Israel Aims To Rein In Jewish Radicals for Pope’s Visit
Image by getty images
Israel issued restraining orders against several Jewish right-wing activists on Wednesday, restricting their movements over concern that they could try to disrupt a May 24-26 visit to the Holy Land by Pope Francis.
Francis will visit Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel during the trip, his first as pope to the region.
An Israeli police spokesman said police and the Shin Bet internal security service handed restraining orders to “a number of right-wing activists” whom they believed intended to cause “disruptions during the pope’s visit and be involved in provocative illegal acts”.
The spokesman declined to say how many activists received the orders. But he said they would not be allowed to enter certain areas “for security reasons” for four days.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said three Jewish youths would be barred from Jerusalem starting on Saturday. Two of the youngsters, it said, were students at a seminary near the Cenacle in Jerusalem, the traditional site of Jesus’s Last Supper where the pope will celebrate a Mass.
Haaretz reported last week that Israeli security services feared that Jewish radicals might carry out a major hate crime against the Christian population or institutions to drum up media attention during the Pope’s pilgrimage.
Last week, “Death to Arabs and Christians and all those who hate Israel” was daubed in Hebrew on an outer column of the Office of the Assembly of Bishops at the Notre Dame Center in East Jerusalem.
Francis is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Notre Dame Center, which is Vatican property located just outside the walls of the old city, on the last day of his trip.
Chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Thursday he was not aware of any particular security concerns for any part of the visit. The pope, he said, would shun bulletproof vehicles during the trip and use a normal car so he could be as close to people as possible.
The last papal journey to the Holy Land was by Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict, in 2009.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
