Fifty years have elapsed since the first papal visit to Israel – that of pope Paul VI in 1964. Relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people as represented by the State of Israel have changed since then, and the fourth visit, of Pope Francis this week, is taking place in a different atmosphere than the first one. Yet for a significant part of Israeli Jewish society, it seems that tensions, mistrust and perhaps even a resurgence of old demons are on the rise. In recent weeks, there have been unsubstantiated rumors about a secret agreement between Israel and the Vatican to hand the Cenacle – the room in which Jesus is believed to have eaten the Last Supper – over to Christian representatives in Jerusalem. The Cenacle is located on Mount Zion, in the same building where, according to Jewish tradition, King David is buried a story below; hence the tensions among religious Jewish activists. One of the main opponents of changing the site's status quo is Bayit Yehudi city councilman and right-wing activist Aryeh King. In a conversation with this reporter earlier this week, however, King sounded upset about the spread of the rumors. “That's a huge lie designed to smear us,” he said of the supposed agreement. “There has never been any move or decision to hand the site to the Vatican. We have never claimed that!” Asked to explain the growing number of flyers and calls to protest – including a large Saturday night rally led by prominent rabbis at King David's Tomb two weeks ago – King said that the real cause of the outcry was a proposal to change another aspect of the site's status quo in favor of the Christians. “We know that there hasn't been and there is no intention to hand over the sovereignty of the site to the Vatican; we know that the Vatican didn't ask for that,” says King. However, he continues, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government is planning to allow Christians to hold mass in the Last Supper room. At present, Christians are allowed to pray generally in the Cenacle twice a year. “Now, every Jew knows that once [mass] is allowed, it desecrates the site and prevents us from praying there,” he says. “In order to conduct a mass there, they will have to display a cross. That's avoda zara [idolatry], and it will desecrate the site for Jewish worship.” During a press briefing at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies ahead of the pope's visit, Father Dr. David Neuhaus – the patriarchal vicar of the country's Hebrew-speaking Catholic community – pointed out the rising animosity toward Christians in the city, which has too often been accompanied by acts of vandalism and young yeshiva students spitting on monks in the Old City's streets. “We do not feel secure enough. It is the Israeli government's task to ensure our security in the Holy Land,” concluded Neuhaus, who confirmed that there had been no proposal or decision to turn the site over to Vatican sovereignty. Neuhaus spoke about Christians' right to hold services at holy sites like the Cenacle according to their tradition, but didn't elaborate on any new arrangements between the government and the Christian representatives of the Custody of the Holy Land. According to King, there are some new arrangements being negotiated between the two parties, with the aim of not only increasing the number of times Christians may visit the site, but also allowing them to hold religious rituals there – such as mass – up to 66 days a year. “That would mean all Sundays, plus Christian holidays,” argued King. “In fact, that will turn King's David Tomb, the second-holiest site for the Jews, into a church, barring us from continuing to pray there.” King added that the “nonsense” about an agreement to hand over the Cenacle to the Vatican was spread on purpose, “to divert attention from what is really being promoted – namely the authorization to hold masses in the site.” He said that both Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinovitch and Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin knew the truth, but that they “serve the prime minister's interests instead of the Torah.”
