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April 21, 2008
No clear winner emerged
from the Annual Holy Frond Fight in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre:
Christian Armenian worshippers scuffle with Israeli policemen inside Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Israeli police rushed into the church to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers on Orthodox Palm Sunday, witnesses said. (AFP/Gali Tibbon)
Israeli police rushed into Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers on Orthodox Palm Sunday, witnesses said. Some 20 officers intervened after Armenian worshippers threw a Greek Orthodox priest out of the church, sparking a free-for-all, they said.
Several worshippers then started beating the police officers with palm fronds they were holding for the Palm Sunday celebrations that mark the return of Jesus to the Holy City a week before he was crucified.
After the incident, dozens of members of Jerusalem's Armenian community marched from the church to the Old City's police headquarters in protest at the detention of two Armenians.
Brawls are not uncommon at the church, which is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards part of site -- considered one of the holiest in Christianity.
Precisely in order to prevent such disturbances, two Muslim families have been entrusted for the past 800 years with opening and closing the gates of the church, a cavernous labyrinth of chapels and crypts built on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.
Over 800 years of brawling in church, now that's what I call tradition. Really, it just wouldn't be Easter without it!
Posted by LindaSoG at April 21, 2008 07:02 AM
Comments
Kick me if I'm wrong here, but we don't see a whole lot of this in The States.....
Is it an Arabic equation, where A+R=V ?
Where A=Arab, R=Religion and V= Violence? I don't know, maybe it's just my screwy perspective.
Posted by: Wollf at April 21, 2008 12:26 PM
Lovely, just lovely. 800 years, dhimittude on display???
Posted by: Jack at April 21, 2008 03:38 PM
I am not used to the brawls. I have known for years that the only way for a mostly peaceful operation of the church was by using a Muslim family. It is ironic, but not an example of dhimmitude as the family is more of a neutral participant (remember that Jesus actually is respected in the Koran, as is Moses, despite what too many of Mohammad's followers now say) than an overlord.
Posted by: Kevin K. at April 21, 2008 09:15 PM