As soon as they saw a Christian priest arriving near the Wailing Wall, dressed in a cassock and with a silver crucifix prominently displayed around his neck, walking calmly with a journalist in the old city of Jerusalem, two Orthodox Jewish boys approached with a threatening demeanor. First they spat on the ground and then, looking him in the eyes, they insulted the Christian religion: "F***ing Yeshu". Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel was also approached by one of the two Jewish extremists who threatened him even though the German nationality priest began to converse calmly with them emphasizing that they had no right to bother and touch him.
In the end, the incident concluded with a bit of tension and a video recorded by the German journalist's cell phone, a friend of the priest, who accompanied him on the visit. The German government has not commented on the incident, in contrast, the Patriarchate of the Holy Land has issued a harsh statement in Arabic and English in which it firmly denounced the fact. It is not the first time that Christian priests and nuns have been verbally abused, openly threatened, and spat upon by Jewish extremists.
"It's shameful what happened. These crimes create a sense of insecurity for Christians throughout the Holy Land and especially in Jerusalem," lamented the Patriarchate in the text of the note. The two Jewish extremists were immediately identified and arrested by the Israeli police who escorted them away from the Wailing Wall area.
In the last twelve months, the Patriarchate has recorded a growth of intolerance towards Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, Protestant religious. Some churches have been damaged by acts of vandalism, often against symbols and statues. Madonnas taken to hammer or Christs damaged and made to fall to the ground in a thousand pieces. The aggression of Orthodox Jews, explain at the Patriarchate, has particularly increased with the arrival of the Nethanyau government composed of a large slice of extremely intolerant right-wing parties and incapable of pluralistic visions of society, thus adding further tension in an area stressed by decades of precarious balance.
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