AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Head of Greek Orthodox Church in Al-Quds, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, says that Muslim and Christian Palestinians are united against the Zionist occupation, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported.
“All Palestinians – including Muslims and Christians – are one family now and forever,” Hanna said during a meeting with Christians from Jifna, a Palestinian village in Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central occupied West Bank.
“Palestinians must be united in defense of their country and their just Palestinian cause,” he told the visitors while they were inside the Church of Holy Sepulcher.
He also said: “We are happy with your visit to the city of Al-Quds. We are sending our regards to our followers in the other Palestinian cities and villages, including the village of Jifna.”
In another development, Palestinian church leaders and U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns over a controversial plan to expand an illegal Zionist park and to nationalize a large section of the Mount of Olives, one of Christianity’s holiest sites, which since ancient times has been a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox and Protestants.
The plan is slated to come before the Al-Quds municipality’s Local Planning and Construction Committee for preliminary approval on 2 March, reported the Times of Israel. The hearing was originally scheduled to take place on 10 April but was recently moved up.
A visiting delegation of Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives have expressed their concerns over the plan as have leading church officials and rights groups who have characterized the measure as a power grab and a threat to Christian presence in the Holy Land.
In a letter to the Zionist environmental protection minister Tamar Zandberg, church leaders echoed concerns raised in December of the threat of “extinction” faced by Christianity from “radical” Zionist groups.
“In recent years, we cannot help but feel that various entities are seeking to minimize, not to say eliminate, any non-Jewish Characteristics of the Holy City by attempting to alter the status quo in this holy mountain,” said the letter sent by Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theopolis III, Catholic Church Custos of the Holy Land Francesco Patton and Armenian Patriarch of Al-Quds Nourhan Manougian.