Controversy Continues over Rahi's Jerusalem Visit as the Church Assures He Will Not Take Part in Political Talks
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's visit to Jerusalem continues to be controversial, with some considering it a “historical mistake that opens the door for normalization with Israel,” and Church authorities reiterating that it has a strictly religious character.
Bishop Samir Mazloum assured OTV on Saturday evening that the patriarch “is not going to hold a peace treaty with Israel.”
And March 14 forces general-secretariat coordinator Fares Souaid said the Maronite Church's stance of enmity with Israel will not change after al-Rahi's visit.
"No one should understate our Arab identity,” Souaid added.
He continued: “If the Church was able to take a step forward that they were not capable of doing, it would breach the exclusiveness that Israel had designed to keep Jerusalem a city for Jews only and make it instead an international city. The visit would open the door for Muslim pilgrims to visit al-Aqsa mosque and for Christians to visit the Church of Nativity.”
At the other end of the spectrum, activist Samah Idriss, who is a member of a campaign that calls for boycotting Israel, described the patriarch's visit as a “historical mistake.”
“The visit overthrows the call of civil society and of 170 international organizations to boycott Israel,” he told LBCI television.
In 2006, an international movement that included several members of the Church called for boycotting Israel and withdrawing all investments there, Idriss said.
"Will he (the patriarch) go with an Israeli visa? Will he travel with an Italian passport? Even is he does, he is still a Lebanese patriarch. The Pope will visit the Yad Vashem museum of the holocaust and will meet with the butcher (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and the second butcher (President) Shimon Peres who is responsible for the Qana massacre. Will (al-Rahi) stay at an Israeli hotel?” he asked.
But al-Rahi's envoy Bishop Boulos Sayyah assured LBCI that the head of the Maronite Church will not accompany Pope Francis in his official visits in Israel, and that he will travel using a diplomatic passport issued by the Vatican.
"We have a Patriarchate in Jerusalem and we have a beautiful monastery in Old Jerusalem and the patriarch has a suite there,” he clarified.
While no politician has so far expressed their views on the visit, newspapers close to Hizbullah slammed the patriarch's move as a “historical sin.”
As Safir newspaper ran a critical piece headlined "Historic sin: Rahi goes to Israel,” in its Saturday issue in response to al-Rahi's controversial visit.
Calling it a "dangerous precedent,” the daily argued that the trip would "not serve the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese, nor those of Palestine and the Palestinians nor Christians and Christianity.”
It speculated on whether the patriarch "would shake hands with Israeli leaders who will be in the front row to welcome Pope Francis to Jerusalem.”
Even if he does not, he would still have to coordinate his trip with Israeli officials, the paper added, claiming that the visit "is part of the normalization between the head of the Catholic church and the occupier.”
As Safir also said: “It is a custom that any person who visits Israel becomes subject to legal prosecution on charges of cooperating with the enemy.”
As a response, Souaid told MTV: “We are fully aware of what this threat signifies.”
Al-Akhbar daily, which is also close to Hizbullah, said a group of Lebanese politicians will try to dissuade Rahi "from visiting Jerusalem as long as it is under Israeli occupation, which would signify a normalization with the occupier.”
Patriarch al-Rahi told Agence France Presse on Friday he would travel to the Holy Land to welcome the pontiff during his brief May 24-26 visit.
He would be the first patriarch to do so since the creation in 1948 of Israel, with which Lebanon is technically at war.
Lebanese citizens are banned from entering Israel, but Maronite clergy may to travel to the Holy Land to minister to the estimated 10,000 faithful there.
Rahi insisted that the trip will be strictly religious and has no political significance.
S.D.B.
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