JERUSALEM – On Friday morning in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the limestone alleys of the Christian Quarter, it was as if the pandemic never took place.
The winding corridors that form the Via Dolorosa, along which Christians believe Jesus drew his cross after his crucifixion, were filled with more than 1,000 worshipers. In the covered market, the air smells of incense and resounds with Christian hymns. The Good Friday procession, where the believers follow the route that Jesus said was back, was back.
“It’s like a miracle,” said Rev. Amjad Sabbara, a Roman Catholic priest who led the march. “We do not do it online. We see the people in front of us. ”
Pandemic restrictions forced the cancellation of last year’s ceremony and required priests to hold services without congregation members present. Thanks to the worldwide leading vaccine for Israel, religious life in Jerusalem is returning to normal. And on Friday, it once again brought crowds to the city’s streets, and even relief for one of the most solemn anniversaries of Christianity: the Good Friday March.
“We are so happy to be here,” said May Bathish, a 40-year-old choir member at Father Sabbara’s Church in the Old City. “If you follow the same steps that Jesus did, it is a great privilege.”
For most of the past year, the pandemic has kept the Old City horribly empty. Its shops, synagogues and churches were often closed, the streets of the tourists and pilgrims were exposed. But with nearly 60 percent of Israel’s residents fully vaccinated, the city’s streets threatened again, even though foreign tourists were still absent.
“When it’s empty, it’s like a city of ghosts,” Ms Bathish said. Now, she added, “it’s a city of life.”
At the rally for the march on Friday, there was barely room to stand. Police officers blocked latecomers from entering from nearby side streets. Members of a Catholic youth group form a ring around the bearers of a large replica crucifix, the centerpiece of the march, to save those who wear it from the jossels of a sea of worshipers.
Many of those in the march were Palestinians who became Israeli residents after Israel conquered the Old City in 1967 along with the rest of East Jerusalem. About 6,000 Christians live in the Old City, along with Muslims and Jews.
“Walk behind the cross!” shouted a church official. “Behind the cross, everyone!”
Above amok, Father Amjad called his congregation to walk in pairs. “Two by two,” he shouted through a loudspeaker. “Not one by one!”
Then the crowd slowly moved down and sang mournful hymns as they continued what Christians considered to be a version of Jesus’ last steps.
They walk in pace and start down the Via Dolorosa, past the place where tradition claims Jesus was tried by Pontius Pilate, past where he was beaten and mocked, past the shops selling Christian icons and crosses, ice cream and T-shirts.
They turn left and then right over the places where Christians believe that Jesus stumbled once, twice, three times under the weight of the crucifix.
In the alley outside the chapel of St. Simon of Cyrene, the marchers drag their fingers over an ocher limestone in the chapel wall. According to tradition, Jesus fixed himself on the stone after an obstacle. And so many pilgrims have caressed the stone over so many centuries that the surface now touches smooth.
Eventually they reached the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which according to believers was the place of Christ’s crucifixion, burial and eventual resurrection.
For some, the Good Friday march has found even more appeal than usual – its themes of suffering, redemption and renewal seem particularly symbolic as the end of a deadly pandemic finally appears in sight.
“We have found hope again,” said George Halis, 24, who is studying to be a priest and lives in the Old City. “Last year was like a darkness coming over the whole earth.”
For others, there was a theological and emotional importance to being able to come together again.
“All Christians are part of the body of Christ,” she said. Vincenzo Peroni, a Catholic priest who settled in Jerusalem and regularly led pilgrimages within the Holy Land. “Being able to celebrate together makes it more visible.”
But for now, that togetherness still stands limits. There are still restrictions on the number of worshipers during Easter services. Masks are still a legal requirement. And foreigners still need an exemption to enter Israel – to keep out thousands of pilgrims, at the expense of local shopkeepers who depend on their business.
“It still feels like it’s not normal,” said Hagop Karakashian, the owner of a famous Old Town ceramic shop, whose family designed the neighborhood’s nameplates. ‘The locals can celebrate, yes. But something is still missing. ”
The mood among Christians a few miles away, in the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, was even less jubilant. Christians in the occupied territories can only visit Jerusalem with a special permit, which has become even more difficult to acquire during the pandemic. While most Israelis have now been vaccinated, the vast majority of Palestinians have not yet received a dose.
Israel has provided vaccines to more than 100,000 Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank, almost all in Israeli or West Bank settlements. Palestinian officials received another 150,000 doses.
But Israel says it is not obligated to vaccinate the rest of the Palestinian population, citing a clause of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, which handed over health care duties to Palestinian officials. Critics say it remains Israel’s responsibility to help, citing international law requiring an occupying force to oversee health care for occupied populations, as well as a separate clause from the Oslo Accords that states that during epidemics with Palestinians must work.
In any case, infection rates are still high in the occupied territories and vaccination rates are low – and this has limited the number of Palestinian Christians who have given permission to enter Jerusalem for Easter this year. An Israeli government spokesman declined to say the final number.
“Without permits we can not come,” said Rev. Jamal Khader, the Roman Catholic parish priest in Ramallah. “It’s a sign of the constant presence of occupation and the restrictions on movement.”
But Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection still provide spiritual nourishment for a discouraged people, said Father Khader, who is allowed to enter Jerusalem through his work for the church.
“We identify with the suffering of Christ on Good Friday,” he said.
“Then,” he adds, “we find hope for Easter Sunday.”