Revered Shrine Closed in Jerusalem : Christian Leaders Protest, Shut Church of Holy Sepulcher

Church bells tolled, black flags fluttered in the breeze and the doors of Jesus’ burial site were shut today for possibly the first time in 800 years as Christians protested a Jewish settlement in Jerusalem’s Old City.

In an unusual show of unity, about 150 clergymen from nine major Christian sects gathered to oversee the closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which marks the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Diodoros I and Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Torkum Manoogian recited the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic, Armenian and Greek before the massive wooden doors swung shut.

Wajih Nusseibeh, a Muslim whose family keeps the key of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, said it was the first time the doors had been closed since the Crusaders were driven out of the city by the Islamic warrior Saladin in the 12th Century.

The Church of the Nativity, which marks the site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and holy sites throughout the country were also closed in the daylong protest. Church bells rang in somber, funereal cadence for about five minutes every hour.

In an act of solidarity, Muslim leaders closed the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine to visitors. Only worshipers were permitted in the complex.

Bishop Samir Kafiti, the head of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem, told reporters that Christian leaders were dissatisfied with an Israeli Supreme Court decision to evict the 150 Jewish settlers by next Tuesday from the building where they are living.

The building is in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem’s old walled city. The Old City is on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and is divided into Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters.

Kafiti said the court decision Thursday was ambiguous because the judges did not return full control of the building to the Greek Orthodox Church, which owns it. The church alleges that the settlers are in the building under an illegal sublease.

“It is a half-solution,” Kafiti said, referring to the court’s decision to allow 20 guards and maintenance staff to remain in the building pending a final ruling on the tenancy dispute.

George Hintlian, secretary to Manoogian, said if the courts did not eventually rule in favor of the Greek Orthodox Church, “stronger protests will be considered by the heads of churches, probably longer periods of closure.”

The settlers moved into the 72-room St. John’s Hospice on April 11, touching off angry protests from Palestinian Muslims and Christians and bringing international condemnation.

“Nobody leaves before Tuesday,” said Benny Elon, a spokesman for the Neot David settlers.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek said the settlers would be evicted by police if they did not leave peacefully by Tuesday.

He accused Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s caretaker government of acting in an “underhanded” way by secretly providing $1.8 million to the settlers for the purchase of the lease.