Pilgrims Crowd Jerusalem Holy Sites

Amid tolling bells, flickering candles and many languages of prayer, thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world celebrated Easter here Sunday, making the journey despite concerns about the possibility of violence.

All morning, worshipers from Russia, Greece, India, the Philippines and elsewhere streamed into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located in the walled Old City on the site where many Christians hold that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Some people paused to kiss the pillars at the entrance and then knelt at a slab commemorating Jesus’ anointment after death. Roman Catholic and Orthodox worshipers took turns praying outside the tomb.

Not far outside the Old City’s stone walls, more than 1,500 Protestants held separate services at a lush enclave, known as the Garden Tomb, that they believe is the more likely crucifixion site. Worshipers also gathered by the hundreds in churches in Bethlehem and Beit Jala, majority-Arab cities in the West Bank with sizable Christian populations.

Varying church calendars usually mean Easter is celebrated on different days for different churches, but the holiday fell on the same day this year.

The result was larger-than-normal crowds in the Old City, where tourism has plummeted since the outbreak of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict 3 1/2 years ago.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said official crowd tallies were not available. But he said “tens of thousands” of Christian pilgrims had made their way through the Old City during the Easter weekend.

On Friday, the bustling alleys became an impromptu stage as groups in costume reenacted Christ’s final walk, with heavy wooden crosses and fake blood. On Saturday, 10,000 to 12,000 Eastern Orthodox worshipers jammed into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the annual Holy Fire ceremony, a spectacular candle-lighting ritual meant to remind attendees that Jesus had not forgotten them.

Security was tight throughout the Christian celebrations, as it has been in Israel all week during the Jewish Passover holiday amid fears of attack by Palestinian militants. The extremist Hamas group has promised massive retaliation for Israel’s assassination three weeks ago of its founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

There was a heavy police presence around the Western Wall in another part of the Old City as thousands of Jews came to pray as part of the Passover observances.

The Hamas threats prompted some governments -- including the United States -- to issue travel warnings, and thousands of would-be pilgrims canceled trips at the last minute.

But many worshipers came for Easter anyway, motivated, they said, by religious devotion.

“If I believe in God, there’s no more security -- God is our only security. We came to a holy place to make our happy peace,” said Ivan D’mello, a 34-year-old handyman from Bombay, India, who joined his wife on a trip they had dreamed of for seven years.

George Iasonos, a Greek Cypriot, said his wife remained at home. “She’s ringing me every day. She thinks there’s a lot of trouble. I say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s OK,’ ” said Iasonos, part of a group from Cyprus that was visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Iasonos, 61, said 2,000 fellow Cypriots had canceled, leaving the group with only about 250 pilgrims.

“You die only once -- that’s the way I look at it. But a lot of people don’t see it that way,” he said. “I don’t blame them.”

Though the number of pilgrims appeared to most observers to be somewhat higher than in the recent past, Old City merchants complained that the crowds -- and their purchases -- were just a fraction of what they were before the outbreak of violence in September 2000.

“We’ve done a little business in the last two days. It’s like a little water in the mouth ... but business is still very bad,” said Ghassan Attieh, who runs a souvenir shop next to the church plaza.

In the Christian Arab centers outside Jerusalem, temporal realities added a bitter edge to the Easter festivities.

Easter celebrations have blossomed in Bethlehem and Beit Jala in recent years, in large part because Israeli checkpoints and road closures have made it more difficult for Palestinian residents to get to the Old City. The checkpoints are aimed at preventing Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel.

During midnight Easter services at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Rawda Attalah said she had been turned away at a checkpoint while trying to get to the Old City for the Holy Fire ritual.

Instead, she and her husband and their three children ended up at the church in Bethlehem, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth.

“I insisted on coming to the Church of the Nativity, since it is a unique reminder of Jesus Christ,” said Attalah, 35. “Jerusalem seems to be farther away than ever to us.”