RELIGION AND HOLY SITES UNDER OCCUPATION

The white marble circle on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is described in some literary sources and folklore legends as the 'Center of the World.' Jerusalem's centrality however, springs not from geographic or scientific factors, but from spiritual and religious considerations.
According to a Palestinian scholar from Bethlehem, Jerusalem is the place where Jesus Christ died and was raised from death on the third day. Resurrection in Christianity is the central and basic event, the core of belief without which Christianity does not exist and religion loses its essence.
In Jerusalem, Jesus Christ spent most of his public life praying, teaching, preaching, and explaining the essence of Christianity to mankind. In Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built, and from the city the message of salvation and hope was dispatched. Ever since, believers have made their pilgrimage to the city and built their churches.
In Jerusalem, various sects of Christianity live, each having its own church and rituals. The Palestinian Arab Christian is the nucleus of this religion, and one of its main contributors nurturing it for 2000 years.
The message of Christianity was conveyed to the people of the world from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and other cities in the land of Palestine.
The suffering, denial, and pain endured by the Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, at the hands of the Israeli occupation was and is unbearable. During the past decade, Palestinian Christians were barred by the Israeli army from entering the holy city to perform their religious rights. they were also denied the right to education, treatment at the city's hospitals, visiting relatives and friends. The security cordon imposed on the holy city and its surroundings by Israel testifies to Israel's disrespect of the principle of free worship.
Since conquering the city in the 1967 war, Israel initiated a policy aimed at emptying the city from its original inhabitants, Muslims and Christians alike. Christians were affected more than others due to the scarcity of work opportunities and the spiraling prices of housing. This policy is behind the increased rates of emigration among Palestinian Christian youths, and as if this wasn't enough, successive Israeli governments adopted a sectarian policy aimed at planting seeds of dissension and intolerance amongst Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) particularly in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Israel employed different means to achieve this purpose. These Israeli attempts have failed, mutual respect, bonds of solidarity and understanding is manifested by the principles of tolerance and respect that existed between Muslims and Christians since the Muslim Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab entered the city in the year 635 A.D
The religious institutions in the Palestinian territories were subjected to repeated violations by the occupation military authority since they occupied the area in 1967. These violations came in different forms, beginning with desecration of religious sites, closing off these sites, confiscating property, assaulting religious men and depriving worshippers from reaching the holy shrines.
Within this context, it important to point out the following:

Jerusalem and Bethlehem were increasingly transferred into military camps through an intense military presence around the holy places crean atmosphere of intimidation and fear among the Palestinian population.
The overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians residing outside Bethlehem or Jerusalem, in the neighboring Arab countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt are denied free access to the two holy cities. Such restriction refutes Israeli claims of allowing all Christians and Muslims toreach the holy sites in Jerusalem. This situation renders the statement issued by the US congress which says, "Israel has secured the right of access for all Christians to visit the holy shrines at all times," not true.
What is happening on the ground is different. While it might be true that thousands of Christian pilgrims come to the holy land every year from Europe and the US and elsewhere, Palestinian Christians, for example from Ramallah (10 miles away,) cannot reach Jerusalem.

Islamic and Christian holy places were desecrated by Israel settlers and Israeli soldiers in complete defiance of the sanctity of these places, and in violation of international conventions pertaining to freedom of worship and religion. The lax security measures provided by Israel over these holy places did not repel vandals from desecrating these places. The statue of the Virgin Mary was stolen from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Church of Nativity and other holy places were assaulted on many occasions by radical Jewish groups.
Clergymen were denied the right of performing their religious rights by the Israeli police and army units. Israeli police riot squads, on many occasions, harassed and attmany peaceful demonstrations staged by religious groups at the site of the Church of Holy Sepulcher and other places, using rubber bullets, live ammunition and gas bombs.
Churches and their affiliated educational institutions were denied the right to provide services whether educational, medical, social, or vocation, and were denied the right to enew institutions.

The restrictions imposed by Israel over Christian and Islamic religious institutions were a natural extension to a premeditated Israeli ideology primarily geared towards shattering the unity of the Palestinian social infrastructure, and weakening its cohesion in confronting the procedures of plundering, confiscation and compulsory deportation. For this and other reasons, the tightening procedures and harassment were not classified under individual acts or violations or expressions of an extremist attitude, but embodied a general policy adopted by all successive Israeli governments, Likud and Labor alike. The resemblance between the policies of Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert, previous and current Israeli mayors of West Jerusalem, are two faces of the same coin.