Greece today affirmed its support to the maintenance of status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites and defense of church property against Israeli settler groups to take them over.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement that Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Andreas Katsaniotis reiterated in a phone call with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III ‘the full and unequivocal support of the Greek State to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, underlining its strong interest in defending its privileges and rights, including property rights, the religious Status Quo, as well as safeguarding and promoting the Holy Sites in the Holy Land.’
Katsaniotis ‘expressed strong concern for the incidents of ]Israeli settler[ violence against Christian Holy Sites and, in particular, for the recent attack on the Holy Shrine of the Tomb of the Mother of God in Gethsemane.’
Patriarch Theophilos III warmly thanked Katsaniotis for the sincere and continued support of the Greek State.
The telephone conversation, the Ministry noted, took place on the occasion of the Greek diplomat’s scheduled trip to Jerusalem in order to participate, as head of the official Greek delegation, in the Holy Fire Ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on Holy Saturday, April 15, 2023.
On March 19, two settlers entered the Church of Gethsemane and attempted to damage items inside, but a Palestinian man at the scene managed to stop them.
The attempted attack is merely the latest in a string of settler attacks perpetrated over the course of the last months against Christians and their property in Jerusalem.
In early February, Jewish settlers vandalized the Church of the Condemnation, located at the Second Station of the Via Dolorosa, and in January they attacked an Armenian restaurant in the Christian Quarter and desecrated the historic Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion in the occupied city.
In June 2022, Jewish radicals trespassed on theGreek Garden on Mount Zion and in March of the same year members of the Ateret Cohanim radical settler group took over the strategically-located the Little Petra Hotel in the city.
Escalating settler attacks against Christian property has prompted the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem to call on Israel, the occupying power, In their annual Easter message to secure safety, access and religious freedom for Christians in the Holy Land during Easter.
Palestinians in Jerusalem experience frequent violence from Jewish settlers and Israeli forces and both Christian and Muslim holy places come under attack.
Palestinians have long maintained that the settler takeover of the strategically-located hotel along with the forced ‘evictions’ of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan is politically-motivated and comes as part of Israel’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Jerusalemite Palestinians.
Since the occupation of Jerusalem by Israel in June 1967, Israeli settlers colonial organizations, including Elad and Ateret Cohanim, have claimed ownership of Palestinian property in Jerusalem. Backed by the Israeli state, judiciary and security services, these organizations have been working on wresting control of Palestinian property and convert it into colonial outposts as part of the efforts to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, as well as on managing archaeological sites in Silwan and overseeing their excavation. This scheme involves building new colonial tourist sites, such as the ‘City of David’, to bolster their propaganda.
Source: Palestine news & Information Agency