Jerusalem – April 20, 2025
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem strongly condemned today, in a statement issued on the occasion of Easter, the wide-scale Israeli assaults targeting worshippers during the observance of Holy Fire Saturday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.
The Patriarchate described the Israeli measures—which transformed the neighborhoods of the Old City and the surroundings of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre into a military barracks surrounded by barricades and weapons pointed at the faithful—as a “flagrant violation of the divine right to worship,” proclaiming to the world that the City of Peace has been turned, by the hands of the occupation, into a city of repression, violence, and desecration of holy sites.
In a tone filled with righteous anger, the Patriarchate emphasized that thousands of Christians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were forcibly denied access to Jerusalem and the opportunity to observe their holiest rituals—an act that contradicts the message of Jesus Christ, who said: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17).
At the conclusion of its statement, the Patriarchate lifted its voice in prayer and supplication for peace to prevail, calling for an end to the injustice that burdens Jerusalem, and for the machinery of war to recede from Gaza—so that the true light of the Resurrection may shine from the hearts of the faithful who seek justice and freedom, no matter how long the darkness lasts.
