Holy Week Fracas Underscores Stark Tensions At Christianity’s Holiest Site
On Sunday March 29, 2026 the Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday. For the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Albeit on 25 March 2020, Israeli health officials ordered the site closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first closure since 1349, during the Black Death. Clerics continued regular prayers inside the building, and it reopened to visitors two months later, on 24 May. https://web.archive.org/web/20220804045546/https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-israel-jerusalem-holy-sites
Due to wartime restrictions it was agreed that there was to be no public procession of palms, no public mass – just a private live stream to be broadcasted worldwide.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s role in Christianity is sacred and universal. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic, and Ethiopian Orthodox churches.
According to traditions dating to the fourth century, the church contains both the site where Jesus was crucified at Calvary, (or Golgotha), and the location of Jesus’ empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. Both locations are revered as immensely holy sites for Christians throughout the world.
When Pope Urban issued his papal call in 1095 for the first crusade he referenced the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as a call to arms.
Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine, went to Jerusalem to seek out the sites connected to Jesus’ ministry. She located both the hill of Golgotha and the nearby tomb. Constantine then ordered a basilica to be constructed over these places.
She is also credited with finding fragments of the True Cross.
https://www.pieceofholyland.com/blogs/christian-articles/rebuilding-the-church-of-the-holy-sepulchre
Although control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land has changed many times in the past millennium, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has fundamentally changed very little since the 12th century.
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/
The action of Israeli bureaucrats that prevented Cardinal Pizzaballa from even entering his church touched off a storm of criticism that swiftly reverberated around the world.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee described the incident as an unfortunate overreach.
“For the Patriarch to be barred from entry to the Church on Palm Sunday for a private ceremony is difficult to understand or justify,”
In a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote: “The free exercise of worship in Jerusalem must be guaranteed for all religions.”
Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni said that the police action “constitutes an offense not only against believers but against every community that recognizes religious freedom.”
https://apnews.com/article/israel-police-jerusalem-church-palm-sunday-906c8fa00e5e461760089260a18a2b98
Israel was quick to respond.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he called Pizzaballa personally to express his commitment to religious freedom. In a prepared statement Herzog stated:
“I reiterate the unwavering commitment of the State of Israel to the freedom of worship for people of all faiths and the importance of upholding the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem.”
https://x.com/Isaac_Herzog/status/2038261310069043327
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also chimed in saying:
“To protect worshippers, Israel asked members of all faiths to temporarily abstain from worshipping at the Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City. Even though I understand this concern, as soon as I learned about the incident with Cardinal Pizzaballa, I instructed the authorities to enable the Patriarch to hold services as he wishes.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/israel-allows-access-to-holy-sepulchre-after-initial-palm-sunday-rejection/ar-AA1ZJ83I?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Really?? Since when does Netanyahu get to decide if the Catholic Church can have a mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday?
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a shared ownership between East (Greek Orthodox, and West (Roman Catholic). There are also Coptic churches there and Armenian. This is the one place where everyone agrees that control of and access to goes far beyond 1948 when Israel formally came into existence. In fact it goes all the way back to the Roman Empire. Even the Ottomans allowed access to these sights.
Have we not reached the time for Christians to take control of their holy sights? We don’t need to be supplicants to the Israeli government. The Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, is under Israeli control as it should be. Likewise Christian sites should be under Christian control.
This year a resolution in Gaza was reached. Qatar is financing a two-state solution with the Turks providing security. President Trump has signed off on the deal. Perhaps that deal has to be expanded to a three state solution so that
Christians don’t have to be supplicants about the holiest site in their religion.
– MARK ADAMS NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR