christians have played a significant role in anti-Israel activism, and even those not involved politics have long complained that life in the Holy Land is becoming intolerable, because of mounting attacks by fundamentalist Jews, illegal settlement activity targeting community buildings and land, and vandalism of church property.
Campaign group Protecting Holy Land Christians says at the current rate of decline, “within a generation there will be no Christian communities left in the Holy Land”. Numbers show the extent of the problem: the group says Christians comprise less than 1 per cent of Jerusalem’s population, down from 11 per cent in the middle of the 20th century.
Sukkot this year drew unprecedented criticism about fringe but mounting fundamentalist Jewish attacks on Christians in the Holy Land. Whether the government and authorities will turn harsh words of condemnation into action depends on which Christian you ask. For those who have lived here the longest, there is resounding pessimism.
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
Scores
New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs
New Zealand win by 47 runs
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
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Emirates Cricket Board Women’s T10
ECB Hawks v ECB Falcons
Monday, April 6, 7.30pm, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
The match will be broadcast live on the My Sports Eye Facebook page
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Coach: Chaitrali Kalgutkar
Squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Archara Supriya, Chamani Senevirathne, Chathurika Anand, Geethika Jyothis, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kashish Loungani, Khushi Sharma, Khushi Tanwar, Rinitha Rajith, Siddhi Pagarani, Siya Gokhale, Subha Srinivasan, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish
Falcons
Coach: Najeeb Amar
Squad: Kavisha Kumari (captain), Almaseera Jahangir, Annika Shivpuri, Archisha Mukherjee, Judit Cleetus, Ishani Senavirathne, Lavanya Keny, Mahika Gaur, Malavika Unnithan, Rishitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Shashini Kaluarachchi, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Vaishnave Mahesh
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Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
