The Symbolism Was All Wrong : Why the Israeli Prime Minister must be held accountable for the occupation of the hospice.

Israel’s supreme court has upheld a lower court order evicting the 150 Jewish religious zealots who moved into St. John’s Hospice in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem during Easter Week. Now it’s up to a lower court to decide on the validity of the lease under which the settlers had occupied the four-building complex. Whatever that ruling, the damage done to Israel by this provocative act, ranging from freshly embittered relations between Jews and non-Jews in Jerusalem to the very credibility of its top leaders, is far-reaching.

On April 11, just before Good Friday, 20 Jewish families moved into the hospice, a 72-room complex owned by the Greek Orthodox Church. The settlers said they had paid $4 million to sublease the Old City facility, dealing with its Armenian Christian tenant through a Panama-based front company. They further claimed that their action was simply meant to assert the right of Jews to live anywhere in Israel, even, presumably, within the walls of a structure historically and unequivocally associated with a major Christian denomination.

In fact, their takeover was a demonstration of disregard for the religious sensitivities of others. Predictably, noisy and violent protests followed. Mayor Teddy Kollek, who for decades has labored to ease religious tensions in Jerusalem, was among the first to deplore the settlers’ action.

The settlers clearly intended to make a political statement as much as a religious one. In time it emerged that they had been encouraged by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s caretaker government. After first denying any involvement with the settlers, the government finally conceded that the Finance Ministry--which is now under Shamir’s control--had contributed $1.8 million toward the lease. The Shamir regime was thus caught lying to the Israeli public. It also sought to mislead the United States, whose Congress is now pondering a $400-million loan guarantee to settle Soviet immigrants in Israel.

To their considerable credit, the leaders of many major American Jewish organizations that have usually been reluctant to openly criticize Israeli government actions this time have done so with unambiguous condemnation. But the damage already done goes unrepaired. Shamir could have prevented it. The responsibility for what has happened is his, above all, to bear.