Seen as a precedent that has never occurred before in the history of Palestine thousands of Eastern Orthodox Christians in Bethlehem refused a few days ago to give Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem a welcome reception and called him a traitor during his recent visit to the city for the Greek Orthodox Christmas Eve.
The Patriarch’s previous visits to Bethlehem had always been celebrated by Christians of Palestine but the way to the Church of the Nativity last Saturday was not strewn with flowers and roses for his visit as every year but there were crowds of angry protesters who swarmed around his motorcade holding Palestinian flags and placards criticizing him.
Palestinian Christians hurled shoes eggs and stones at the car carrying the Patriarch and caused damage to its body and rear window while chanting slogans describing him as “a dishonest person and a traitor” and calling for stripping him of his titles and removing him from his post as the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.
The protesters were reacting to the Greek Patriarch’s involvement in selling off Palestinian Church land to an extremist Jewish settler group in prime locations in Jerusalem’s Old City.
He has become persona non grata in Palestine after ample evidence came to the surface lately proving his collusion with the notorious settler group Ateret Cohanim which has been working for decades to evict Palestinians from their homes and stores in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Noted activist and protester Basem Qamssiya called the Patriarch “a traitor to the Orthodox Church and the Middle East Christians.”
“This is not a transient or usual incident in the history of the Orthodox Church so we decided not to allow this Patriarch to be received by any of Church chiefs and officials here in Bethlehem Beit Sahour and Beit Jala and we would have prevented him from reaching the Church of the Nativity had security elements from the [Palestinian] Authority not provided protection for his motorcade and escorted him swiftly into the Church” Qamssiya told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC).
He stressed that the Palestinian Authority and Jordan should assume their responsibilities in this regard and expel this Patriarch from their territories calling on the Orthodox Church in Palestine to remove him from his position.
Other protesters also described the Patriarch as a traitor and said he had no right to sell property belonging to the entire Palestinian people.
“We have come here today to celebrate alongside our folks in Bethlehem to express our rejection of what happened to teach our children to love their land and its sanctity and to say to the treacherous Patriarch that you have sold property you have no right to dispose of” a mother who came with her children said.
