‘Jews Need to Respect Others,’ says priest in wake of Monastery Attack

Sunday, 9 September 2012

‘Jews Need to Respect Others,’ says priest in wake of Monastery Attack

Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa--'If you as a Jew
want people to respect you, you need to respect others.'

By Richard Edmondson

The state of Israel seems to be in “damage control mode” over the vandalism of a monastery earlier this week. While the attack, apparently perpetrated by Jewish settlers, received limited coverage from the US mainstream media, the news has been carried on a number of Christian websites (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here— see also my own article on the attack which I posted on Tuesday) and has equally gotten wide attention from the international media.

The vandals attacked the Monastery of Notre-Dame de Sept-Douleurs, located in Latrun, about 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem, setting fire to the front door and defacing the walls with hate-filled graffiti, including the words “Jesus is a monkey.”

The incident has been viewed as a “price tag” vandalism carried out in response to the clearing of Migron, a West Bank settlement outpost, a day earlier. And while other vandalisms of Christian sites in Israel—such as the attack on the Narkis Street Baptist Church in February this year—largely escaped notice, this one seems to have provoked a more visceral reaction from the Christian world.

“The Christian community awoke this morning…to discover with horror that once again it is the target of forces of hatred within Israeli society,” said a Catholic statement issued in response to the attack. “What happened in Latrun is only another in a long series of attacks against Christians and their places of worship.”

The statement went on to ask: “What is going on in Israeli society today that permits Christians to be scapegoat and targeted by these acts of violence?”—and also wondered, “What kind of ‘teaching of contempt’ for Christians is being communicated in their schools and in their homes?”

The statement was released by the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land and included the signatures of Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch for Jerusalem, Gerogio Lingua, Apostolic Nuncio for Jordan, and former Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah. The church officials called upon the Israeli authorities to “act to put an end to this senseless violence and to ensure a ‘teaching of respect’ in schools for all those who call this land home.”

Outside the Holy Land, the attack was also condemned by the Catholic Church in England and Wales, where Bishop Declan Lang warned of a climate of “rising intolerance” in Israel and said the incident follows a “disturbing pattern in which Christian and Muslim sites are being targeted by extremists or settlers within Israeli society.”

This “disturbing pattern” was also remarked upon by Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a Franciscan priest who serves as the Vatican’s Custos, or Custodian of the Holy Land, and who discussed the matter within the context of the tearing apart earlier this year of a copy of the New Testament by an Israeli Knesset member.

“It was shocking,” Pizzaballa said of the book destruction. “If you as a Jew want people to respect you, you need to respect others. There are billions of Christians for whom this book is holy.”

And that seems to be what has Israelis worried. As I said, there is a certain amount of damage control going on. And as is typically the case when, say, Israel commits war crimes against Palestinians, it isn’t so much the act itself but rather the damage to Israel’s public image that appears to be of foremost concern. Consider the following news item from Ynet:

Cables sent by Israeli ambassadors in Europe to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem indicate that the recent desecration of a monastery outside Jerusalem has resulted in a major hit to Israel’s image in the continent.

“The media coverage (of the vandalism) is causing grave damage to Israel’s image in France,” a cable sent by the embassy in Paris read.

And indeed, the attack has even been condemned by the French government (not a peep of protest from our own, but of course that’s par for the course), while the Italian media, perhaps not too surprisingly, are in a frenzy over the affair as well. Again from Ynet:

Media outlets in Italy criticized Israel’s security forces, who “apprehend terrorists before they leave for their mission but fail to catch a few Jews who are operating right under their noses.”

The following video, posted by the Jerusalem Post, reports on the monastery attack but also takes pains to emphasize the more positive aspects of Israeli society. Lucky us, we also get to see a visit to the monastery by a high-ranking Israeli official.

Pizzaballa says the animosity toward Christianity is reflected throughout Israeli society, and in an interview with Haaretz he also discussed the common occurrence of priests being spat upon as they walk through the city of Jerusalem.

In a reference to the long-standing, continual incidents of Orthodox Jewish extremists in Jerusalem spitting at Christian clergy, Pizzaballa said: "When I came to the country, I was told that I should know that if I walk around with a frock in the city [of Jerusalem], people would spit on me, and I shouldn't be offended, it's normal."

No matter how high his position, any priest who makes his way around the city will sooner or later be spat upon and cursed by a yeshiva student, he added.

Pizzabella, by the way, is head of the Franciscan order in the Middle East, and has lived in Israel for 22 years. Again from Haaretz:

After more than two decades here, he said he knows the areas of Jerusalem where he is at risk of being spat upon, including the area of Jaffa Gate and the Armenian Quarter…

In February, following incidents in Jerusalem, Pizzaballa wrote to President Shimon Peres that in recent years, he and his colleagues had learned to ignore provocations, but that now they were escalating to the point that they had become intolerable.

