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Christianity Today
Nov. 3, 2004
Spitting on God's Image
Christians complain of assaults in Old City.
By Michele Green, ENI, in Jerusalem | posted 11/03/2004
Tensions in Jerusalem's Old City have flared following an incident
during October in which a Jewish seminary student spat at an
archbishop. It happened during a procession from the city's Armenian
Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a site commemorating
Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
Israeli police arrested the seminary student, but Christian clerics
living in the walled Old City say such assaults by ultra-Orthodox Jews
are frequent.
"It happens maybe once a week," Armenian Bishop Aris Shirvanian told
Ecumenical News International. "As soon as they notice a Christian
clergyman, they spit. Those who are 'respectful' turn their backs to us
or the large cross that we may carry. But the ones that are daring
either spit on the ground or on the person without any provocation."
In the latest incident, a scuffle broke out after the Jewish seminary
student spat at the cleric, whose cross was ripped from his neck. The
seminary student later told police he saw the religious procession as
idolatry. Police said an indictment is pending.
Shirvanian said spitting against Christian clergyman had been going on
for years. He said the assailants are religious Jews - men, women, teens,
and children. "This shows that it is a phenomenon that is prevailing in
their religious education and it should be corrected," he said.
Daniel Rossing, director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian
Relations, said his organization plans to ask rabbis to teach their
congregants to stop such attacks.
"All people are created in the image of God and to spit on another
person is to spit on the image of God," Rossing said.
Nov. 3, 2004
Spitting on God's Image
Christians complain of assaults in Old City.
By Michele Green, ENI, in Jerusalem | posted 11/03/2004
Tensions in Jerusalem's Old City have flared following an incident
during October in which a Jewish seminary student spat at an
archbishop. It happened during a procession from the city's Armenian
Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a site commemorating
Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
Israeli police arrested the seminary student, but Christian clerics
living in the walled Old City say such assaults by ultra-Orthodox Jews
are frequent.
"It happens maybe once a week," Armenian Bishop Aris Shirvanian told
Ecumenical News International. "As soon as they notice a Christian
clergyman, they spit. Those who are 'respectful' turn their backs to us
or the large cross that we may carry. But the ones that are daring
either spit on the ground or on the person without any provocation."
In the latest incident, a scuffle broke out after the Jewish seminary
student spat at the cleric, whose cross was ripped from his neck. The
seminary student later told police he saw the religious procession as
idolatry. Police said an indictment is pending.
Shirvanian said spitting against Christian clergyman had been going on
for years. He said the assailants are religious Jews - men, women, teens,
and children. "This shows that it is a phenomenon that is prevailing in
their religious education and it should be corrected," he said.
Daniel Rossing, director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian
Relations, said his organization plans to ask rabbis to teach their
congregants to stop such attacks.
"All people are created in the image of God and to spit on another
person is to spit on the image of God," Rossing said.