JERUSALEM, Israel – Dozens of Jewish Israelis paid a solidarity visit to a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem after it was desecrated, apparently by Orthodox Jews, earlier this week. The incident, which parallels an untold number of descecrations of Jewish graves in Christian countries, has many people in Israel calling for stricter punishment for hate crimes.
David Pileggi, the Anglican rector of Christ Church which administers the cemetery, said, “It has been vandalized, and in an ongoing way, over many years. But several days ago, the vandalism was quite severe, and at least 30 tombstones were destroyed; many of those tombstones had crosses. So, this was certainly an act of bigotry, or you might say, anti-Christian vandalism.”
Pileggi noted there has been a rise in acts against Christians over the past few years from a group of religious extremists.
“We’re calling upon the state to take firm action, and not only to repair the cemetery, which we think they should,” he said. ” At the same time, toughen the laws against religious hate crimes.”
“This immoral act is an affront to religion and the perpetrators should be prosecuted. Since its establishment, the State of Israel has been committed to freedom of worship and religion for all and will continue this policy.
The cemetery is more than 150 years old. It’s the resting place for many generations of Protestant men and women who left Europe and the United States to serve the people of the Holy Land.
“We have buried here some quite famous evangelical Protestant Christians and many Evangelical Christians who are not famous at all – teachers, doctors, pastors, Bible translators and this is what the cemetery represents. There’s Horatio Spafford, who wrote, It Is Well With My Soul. There’s Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander, who was the first Jewish bishop in Jerusalem, after a gap of almost 1800 years.”
Pileggi recounted more names, including Conrad Schick, the first archaeologist, town planner and architect in Jerusalem, and John Nicolayson, the first Protestant pastor of Jerusalem, because, as Pileggi recalled from history, “Protestants were not allowed to live here.”
Other graves include those of children, British policemen and famous Egyptologist and Archaeologist Flinders Petrie.
Following this attack, dozens of Israelis organized by Tag Meir, a group that says it’s “United against Racism,” visited the cemetery to express their support for the Christians and to urge the Israeli government to act.
Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum, founder of Kehilat Zion in Jerusalem, told CBN News, “I came here today because I’m sad and to be standing in this very important historic graveyard of people who have built Jerusalem and people who have lived and loved Jerusalem, and being helpless here in this graveyard. Their graves were desecrated.”
She continued, “And this must never happen in any place in the world for any religion, and of course, not here in the holy city of God, of HaShem. We are self-symbolized – many, many hundreds of other communities who feel ashamed and who do not want this to happen. Of course, not in the name of our Jewish heritage that really respects every human being.”
Tour guide Gadi Dahan also came to lend his backing. “This amount of people that arrived today to show appreciation, first of all, to the history and to show by (their presence) to the damage that’s been done here. And unfortunately, what we see here, the atrocity has been made by individuals that we don’t know how many people give them the backwind.”
“But we are here to say, if you cannot fight the darkness, you’re supposed to enrich the light and nourish the light,” Dahan explained.
Yoni Shapiro, chairman of the Israel Incoming Tourist Association, said, “I’m a ninth-generation Jerusalemite. Okay? And I’m here to show solidarity with the people who are holding the treasures of Israel’s heritage in the 19th century. My family arrived in 1809, and here I see tombs from that period. And they probably knew (my family).”
Pileggi noted that in addition to its history, the cemetery is still in use today, and has a huge spiritual significance. “We take inspiration from the lives of these saints, their love, their self-sacrifice, their humility, their willingness to spend a lifetime here; helping and bearing witness, you know, to Jesus the Messiah,” he said.
Pileggi believes it’s important “to remember with gratitude the grace of God, and how God used, you know, very ordinary, simple human beings, often, to accomplish His purposes in this country.”
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