 Welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosel and on this channel you can find lots of videos with hopefully lots of information about life in Israel, some with a slightly political slant like this one. You may have read in the news recently a claim from prominent Christian leaders in Jerusalem asserting that Israel is infringing upon their religious freedom in Jerusalem. Some of the headlines have been a little bit more specific although even these tend to have alleged that Israel is unreasonably restricting the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which will take place this coming Saturday. What is the Holy Fire ceremony and isn't Easter already over? We'll get to those before the end of the video. Unfortunately as is often the case with news coverage about this part of the world, the headlines and the coverage have both tended to be majorly lacking in context. So in this video I'm going to try to provide some of that. But at the outset let me state where I'm coming from with this video. I'm a Jewish immigrant to Israel and while I'm fascinated by all the religions that they claim to the city I'm naturally less knowledgeable about Christianity than my own religion which is Judaism. So if I've mischaracterized any facts please feel free to leave clarifications in the comments. While trying to keep this video reasonably short I'll also touch upon the tenuous relationship that exists between the state of Israel and the various Christian churches with presences in the city. Those include among others the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church and the Coptic Church. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is also prominent here and represents the interest of the Vatican. In fact if you visit the old city of Jerusalem you likely see quite a few flags of the Vatican alongside those of Israel and all the other groupings and factions that they claim to this contentious but tiny piece of land. I'll also offer my opinion as to why I believe the churches or at least those that signed on to a recent statement are behaving in a manner that is a little bit irresponsible, inflammatory even. As ever your comments on this video are welcome just remember that they have to confirm to YouTube's community standards policy. Information for this video has been sourced from various websites and credited wherever possible. The somewhat ridiculous cartoonist animations used to make this explainer video were created using Canva. So what exactly has Israel been doing to ruin Easter for Christians? Judging by photos posted to Twitter and the crowds that have been thronging the Christian quarter this Easter, it would seem as if Easter in Israel this year has been reasonably vibrant and well attended. According to estimates some 60,000 tourists were expected in Israel this year including both those visiting for Easter and Passover which coincided this year. The annual Pam Sunday Hosanna procession on the Mount of Olives went ahead as usual this year with pilgrims from all over the world waving pamphrons to commemorate Christ's entrance into Jerusalem. Jerusalem is home in fact to almost 100 churches, the most famous of which is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both put to death at the crucifix and temporarily buried. Jerusalem's Christian population these days numbers only about 2% of the city's residents. According to 29 figures from the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research there are now about 13,000 Christians living in Jerusalem, most of whom identify as Christian Palestinians. Given Jerusalem's enormous importance to Christian theology, many churches have long-standing presences in the city, not only through operating churches affiliated with their particular branch of Christianity but also through owning extensive tracts of land and buildings of significance in the city. One of the most impressive buildings on the scene between East and West Jerusalem for example is the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center. The premises is owned by the Vatican and was opened as a center for pilgrims in the 19th century. The nearby Russian compound is an entire small area within central Jerusalem that is owned in large part by the Russian government. The 17 acre tract of land between Jaffa Street and Shifte Yusra'il includes famous churches such as the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Across Israel there are hundreds more churches. At the end of 2022, Christians constituted 1.9% of the Israeli population, totaling about 185,000 citizens. A further 18% of the Israeli population identifies as Muslim, totaling 1.7 million citizens. Here's another fun fact. According to Ireland's 2016 census, 78% of its population identifies as Catholic. However, according to Israel's statistical figures from 2022, only 74% of its population identifies as Jewish. Of course, the Christian community here does face challenges. One of those challenges is harassment by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Church leaders have claimed that such attacks have been rising of late. Last month, on March 19th, two Israeli radicals entered the Church of Cassanomy in East Jerusalem. There they attacked a bishop and two other clerics who were taking part in a religious service. They also attempted to deface property in the church before being apprehended by those in attendance. So while the Christian minority in Israel faces challenges, broadly speaking, Israel listened on some kind of national quest to drive Christians out from what they refer to as the Holy Land. Freedom of religion and worship is preserved for the Christian minority in Israel both in law and in practice, and Israel, slash the Holy Land, remains a hugely popular destination for Christian pilgrimage. According to predictions last Christmas, 120,000 Christian pilgrims were expected to visit the Holy Land. During 2019, which was Israel's record year for inbound tourism, that figure reached 150,000 pilgrims. All this information may make it seem somewhat perplexing, why the Greek Orthodox Church last Wednesday issued a statement to crying the heavy-handed restrictions that it alleged Israel had been imposing on the forthcoming Holy Fire ceremony, which is due to take place at the Church of the Holy Sebelcher this coming Saturday, one day ahead of Pascha, which is when Easter Sunday is commemorated according to the right of the Orthodox Church. The Holy Fire ceremony just before Orthodox Easter has been taking place annually in the Church of the Holy Sebelcher since, according to some accounts, the year 162. According to Orthodox tradition, a blue ray of light emanates into the Aedicule, where the faithful believe Jesus Christ's empty tomb lays and miraculously ignites a candle. The Greek and Armenian patriarchs both enter the Aedicule and emerge with their candles miraculously lit. The light is then passed on to torchbearers who throng to the site and is even flown by special charter flight to Orthodox congregations around the world. This year, a G&R will fly the fire contained in a specially secured container to Athens. So what's all the fuss about? Specifically, the Church is incensed, get it, by the Israeli police's decision to limit attendance at this year's ceremony to 1800. According to Father Mateo Siopus, after many attempts in goodwill, we are not able to coordinate with the Israeli authorities as they are enforcing unreasonable restrictions. The Jerusalem police in turn responded saying that the limit was a safety precaution intended to prevent a crowd crush at the Church. According to Yoram Segal of the Jerusalem District Police, our main concern is the safety of the pilgrims that are coming to the Old City. The numbers limiting attendance were provided to us by the safety engineer. Memories in Israel of religious crowd crushes are very fresh. On the 30th of April, 2021, a deadly crowd crush took place on Mount Meron during an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai on Lake Baomer, a festival of particular significance to Hasidic Jews. 45 men and boys at the site were killed and additional 150 injured. Events have come to be known in Hebrew as the Meron tragedy and was the deadliest civil disaster in the history of the state. The statement expressing outrage and horror at the Israeli safety illustrations to be imposed on attendance at the Holy Fire ceremony was cosigned by the heavyweights of the Christian world in Jerusalem. Specifically, the status quo committee of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarch. The media has been reporting that the Church's urged Christians to come anyway and ignore the limits being forced, although I'm not entirely sure that that's a fair interpretation of their statement, which reads, We shall continue to uphold the status quo customs and the ceremony will be held as customary for two millennia and all who wish to worship with us are invited to attend. With that made clear, we will leave the authorities to act as they will. The Churches will freely worship and do so in peace. This year has been a particularly busy one in Jerusalem, with Easter, Ramadan and Passover all coinciding. Muslim worship at the Temple Mount has been ongoing and in an effort to prevent further violence at the Flashpoint site, Prime Minister Netanyahu has even banned Jews and other non-Muslims from visiting for the last 10 days of the Muslim Holy Month. As a small country home to three Abrahamic religions, I believe Israel is doing what it can to keep the peace in the deceptively quiet city of Jerusalem, which has historically served as the Flashpoint that has ignited conflict throughout the entire country. But you can be the ultimate judge of facts. Thanks for watching this video, if you want to get more like it about everything to do with life in Jerusalem in Israel, please consider subscribing to this YouTube channel.