The common struggle of Coptic Christians and Palestinians must be relaunched. Time, politics and tourism have eroded once-strong ties. Coptic Christians must now mobilize, march and organize for Palestine, says George Iskander.
Like Palestinian Christians, Copts have been no strangers to oppression, and over the past century these shared experiences have led to outspoken advocacy and solidarity, writes George Iskander. (GETTY)
The history between the Coptic Orthodox Church and Palestine is little known in the West. The 2,000-year-old church has maintained a continuing presence in Jerusalem and its churches, including the Holy Sepulchre, in which there is a chapel maintained by the Copts for their services.
Tradition has it that this presence dates back to the pilgrimage of Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century. The Razzouks, a Coptic family from Jerusalem, have been tattooing pilgrims to the Holy Land since 1300 and have no plans to stop.
Coptic Christianity is forever linked and linked to the Holy Land, a land that still has a historic Palestinian Christian population. Palestine and Egypt are home to some of the world’s earliest and oldest Christian communities. Thus, in October, the Coptic Church condemned Israeli violence against the Palestinians. But this is not enough.
“We must support the Palestinians, who find themselves praying at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan every year, only to be attacked. The Coptic Church must now stand up to support its brothers in Palestine – which it has done, but she must do more.”
It is essential that all Copts express their support for Palestine and that the Coptic Church reiterates, unequivocally, its ban on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, its support for Palestine and its ultimate hope for peace and justice.
Just like Palestinian Christians, Copts are no strangers to oppression, and over the past century, these shared experiences have led to outspoken advocacy and solidarity between the two communities.
These injustices, not least the martyrdom of 20 Copts and a Ghanaian in Libya by ISIS in February 2015, have attracted the attention of the world and Western governments, who have called for accountability and to justice, not just for the Copts, but for the many regional Christian minorities in the Middle East – with the exception of Palestinian Christians.
Just as Copts have suffered attacks, discrimination and oppression, Palestinian Christians, often forgotten, have experienced the same widespread discrimination and displacement under occupation, leading to a diminishing Christian presence in the Land. Holy.
This is why, following the Palestinian Nakba in 1948Copts feel deep compassion for the Palestinian people, especially for the Christians among them. In 1967, Pope Cyril VI banned pilgrimages to Jerusalem following the Nakba.
After the Camp David Accords, his successor, Pope Shenouda III, reaffirmed the ban, declaring: “I will never go to Jerusalem except hand in hand with my Muslim brothers after the end of the Israeli occupation.” » For this, Shenouda was exiled by the then president, Anwar Sadat, to monastic life. To this day, Pope Shenouda III remains in the high esteem of all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts.
However, in recent years this emotional support has diminished. Religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem increase every year. The number of pilgrims is in the thousands and many pilgrimage trips are sponsored by churches, both in Egypt and in the diaspora.
The current status of the ban is unclear: since the visit of the current pope, Tawadros II, in 2015, many have considered the ban to be de facto lifted. In October, the Church issued a statement condemning the violence against Palestinians, but it refused to clarify its position on the pilgrimage ban.
In the West, many Copts in the diaspora have turned against Palestine, especially since the discourse has left out the Palestinian Christian population in the Holy Land, turning the issue into a holy war between religious factions.
Therefore, as one of the strongest Christian presences in the Middle East, the unequivocal renewal of the Church’s support for Palestine could shift these discursive tendencies towards those expressed in an appropriate grammar: language vernacular of the dispossessed and the dispossessed.
Much of this declining support is due to Christian Zionisma theopolitical movement championed and led by American evangelicals, which has led the charge in U.S. material support for Israel.
Christian Zionists look to scripture and faith to justify their support, reifying Zionism as an almost indispensable component of the religion. For Copts in the diaspora, it is often difficult to extract their history and beliefs from this movement, which has exerted a syncretic influence on almost all Christian denominations, including Copts, through the evangelical movement and Christian television .
To many, conceiving of Christianity as separate from Zionism seems almost a contradiction in terms, but one need only look to the past to realize that this is not the case. Christianity, at its core, preaches that hatred alienates humans from the Divine and from each other.
To harm one’s brother is to harm God, and that which has been ruined must be restored and made whole. How can we look at these words in our Scriptures and, at the same time, support the discrimination of Copts and Palestinians in the Holy Land?
As Copts, we have always called for peace: for the world and for ourselves. Everywhere we go, we demand religious freedom, in part because of our experience of discrimination.
How then can the Copts witness what is happening in the Holy Land and turn their backs on their neighbors? Even in Jerusalem, Copts are not safe: in 2018, monks peacefully protesting against the restoration of the Deir as-Sultan monastery were arrested and accosted by Israeli police. The list of violence against Christians in the Holy Land spans decades.
In 1979, Greek Orthodox monk Philoumenos Hasapis, guardian of Jacob’s Well, was stabbed to death. His successor also announced that he would give his life to defend the well.
The currency of Christianity is life and blood, in which, according to our belief, resides the ultimate expression of love. But should all Christians be prepared to pay this heavy price? Christians, many times, will happily face persecution, but they nonetheless deserve peace.
We must therefore support the Palestinians, who are regularly refused entry to holy sites. Christmas and Easter. We must support the Palestinians and among them the Christians, who find themselves attacked and spit on in the Holy City.
That this city, this land, this “religion factory”, as the poet Tamim al-Barghouti once called it, finds itself the scene of such shameful acts of bitterness, resentment and hatred, should be a cause of global shame.
We must support the Palestinians, who find themselves praying at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan every year, only to be attacked. The Coptic Church must therefore now stand up to support its brothers in Palestine – which it has done, but it must do more.
However, this is not entirely up to the pope. It also behooves those of us in the diaspora to move away from currents of Christian Zionism that have become entrenched in modern Coptic churches and Coptic thought. We must abandon the influence of American evangelical media and return to defending the interests of our people.
In our churches we should refuse to travel towards the Holy City and the Holy Land. We must march and organize in solidarity with the Palestinians, and we must call on the Church to renew the ban, so that one day, when the Copts and Palestine are free, we can enter the Holy City, hand in hand. the hand.
George Iskander holds a Ph.D. candidate in physics as well as a film buff and writer.
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The views expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.