The monastery’s vandalism was also condemned in a statement by Hamas, which called it a “racist crime,” and went on to add:

“The organized crimes committed by this regime against the holy Islamic and Christian monuments show the real face of the racist Zionists.”

Indeed, on June 19 a mosque in the West Bank village of Jaba was torched by vandals who spray painted a number of slogans including the words “pay the price,” “death to Arabs,” and “the war has begun.”

As I mentioned in my previous post on the matter, the monastery attack was also condemned by Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat, who called it “further confirmation of the culture of hatred and racism” by Israeli settlers.

Pizzaballa believes at least part of the problem is the tendency by Jews to blame Christianity for their problems of the past. Or as he put it, “When you say ‘Christianity’ to the Israelis, they immediately think of the Holocaust and the Inquisition. People don’t know that we are here and that we have roots (here).”

As I have written previously:

Is Christianity really responsible for all the misfortunes Jews have suffered through history? Apparently a good many Jews prefer to believe that rather than examine their own behavior for possible causes. But as I said in a post two years ago, views antagonistic toward Jews in the ancient world were harbored and expressed long before Christianity came into being.

In the church vandalism back in February, the attackers spray painted, “Jesus is dead,” “Death to Christianity,” and “Mary was a prostitute.”

More on the monastery attack in video:

Addendum:

Interestingly, vandalism of Christian sites in Israel is also discussed in a Wikileaks cable dating back to February of 2009. The cable seems to have originated from the US consulate in Jerusalem and makes mention of Consul General Jake Walles. Apparently the Franciscans and the Vatican Custos appealed to the US consulate for help at that time in curbing acts of Israeli vandalism. “Macora said the Franciscans reported the vandalism to the Israeli police, but he does not expect a response,” the cable reads at one point.

Here is the full text of the cable :

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 000245
SIPDIS
NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE AND IPA. NSC FOR SHAPIRO/PASCUAL E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/2024 TAGS: KWBG, PGOV, PREL, PTER, PHUM, KPAL, IS SUBJECT: FRANCISCANS REQUEST USG ASSISTANCE PROTECTING CATHOLIC PROPERTIES REF: 08 JERUSALEM 1758
Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, per reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1. (C) Summary. The Franciscan (Catholic) Custos of the Holy Land reported vandalism against a monastery on Mount Zion and requested USG assistance to protect Jerusalem's Christian holy sites. A representative of the Custos told PolOff vandals accessed the monastery from the neighboring Cenacle complex (see background in paras 4-5), and the Franciscans believe students at the yeshiva in that complex are the perpetrators. In the most recent act of vandalism on January 30, someone broke a stone cross off the top of the monastery. (Note: Photos of vandalism at the monastery can be found on the ConGen's classified website at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/jerusalem/ind ex.cfm by clicking on the link for Political Reporting Attachments. End note.) End Summary.
2. (C) Father Athanasius Macora, Head of the Christian Information Center and a representative of the Custos of the Holy Land, briefed PolOff on February 2 about a series of acts of vandalism against the monastery on Mount Zion. Macora said that vandals broke a stone cross off the top of the Franciscan monastery on January 30, adjacent to the Cenacle complex. Other incidents include throwing stones through windows and tossing heavy metal objects over the wall into the monastery's courtyard. Macora said that all acts of vandalism have originated from the Cenacle complex, which houses a yeshiva, and he suspects students at the yeshiva are the perpetrators. The person who broke the stone cross apparently used a ladder from the yeshiva rooftop to access the monastery.
3. (C) Macora said the Franciscans reported the vandalism to the Israeli police, but he does not expect a response. Macora said that vandalism has damaged church property, caused stress to the monks living there, and strained an already fragile relationship with the yeshiva. He asked for USG assistance to protect this and other Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
BACKGROUND ON THE CENACLE AND FRANCISCAN MONASTERY ON MOUNT ZION
----------------------------------
4. (U) The Cenacle is the purported site of the Last Supper. The building contains the Cenacle room, the Room of the Holy Spirit, and a cenotaph associated with King David. It is part of a former Franciscan monastery. The site housed one of the earliest Christian churches in Jerusalem, and has been razed and rebuilt at least twice. The Franciscans acquired the property in 1342 and established a monastery, but were forced out by the Ottomans in 1552. The complex served as a mosque until the mid-twentieth century and contains Muslim symbols and a Muslim cemetery. The GoI took control of the property after 1967 and a yeshiva was established there in 1975. Many Jews consider King David's cenotaph a holy site.
5. (C) The Franciscans have a monastery in an adjacent building in order to maintain a presence on Mount Zion, and it is this monastery that is being vandalized. The Franciscans claim continuous ownership of the site since 1342, in spite of not having control of it since 1552. The Custos of the Holy Land has complained to the GoI that the yeshiva is removing Christian symbols from the Cenacle complex that undermine the Franciscan claim to the site (reftel). Franciscan contacts have said that vandalism threatens to eliminate Mount Zion's historic Christian nature. WALLES