Nicola Scopelliti
(ZENIT News – The Daily Compass / Tel Aviv, 22.08.2023).- Created recently in Haifa is a new Jewish ultra-orthodox Association. It has only one objective: to appropriate the Stella Maris Monastery on Mount Carmel, and the Christian circles of this Israeli city have become aware of it.
The Association is a new fundamentalist organization, which calls itself the “Committee for the Commandment of the Prophet Elisha,” which makes an appeal to all Jewish citizens to be willing to continue and intensify the struggle to obtain the tomb of the Prophet Elisha, if Stella Maris doesn’t provide a place of prayer for the Jews. The promoters of the initiative also invite those that go to the place, to equip themselves with visible and concealed camaras to document Christians’ violence.
Hence, the atmosphere between Jews and Christians in Haifa runs the risk of compromising the peaceful coexistence that has lasted here for many years. A ray of hope opened in recent days, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Stella Maris and met with those responsible for Christian Churches in the Holy Land. It’s a fact that it was a courtesy visit, but it was hoped that this visit would calm the tension between Orthodox Jews and Christians and put an end to the provocations of the fundamentalists of the Hasidic Movement of the Breslev Hasidim.
In fact, the monastery has been targeted for months by this group. Initially, there were sporadic visits to the church by small groups. Then dozens of people arrived at the place by bus; they “assaulted” the sacred place. The majority were young people accompanied by adults. They began to pray “provocatively,” making irreverent gestures towards the altars of the shrine’s interior. Provocations, insults and expletives that local Christians have always rejected.
However now, for the small Christian community, it’s no loner about affronts , but it’s thought that it could be the beginning of a plan to expel the Carmelites from that place. On this point, Palestinian Christians have offered a voluntary vigilance service in the church. “There has always been cooperation and peaceful coexistence in Haifa between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Now we observe with great concern that what is happening on Mount Carmel is alarming,” said Father Elias Abbad, President of the Court of Appeals of the Melkite-Greek Church of Israel. And, he continued: “We fear that the initiative of a Jewish minority might be followed by other more numerous groups, with the intention of taking over total control of the place, as happened previously in Nablus and Hebron.”
Image of the Virgen del Carmen by Stella Maris. Photo: Leobard Hinfelaar.
During his recent visit, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was accompanied by his wife and the Chief of Police, Yaakov Shabtai, said: “I consider this extremist phenomenon unacceptable in every sense. These initiatives must be eradicated, and I thank the police and the other forces of order that have taken this matter seriously.” The Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who will receive the Cardinal’s hat [“zucchetto] on September 30, spoke in the name of all the Christian communities in the Holy Land. He had words of gratitude for the Israeli President and the members of his delegation for their support, not only in words, but also in deeds. “We must work together to reinforce the dialogue of solidarity and respect among ourselves,” he said. “We live elbow to elbow in the same places, and we must live in peace, build our future together and support one another.” For his part, Herzog added: “Yes, it’s important for all the religions.”
However, the hopes and guarantees didn’t last long. In fact, the Carmelite Prior of Stella Maris, Father Jean Joseph Bergara, sent a letter to the Chief of Police, the same one who accompanied Herzog during his visit to the monastery, to express his regret and incredulity for the fact that he was negotiating with the Breslov Hasidim Rabbi, a point of reference for this group, offering the Hasidic followers the possibility to approach the monastery, instead of using the instruments in his power to discourage such actions. Father Bergara addressed Shabtai with these words: “Do not carry out any negotiations on the fate of our monastery or of other places related to it, especially on matters that affect the peace and normal life of the holy place.”
Meanwhile, the list of Israeli and Palestinian dead is ever longer. On Monday morning, August 21, an Israeli woman, Bathsheba Nigri, 42, mother of three children, nursery school teacher in the West Bank settlement of Beit Hagai and resident in nearby Efrat, was shot to death, and a man, Aryeh Gottlieb, 39, also of Beit Hagai, who was travelling with her, was seriously wounded in an ambush near the city of Hebron, south of the West Bank. The man was taken to the Soroka Medical Center of Beersheba for treatment. Also travelling with them was a six-year-old boy who was not hurt. The ambush took place on the highway of Route 60, close to the Beit Hagai crossing. The author of the shots was an individual travelling in a car. The Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups praised the attack as response to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
