Groups appeal to High Court to ease restrictions

Limited Passover and Easter ceremonies held at Jerusalem holy sites amid war restrictions

Old City largely desolate as just a handful of clergy allowed to perform Passover priestly blessing at the Western Wall and Easter Sunday services at Church of Holy Sepulchre

Clergy held limited Passover and Easter services in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday amid wartime restrictions that prevented the participation of the tens of thousands of worshippers and pilgrims who generally flock to the holy sites.

The prayers came even as religious leaders appealed to the High Court to relax the limits on public gatherings imposed by the IDF Home Front Command amid persistent Iranian missile fire, citing a court ruling on Saturday that allowed 600 people to take part in an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv.

At the Western Wall, up to 50 people were permitted at the traditional priestly blessing ceremony that was held in a covered space, in a wartime departure from the ceremony that normally takes place in the plaza.

Among those who attended in person were Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and Chief Rabbis Kalman Ber and David Yosef. Others were forced to watch the ceremony via live broadcast.

The ceremony generally sees male descendants of the Kohanim, the Jewish priestly caste, gather to bestow a benediction — known in Hebrew as Birkat Kohanim — raising their hands to perform the blessing while wrapped in prayer shawls. An iconic sight, it usually draws tens of thousands of people.

Minutes before the priestly blessing ceremony was about to begin, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation called for the Home Front Command to ease limits restricting attendance at the Western Wall plaza.

“I find it difficult to understand why the right to protest is perceived as more important or more urgent than the right to pray,” foundation head Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz said.

“The Western Wall is the beating heart of the Jewish people,” he added. “If the security reality permits hundreds of people to gather in public squares for demonstrations, all the more so it should allow Jews to assemble at the Western Wall Plaza.”

At the end of the ceremony, Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef doubled down on his criticism of the High Court, a day after his scathing attack calling Israel’s top tribunal “an enemy of Judaism,” for safeguarding the freedom of protest during wartime while the Western Wall remained largely closed for security reasons.

“The High Court understands lawlessness in the name of freedom of protest,” he said.

“They call it ‘pikuach nefesh,’ nothing less,” Yosef added, referring to the principle according to which Jewish law can be broken to save a life, but which is often used colloquially to refer to any critical condition that requires urgent action or the suspension of normal rules.

Yosef endorsed an appeal to the Home Front Command by the head of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, to reassess the security guidelines for the Jewish holy site.

“We turn to the professionals who truly understand ‘pikuach nefesh,'” Yosef said. “The High Court does not understand pikuach nefesh, the Home Front Command does, and here we declare that the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Chief Rabbis will act according to the instructions of the Home Front Command, because we know what safeguarding every Jewish life means.”

In addition to their plea, the organization Truth for Jacob in Israel filed an appeal to the High Court, which ordered the Home Front Command to respond and explain why a larger number of people were not allowed to pray at the site.

Kept at a distance

Similar restrictions were in place where Catholics and several other Christian denominations marked Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and resurrected.

Last week on Palm Sunday, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, who are the top Catholic figures in the region, were prevented by police from entering the Holy Sepulchre for mass, provoking international outrage.

Agreements were later reached with the police to allow clergy to conduct Easter and Holy Week ceremonies at the site, but without the presence of pilgrims and worshipers.

Footage disseminated by the Patriarchate Press Office showed Pizzaballa presiding over the rituals with several clergy.

Most Palestinian Christians belong to the Orthodox faith, which celebrates Easter on April 12 this year, but for many other Christians, the curbs on worship have stripped the Easter celebrations of substance.

Several worshippers tried to make their way to the Holy Sepulchre, but were kept at a distance by the security forces, according to AFP.

“It’s very hard for all of us because it’s our holiday… It’s really hard to want to pray, but to come here and find nothing. Everything is closed,” said Christina Toderas, 44, from Romania.

Like many other worshippers, she had resigned herself to watching the mass at the Holy Sepulchre on television.

Father Bernard Poggi, who was preparing to attend mass in another church near the holy site, said he understood the security measures but added that “it seems to be more and more that there’s an unevenness in how the laws are put into practice.”

Around the Old City, where hymns and processions usually dominate at Easter, only whispers could be heard among the faithful moving discreetly through its passages.

Chairman of the Hadash-Ta’al party Ahmed Tibi also criticized the police and the political echelon on Sunday regarding the restrictions on worshippers entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount and churches in the Old City. Muslim worshippers had been restricted during Ramadan last month.

Tibi said the High Court’s decision ordering the police and Home Front Command to allow protesters to gather showed that the security justifications for the restrictions were unfounded.

The permissions for gatherings during the protests and during Purim mean that “there is no security motive for restrictions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, this is a blatant violation of freedom of worship,” he added.

In his remarks, Tibi also addressed tensions between security forces and worshippers at several locations in Jerusalem’s Old City. “Police are acting forcefully against worshippers at the Flower Gate and at the entrances to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” the MK said.

Tibi argued that Israel’s policy discriminates between groups and is driven by political considerations. “This is selective enforcement for purely political reasons. We demand that the gates of Al-Aqsa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre be opened for prayer immediately, without arbitrary restrictions.”

‘Unwavering commitment’

In Easter message days after the Holy Sepulchre prayer controversy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was no discrimination, stressed Israel’s commitment to freedom of worship during war

Netanyahu wished “a blessed and joyful Easter” to Christians in Israel and abroad, stressing that Israel’s commitment to the freedom of worship is “unwavering.”

“Christians are persecuted across the Middle East, in Syria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey and beyond,” he wrote on X. “But in our region, Israel alone protects our Christian community, which is growing and prospering.”

“In this land where the story began, as missiles are fired at our capital, the holy city of Jerusalem, and as the US and Israel stand firm against the Iranian regime and its terror proxies,” he wrote in English, “we continue to steadfastly protect the freedom of worship for all faiths, especially at this sacred time.”

“Even under fire, our commitment is unwavering: to defend life, to safeguard liberty, and to ensure that every believer can pray in peace.”