It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
On February 4, the UK Guardian ran an article about the Trevelyan family, members of the British aristocracy. One might have expected the story to highlight the family's stately homes, political connections, or philanthropic work; instead, it focused on a family trip to Grenada — but this was no Caribbean getaway. Their journey had a far greater purpose: to make a public apology for their ancestors’ role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Back in 2016, as family member John Dower did some research into the Trevelyan history, he perused University College London's slavery database and discovered several entries denoting the combined ownership of over 1,000 enslaved Africans spread over six sugar plantations on the island. He was shocked, saying, “It had been expunged from the family history.”
Dower told the wider family circle, including his cousin Laura Trevelyan, a BBC reporter, about what he had found. In late January, they agreed to sign a letter of apology. When The Guardian published the story, 42 members of the family had already signed; by now, there are probably more, and they went a step further, by collectively committing to pay reparations to the people of Grenada.
It is a step that very few have had the courage or conviction to do. In August 2019, history was made when a reparations agreement was signed between The University of the West Indies and the University of Glasgow, the first such contract since people enslaved by the British were fully emancipated in 1838.
In 1835, the British government paid the Trevelyan family a lump sum of UK £26,898 (US $33,206), as compensation from for the abolition of slavery one year prior, quite a hefty settlement at the time. In contrast, the enslaved who were “freed” received nothing and were even made to continue labouring with no pay for years under an “apprenticeship” programme after the emancipation declaration.
By February 27, 2023, the Trevelyans had launched a UK £100,000 fund in Grenada. Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission who was instrumental in achieving the reparations agreement with the University of Glasgow, was on hand for the signing of the agreement, while Nicole Phillip-Dowe, vice-chair of the Grenada National Reparations Commission, commended the Trevelyans, noting, “It takes a leap of faith for a family to say, ‘my forefathers did something horribly wrong and I think we should take some responsibility for it’ […] I hope it will be followed by others.”
Many others are now coming out of the woodwork. On March 28, Scott Trust, the owner of The Guardian, revealed that the newspaper's founders had links to the slave trade. He apologised and committed to undertaking a decade-long programme of restorative justice that would invest UK £10 million (US $12.3 million) with the descendant communities of Guardian founder John Edward Taylor and his business partners.
In the wake of this latest development, and buoyed by the Trevelyans’ actions as well as Laura Trevelyan's use of her journalistic skills to bring as much attention as possible to the issue, United Nations (UN) experts are now adding their voices to the call for the British government and royal family to finally move in the direction of restorative justice.
Both the British politicians and the royal family have been reluctant to address the issue of slavery reparations. In October 2015, during then British prime minister David Cameron's visit to Jamaica, he infamously refused to discuss the issue, instead telling his hosts to “get over slavery.” Adding insult to injury was his offer to spend UK £25 million (approximately US $38 million) to build a new prison on the island, ostensibly to accommodate all the law-breaking Jamaican deportees.
More recently, in March 2022, as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge embarked upon a Caribbean tour in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee, they were met with protests from Jamaica to Belize. However, while Prince William acknowledged that “slavery was abhorrent and should never have happened,” he stopped short of issuing an apology.
Yet, as Trevelyan realised after spending some time in Grenada, the effects of slavery and colonialism still linger, affecting the people of the region in a myriad of ways, including via economics, systemic corruption, violence, public health, education, and issues of identity.
The family has been pressuring the British government and royal family to apologise and make amends for its involvement in and profiteering from the slave trade. Other colonisers, most recently the Dutch, have begun to make moves in this regard.
In mid-March, Laura Trevelyan announced that she had resigned from her post at the BBC to campaign full-time for reparative justice in the Caribbean. She plans to work with sympathetic politicians like Labour MP Clive Lewis, who has called for the UK to negotiate slavery reparations with Caribbean leaders.
From Trinidad and Tobago, writer Ira Mathur tweeted one of the most hopeful takeaways:
According to The Guardian, King Charles's goddaughter Fiona Compton, London-based artist and daughter of former St. Lucian prime minister John Compton, said he had spoken to her about ways in which the issue could be “better highlighted and acknowledged.” Compton is the powerhouse behind Know Your Caribbean which strives to educate people about the region. This often involves correcting perceptions about its misrepresented history and facilitating new and more inclusive discussions around various topics.
