Christians in Jerusalem have attacked what they say is the increasingly common phenomenon of ultra-orthodox Jews spitting on them.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2387
By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
The statement followed a brawl between an orthodox Jewish yeshiva (religious school) student and an Armenian archbishop.
They clashed in Jerusalem’s Old City after the student spat at a cross being carried by the clergyman during a procession near the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=54 of the Holy Sepulchre.
Archbishop Nourhan Manougian slapped the student and in the ensuing scuffle, his 17th century ceremonial medallion was broken.
Both were questioned by police and the student is facing charges. He has been banned from the Old City for 75 days. The Armenians say the action was inadequate.
Archbishop Manougian told an Israeli newspaper that Israeli leaders must speak out about the “daily” abuse. “When there is an attack against Jews anywhere, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=73 and pride are hurt, don’t they take harsher measures?” he asked.His critique has encouraged other Christian leaders to speak out, including a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman who has disclosed that he was recently approached by an elderly man wearing a skullcap who spat in his face.
Not only does the Armenian community have to have its own http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1775 denied at the hands of the leading Zionist group in the United States, the ADL, but in Israel itself one of its leading prelates is subjected to indignities which would ingite an outcry worldwide if the victims were Jewish. To add to the indignity, the Armenian Apostolic Church has had an unbroken presence in Palestine since 638 AD, long before European Jews established any presence there at all.
Image: Each Siroun (“Lovely”) Cross is unique from all others, and has been an Armenian symbol ever since Armenia converted as a nation in 301 AD, one of the first to do so. This one is based on the Gospel of St. John 15:1-27, verses that helped to maintain Aremnian self awareness through centuries of persecution.