‘Where was the Pope in the Holocaust?’ Jerusalem councilman refuses to decry attacks on Christians

A Jerusalem city council meeting erupted into a shouting match on Thursday after a member of the Hitorerut party on the council called for the council to condemn recent attacks by haredim and far-right Jews against Christians in the Old City, with one councilman saying in response that he was still waiting for the pope to condemn the Holocaust.

“They’re spitting on and cursing at Christian tourists and worshippers,” said Hitorerut councilman Adir Schwartz during the meeting. The Hitorerut party also called for additional security cameras and further cooperation with the police in order to protect the Christian community.

“We support tourism but not seminaries,” said far-right Jerusalem deputy mayor Aryeh King.

Councilman Yonatan Yosef also belittled the call for a condemnation, stating “I would like to add a condemnation of the Christians who conducted the crusades, the pogroms, the Inquisition, all the things that the Christians did to the Jews throughout the ages.”

“What did the pope do during the Holocaust? I’m still waiting for the pope’s condemnation of the Holocaust.”

Pope Pius XII, the pontiff during World War Two, appears in an undated file photo from the archives of Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano (credit: REUTERS)

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion stated during the meeting “We condemn – and ‘we’ means all of us, most of us let’s say –  all expressions of violence regardless of religion, race or sex.”

Schwartz condemned the statements made during the council meeting on Thursday, saying “The racist and dark statements that were said tonight at the council meeting are the match that can set the city on fire in a second and cause a serious crisis in relations that will be difficult to restore.”

“Instead of condemning and fighting violence forcefully and in a way that is not ambiguous, Mayor Moshe Leon chose, once again, to silently support the shocking things said by his coalition members. Every day we move away from the chance to live here together with all the communities living in the city. The Hitorerut movement will continue to promote liberal values and fight for the place of all residents in Jerusalem.”

While Pope Pius XII (who served as pope during World War II) did not publicly protest the genocide of Jews during the Holocaust, the Catholic Church did conduct several activities to rescue and hide Jews both in and outside Italy, although historians still debate the extent and manner of those activities.

Both Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, have publicly condemned Holocaust denial and antisemitism.

“There can be no constant commitment to building fraternity together without first eliminating the roots of hatred and violence that fueled the horror of the Holocaust,” said Pope Francis earlier this year.

Pope Francis additionally published wartime appeals made by Jews to the Vatican during the Holocaust online last year.

String of attacks on Christians continues in Jerusalem

A number of attacks on Christians and Christian holy sites have been reported in Jerusalem recently. 

On Thursday, clashes broke out after police attempted to prevent far-right Lehava activists from breaking into a Christian concert being held in Jerusalem. The activists, who called the event a “missionary event,” were accompanied by King.

Haredim have also been recorded spitting at Christian tourists and worshippers.

Last week, a window in the Room of The Last Supper (the Cenacle) on Mount Zion was smashed by a Jewish man who threw a stone threw the window.

Additionally last week, a conference was held on the matter of attacks against Christians in Jerusalem under the title: “Why do certain Jews spit on Gentiles”, in which various researchers and lecturers from the city’s universities participated.

According to Walla, the Foreign Ministry decided to boycott the conference in a very unusual decision, especially in light of the fact that the Foreign Ministry is the main party responsible for the relations with the Christian world and the connections with the various churches.

In April, a 32-year-old resident of Jerusalem was arrested on suspicion of robbing a monastery in the city’s Ein Kerem neighborhood. According to the suspicion, two masked suspects entered the monastery, bound one of the nuns there with masking tape, sealed her mouth, and stole a large amount of foreign currency from the place. Another nun who was there ran to her room, barricaded herself there, and called the police.

Also in January, there were several similar cases of hate against Christian sites. The Maronite Christian center in Ma’alot-Tarshiha in northern Israel was vandalized and destroyed by unknown persons. A week earlier, graves in the Christian cemetery on Mount Zion were vandalized and hateful inscriptions were sprayed on the walls of the Armenian monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Shlomi Heller/Walla and Yoav Etiel/Walla contributed to this report.

JPost