Could such a combination of factors — enhanced advocacy for reparative justice, a new sovereign on the British throne who appeared quite supportive of Barbados's decision to become a republic and may well be open to new ways of considering reparations, the continued, tireless efforts of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, and now pressure from one of the world's most respected media houses and the UN — finally herald in a new era for formerly colonised states? The Trevelyan family, like millions of Caribbean citizens, can only do what they can, and then wait and see.
Kyiv says Big Oil should pay to rebuild Ukraine’s shattered infrastructure Energy minister also warns the war risks dragging on forever unless the West closes sanctions loopholes on the Kremlin’s hydrocarbon revenues. Bohorodychne residents cross the Siversky Donets
BRUSSELS — Major international energy companies that raked in bumper profits because of price spikes over the course of the war should pour some of that cash into rebuilding Ukraine's shattered power infrastructure, Kyiv's Energy Minister German Galushchenko told POLITICO.
In a wide-ranging interview, Galushchenko also argued the West needed to close sanctions loopholes on Russian energy sales to prevent an "endless war" in Ukraine, and said Kyiv could provide alternative nuclear fuel so some EU countries could wean themselves off their dependence on Russian supplies.
"A lot of energy companies get enormous windfall profits due to the war. So we estimated this at more than $200 billion," Galushchenko said on a visit to Brussels. "They get this money because we are fighting, because of the war."
"I think it would be fair to share this money with Ukraine. I mean, to help us to restore, to rebuild the energy sector," he added.
The $200 billion figure given by Galushchenko has been widely cited as the profits of five top companies — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total and Shell — in 2022. The Kyiv School of Economics estimates the damage to Ukrainian infrastructure at close to $140 billion.
The minister noted that a Lithuanian company, Ignitis Group, is already looking to hand over some 10 percent of its profits to help reconstruction in Ukraine and said bigger companies should follow suit.
Galushchenko also warned that Moscow would be able to wage a perpetual war in Ukraine for as long as the Kremlin is able to rake in cash from selling fossil fuels. Despite sanctions against Russian oil imports imposed by the EU and a price cap set by the G7 club of rich democracies, he warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was still finding ways to beat international embargoes.
"If on one side you're trying to restrict them and on the other you're giving them opportunities, you'll allow them to make endless war," he complained, arguing the Kremlin was using its energy export earnings "not to help Russian people to live better" but "to produce weapons" and keep the war going.
"This money costs Ukrainian lives," he said.
Russia boasts that it has diverted its oil supplies to friendly countries such as China and India, but there are signs that restrictions from big Western markets are biting hard.
Calculations by Bloomberg on March 3 suggested that tax revenues from oil almost halved in February from a year ago, while gas revenue dropped 42 percent from a year earlier given reduced sales to Europe. The EU's ban on Russian oil has been a key factor is torpedoing the price of Urals crude.
Keen to keep up that pressure, Galushchenko protested that some oil was still seeping under the cordon.
Ukraines Energy Minister German Galushchenko
Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
"It's important not to help Russia to escape sanctions," he said, arguing that "sanctions are efficient only if you have no way to escape and we see the Russians are trying to escape — in some cases, they find a way."
His warning comes amid recent reports that Moscow's hydrocarbons may be reaching EU countries via Azerbaijan and Turkey. Allegations are also growing that Russian oil has been discreetly sold at prices far exceeding the $60 cap imposed by the G7 in December.
The EU's plan to make the bloc independent from Moscow's fossil fuels before 2030, called RePowerEU, includes encouraging member countries to jointly purchase natural gas, and the Ukrainian minister said his country also wanted in on that program.
While the EU has slashed its oil and gas imports from Russia, the bloc still has 18 Russian-designed VVER reactors — located in Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic — for which no alternative fuel supply exists so far.
Rather than continuing to rely on Russia, they could soon buy their supplies off Kyiv, he said. Ukraine is in the process of making specially-tailored replacement nuclear fuel along with Westinghouse of the U.S. that could be ready by "the beginning of next year."
A destroyed bridge over the Murom river near Russkiye Tishki
| Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images
He also called on the European Commission to set an EU-wide target for eliminating countries' reliance on Russian nuclear technology, while reiterating Ukraine's call to bring sanctions against Moscow's state-run atomic giant Rosatom for its role in overseeing the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. So far, the EU has refrained from hitting Russia's nuclear industry with sanctions.
"They are participating in the capture and illegal operation of [this] nuclear station," Galushchenko said.
