RAMALLAH: Two Israeli settlers assaulted clerics and worshippers praying at a church in East Jerusalem on Sunday.
The Jerusalem Governorate said the settlers stormed the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and attempted to vandalize it, while hurling abusive remarks.
Citizen Hamza Ajaj confronted the settlers, one of which was arrested while the other fled from the scene.
Eyewitness Bilal Abu Nab said he was told that two settlers had stormed the church and, after rushing to the location, he saw one of them standing on the steps shouting. The other assaulted clergy and worshippers while armed with a stick with nails attached.
He added that one of the clerics was wounded in the forehead.
Locals said the arrival of police took more than 30 minutes.
Archbishop Munib Younan, the former head of the Lutheran Union, told Arab News that the attack was the sixth since the start of the year that had targeted Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
He said: “This attack is unacceptable and denounced, and we are steadfast in Jerusalem as Palestinians, with our Christian and Muslim brothers, no matter how much we are subjected to attacks.”
Younan said he does not consider the attackers to be mentally ill, as the Israeli authorities often try to prove.
He said that such attacks converted the political crisis in Jerusalem into a religious conflict, which was rejected by Christians.
He added: “The heads of Christian churches are concerned about the continuation of the Christian presence in the Holy Land if the attacks continue.”
Wadih Abu Nassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land, agreed that the Israeli police often considered the aggressors to be suffering from a mental disorder, and often released perpetrators under the pretext of lack of evidence.
The Higher Presidential Committee on Church Affairs, an independent organization that monitors the affairs of churches and Christian places of worship, was critical of the attack.
Ramzi Khoury, the head of the committee, condemned the incident and said that it had taken place just before Ramadan and the approach of Christian celebrations.
He added that the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and continued attacks on churches violated all international norms, and called on the UN, the International Criminal Court, and the churches of the world to take urgent and immediate action against current Israeli practices.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack, and called for effective international and American intervention to stop settlers’ encroachment on its people and its sanctities.
