Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

12 February 2009

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

spitting-poster.jpg

From Haaretz:

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 window. 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 location 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.

Naturally, the phenomenon of Jewish Israelis spitting on Christians is treated as a closely-guarded secret by the American media. But if it were Muslims who were spitting on Christians, you can bet that it would be covered breathlessly by media outlets all over the US.

(cross posted at appletree)

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Israel:
"Anti-Semitic Instigators 'R Us!"

12:04 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And America's first black president proudly insists that "the US will stand by Israel, come what may."

Some 'great black hope' he's turned out to be.

Once again regular Americans have been sold a pup. And to think that they could hardly wait to fork out their hard earned dollars to buy it.

Don't they know yet that whenever anything seems too good to be true, it always is?

OK so Obama's better than Bush, but who the hell wouldn't be?

12:18 am  
Blogger Gert said...

The campaign for a "Jews-only" state is gaining momentum, see also the rise of the fascist Lieberman. Not surprisingly Christians are getting some too. Many are Palestinians. Israel is a racist state: an ethno/religiocentric society was always going to degrade into more thuggish forms of racism, such as these incidents.

Kiwi: don't give up on Bambam just yet; things (about I/P) are rumbling in the US at the grassroots level. See e.g. Hampshire Uni's divestment from Israel campaign. Hampshire led the way on BDS against SA all these years ago, now other US campuses will follow. The snowball is still small but it's growing, just watch...

2:47 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brits and Canooks often say, sometimes with tongue in cheek, that they're the 51st US state.

Without any tongue in cheek I say there are now 53 states, including, Canada, Britain and Israel.

2:20 pm  

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