ASIA/HOLY LAND - The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan claims the protection of the Holy Places of Jerusalem

Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) - The Jordanian government has also deplored the arson attack perpetrated on Friday 4 December in Jerusalem against the Basilica of the Agony, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Ambassador Daifallah al Fayez, spokesman for the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, issued a statement condemning the criminal act, reminding the Israeli authorities, qualified as "occupying power", to "respect their obligations in accordance with the international law, regarding the protection of places of worship. In this regard, the statement from the representative of the Jordanian government also reiterated the role claimed by the Monarch of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as "protector" of the Islamic and Christian Holy Places of the Holy City.
In the early afternoon of Friday 4 December, while the solemn ceremony of installation of the new Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins was underway in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, not far from there, an incendiary act was perpetrated inside the Basilica of the Agony, which led to the destruction of some benches previously coated with flammable liquid. The Israeli police, called by the Franciscan Fathers of the Custody of the Holy Land, responsible for the Basilica, arrested the alleged perpetrator of the arson attack in Jerusalem. According to the Israeli press, he is a Jew residing in Gilo, one of the neighborhoods built in recent years in the Palestinian Territories between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
On Sunday 6 December, at 10 am, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, presided over a Eucharistic concelebration in the Basilica of the Agony, as an act of reparation following the outrage suffered by this church. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 7/12/2020)

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