Occupied East Jerusalem \u2013<\/strong> It\u2019s Holy Week for many Christian denominations, marking the week during which Christians believe Jesus was arrested, crucified and resurrected here. And yet, the streets of the Old City\u2019s Christian Quarter are deserted, the shops closed down.<\/p>\n Boulos, a Palestinian Christian man in his mid-30s who did not wish to give his real name, still comes a couple of days a week to his shop, selling religious garments and wares. He keeps the entrance half-shuttered to evade Israeli authorities, who have ordered such shops closed during the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n After six years of severe interruptions to his business in the Old City \u2013 starting with the COVID pandemic and continuing with the series of wars since \u2013 business had just started to tick up with the return of some international pilgrims following the October ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the war [with Iran], business was still really bad. But it was at least enough to feed yourself,\u201d said a despondent Boulos. \u201cNow, there\u2019s no business at all, no money at all.\u201d<\/p>\n It was around noon when a local Christian Ethiopian woman came in asking for a kilo of prayer candles, his first customer of the day.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the morning, I\u2019ve been here for nothing,\u201d said Boulos. \u201cWhat will 35 shekels [$11.20] do for me? What\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n While most businesses in Israeli West Jerusalem are now allowed to be open \u2013 due to close proximity to bomb shelters \u2013 in the Palestinian Old City, where there are no such shelters, local businesses have been mostly forced to close. And it\u2019s the Christian Quarter \u2013 heavily reliant on tourism \u2013 that shows the least signs of life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the first time in my life to see Jerusalem as sad as it is,\u201d said Brother Daoud Kassabry, a lifelong Jerusalemite and the principal at the College des Freres School in the Christian Quarter. There have been no in-person classes for more than a month. \u201cThis has been the most difficult month in our area here, really, in our time. For parents, for the school, for the students, for the teachers \u2013 for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Normally, students from Brother Kassabry\u2019s school would join the scouts for the annual Palm Sunday procession. But this year, it was not allowed.<\/p>\n Israeli authorities have gone so far as to bar the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem<\/a>, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, along with other senior church officials, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre \u2013 believed by most Christians to be the site of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and resurrection, and the holiest site in Christianity \u2013 to perform Palm Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n According to the Latin Patriarchate, this was the first time \u201cin centuries\u201d that church officials were unable to do so.<\/p>\n Speaking at a news conference last Tuesday, Cardinal Pizzaballa said \u201call the celebrations\u201d and gatherings had been cancelled in the past month to abide by military command restrictions. \u201cBut there are things that we cannot cancel. No one, not even the pope, has authority to cancel the liturgy of Easter.\u201d<\/p>\n After Israeli police blocked Cardinal Pizzaballa on Palm Sunday, leaders from Italy, France and the United States criticised the actions by Israeli police. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently sought to assuage concerns, saying the measures were taken for the cardinal\u2019s \u201csafety\u201d \u2013 citing the lack of bomb shelters near the church, despite Pizzaballa living metres away at the Latin Patriarchate.<\/p>\n And as church officials noted, Netanyahu\u2019s implicit assertions of Israeli sovereignty over such properties conflict with the prevailing status quo governing holy Christian and Muslim sites in Jerusalem \u2013 which vests control with the heads of churches and the Islamic Waqf, under the custodianship of Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah II.<\/p>\n To local Palestinian Christians, such rhetoric belied the hostile environment they say they endure under Israeli control.<\/p>\n Bishop Emeritus Munib Younan laments the \u201cmany times\u201d he has been spat at by Jewish yeshiva students in the Old City without any legal repercussions. Boulos says that when he goes to church, he now chooses the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem or a small church just outside Jerusalem. \u201cThere, nobody is pointing a gun at you on the way to church. Life is at least normal,\u201d he said. \u201cHere, life is not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey [Israelis] want to show the whole world that this country is only meant for them \u2013 not Christians, not Muslims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The logic of prohibiting a few high church officials from entering the holiest site in Christianity also struck many as hollow.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1967, during the Six-Day War, and I was living in the Christian Quarter, we hid under the Church of St John [the Baptist],\u201d said Bishop Emeritus Younan. \u201cDuring war, where do you [find] refuge? To church, to the mosque, to the synagogue, to pray and say, \u2018God give me strength.’\u201d<\/p>\n Following the backlash from Western Christian allies, Netanyahu said he would allow religious ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Week, though keeping them off-limits to the general public.<\/p>\n The swift backtracking was seen by locals as a pointed contrast with the ongoing treatment of Muslim worshippers, who have been barred from the Al-Aqsa compound since February 28, including for much of Ramadan.<\/p>\n During Eid, Israeli border police violently dispersed Muslim worshippers attempting to pray outside the Old City walls with tear gas, stun grenades and batons \u2013 with little condemnation offered by Western leaders.<\/p>\n The restrictions have made it impossible for the dwindling Palestinian Christian community to be able to assert its presence as a unified community in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n School principal Brother Kassabry noted the cancellation of the Way of the Cross procession and Holy Fire Saturday \u2013 celebrations specific to Jerusalem. \u201cThis year, we miss it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n From a religious and communal standpoint, the cancellation of these public ceremonies threatens a fragile community whose population has dwindled to less than 2 percent of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people who don\u2019t enter the church the whole year, they go only on these days, especially on Good Friday,\u201d said Brother Kassabry. \u201cBecause this is the feast of Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n Local churches have remained open for services, even though \u201csome people were afraid to come\u201d, Brother Kassabry said.<\/p>\n At local churches, priests like Father Faris Abedrabbo, of the Annunciation Latin Parish in Ein Arik, northwest of East Jerusalem, are weaving these circumstances into their Holy Week messages to congregants. \u201cI tell them \u2026 we can recognise in our daily lives something of Christ\u2019s own suffering: his fear, his anguish, his sense of abandonment,\u201d Father Abedrabbo told Al Jazeera. \u201cIn this context, one word becomes central for us: steadfastness.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Christ himself teaches in the Gospel: \u2018By your perseverance you will gain your lives.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n These developments \u2013 especially the total closure of the tourism industry, which the Palestinian Christian community heavily relies on \u2013 come as many young Palestinian Christians are actively looking to emigrate.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the young people tell me, \u2018Can you help me get a visa to emigrate to the United States or Canada or Australia?’\u201d said Bishop Emeritus Younan, lamenting their lack of employment opportunities. \u201cI don\u2019t blame them if they think of emigration. But this is bad for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n Boulos, the shopkeeper, admits he\u2019s thought about leaving.<\/p>\n \u201cThey try as much as they can to get us to lose hope, and to leave this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For the past five weeks, he says he\u2019s mostly stayed at home, bored. But he still makes the effort to come to the shop a couple of times a week, despite Israeli instructions and having next to no customers.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to have hope. That is why I still come here \u2013 to show myself I still have hope,\u201d said Boulos, from inside his lonely shop. \u201cBut then, you know it doesn\u2019t stop. It never stops. And they know at some point, you will just give up. You will lose hope.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon such despair, this holy season Father Abedrabbo had a message for his congregation: \u201cSteadfastness is not passive endurance. It is an active, spiritual resistance: to remain rooted in good, in truth \u2026 to refuse hatred, and to continue choosing life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"Shuttered](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Shuttered-shops-in-Christian-Quarter-1775353519.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80\")
\u2018This country is only meant for them\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Bishop](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bishop-Younan-in-his-study-at-his-home-1775353575.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80\")
\u2018Steadfastness is not passive endurance\u2019<\/h2>\n
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