Christians’ travel to Jerusalem has always raised controversy in Egypt. Pope Shenouda III always insisted on rejecting visits to the holy city as long as it was under occupation and punishing those who violated the decision. Punishment at times included denying them access to the church until they published an apology to the Pope in a widely circulated newspaper.
The late Pope Cyril VI prohibited the travel of Egypt’s Christians to Jerusalem following its occupation in 1967 a decision that was strictly enforced by Pope Shenouda who refused to accompany President Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977 while the Holy Synod of the Church issued a ban on travel to Israel in 1980 after the normalization of relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv.
Pope Twadros II maintained the same position but after his inauguration he has made some concessions in terms of punishing those who violate the ban on Christians’ travel to Occupied Jerusalem. Those who have dual nationality and are over the age of 50 have not been punished.
The past two years witnessed a major shift. Companies organizing religious trips were allowed to publish their ads for a trip to Jerusalem for the first time in decades inside Egyptian churches.
On Monday thousands of Egyptian Christians were allowed to travel to Jerusalem without any restrictions for the first time since 1967. Cairo airport witnessed a remarkable movement to Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv a major normalization move in religious disguise.
Coptic Church’s advisor and chairman of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Najib Gabriel said in an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper that tourism companies in Egypt will organize in 2018 the travel of 7000 Christians to Jerusalem.
He claimed that the move came to preserve the holy city’s identity and strengthen the Christian presence there.
These facilitations followed a normalization visit by Pope Twadros II and other senior bishops priests and deacons to Jerusalem in November 2015 to take part in the funeral of Abraham the Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Near East and the oldest member of the Holy Synod at that time.
Gabriel told al-Hayat that there is an increase in the number of Egyptian Christians travelling to Jerusalem noting that the Bishop of Jerusalem Antonius asked Pope Twadros II for the first time no to punish the Egyptian Christians who visit Jerusalem because as he put it they help protect the Christian identity of the holy city.