As attacks on Christians become more frequent, a crisis looms for Israel
Church leaders point to inhospitable political atmosphere as they lock compounds at night; government ministries insist they are actively combating ill-treatment
A toppled statue in the Church of the Flagellation, in the Old City of Jerusalem, February 2, 2023. (Custody of the Holy Land)
The vandalized sanctuary of the Beit Jamal Monastery seen on September 22, 2017. (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
Catholic leaders, including Custos Francesco Patton (L), stand around a
vandalized statue of Jesus, March 24, 2023 (Filippo De Grazia) Hosam Naoum, a Palestinian Anglican bishop, pauses where vandals
desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Protestant Cemetery on
Jerusalem's Mount Zion in Jerusalem, January 4, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean) Illustrative -- In this Oct. 9, 2016 photo, Armenian priests arrive for
Sunday mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during its renovation
in Jerusalem's Old City (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) The word 'revenge' is graffitied in Hebrew on a wall in the Armenian
Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, January 11, 2022. (Armenian Patriarchate)1
“If you are a Christian in the Middle East, there’s only one place where you are safe,” asserted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Christian Zionists in Rio de Janeiro in December 2018. “There’s only one place where the Christian community is growing, thriving, prospering. That’s in the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s claim is a central element of the image Israeli officials put forward about the country when speaking to Western audiences.
Ahead of Christmas last year, Israel’s official Twitter account posted a video of the Foreign Ministry’s Digital Diplomacy chief David Saranga on a “magical Christmas stroll” through Jerusalem’s Old City.
The picture of safe coexistence painted by Israeli officials is starkly at odds with the experiences Jerusalem’s Christian leaders themselves describe. While they readily acknowledge that there is no organized or governmental effort against them, Christian clergy in the Old City tell of a deteriorating atmosphere of harassment, apathy from authorities, and a growing fear that incidents of spitting and vandalism could turn into something far darker.
And with Netanyahu already under scrutiny from Western allies over policies toward the Palestinians and attempts at sweeping judicial reform, deteriorating safety for Christians — or at least Church leaders disseminating that narrative — could become another serious diplomatic problem for Israel’s embattled government.
March of the schoolchildren
On Friday, hundreds of Catholic schoolchildren in Jerusalem embarked on their traditional march along the Via Dolorosa as they do every year during the 40 days of Lent.
Catholic schoolchildren walk down the Via Dolorosa, March 24, 2023 (Filippo De Grazia)
This time was different, however.
The students set off from the Church of the Flagellation, the second station of the cross, all clad in identical red scarves that bore the image of a broken statue of Jesus, the Scourged Savior effigy vandalized by an American Jewish tourist in the church in February.
The march, joined by the two senior Catholic figures in the Holy Land — Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Custodian of the Holy Land Francesco Patton — was not limited to a protest against that one incident.
“We are horrified and hurt in the wake of the many incidents of violence and hatred that have taken place recently against the Catholic community in Israel,” said Patton, also known as the Custos.
Fr. Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, Guardian of the Christian Holy Places in the Holy Land on behalf of the Catholic Church (Courtesy)
He cited seven incidents that have taken place in recent weeks, saying pointedly that “it is no coincidence that these serious incidents are taking place specifically now.”
“We expect and demand from the Israeli government and law enforcement to act with determination to stamp these serious phenomena.”
While there have long been periodic incidents of vandalism and harassment against Christian clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City, there has been a noticeable rise in attacks in recent weeks.
In November, two soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Givati Brigade were detained on suspicion of spitting at the Armenian archbishop and other pilgrims during a procession in the Old City.
In early January, two Jewish teens were arrested for damaging graves at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.
Hosam Naoum, a Palestinian Anglican bishop, touches a damaged grave where vandals desecrated dozens of graves at the historic Protestant Cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion in Jerusalem, January 4, 2023. (Mahmoud Illean/AP)
The next week, the Maronite community center in the northern city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha was vandalized by unknown assailants over the Christmas holiday.
Jerusalem’s Armenian community buildings were also targeted by vandals, with multiple discriminatory phrases graffitied on the exterior of structures in the Armenian Quarter. According to the Armenian Patriarchate, “revenge,” “death to Christians,” “death to Arabs and gentiles” and “death to Armenians” were all graffitied in the quarter.
The attacks kept coming. On a Thursday night in late January, a gang of religious Jewish teens threw chairs at an Armenian restaurant inside the city’s New Gate. The vandalism at the Church of the Flagellation occurred the very next week.
And last week, a resident of southern Israel was arrested after attacking priests with an iron bar at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane.
“Terrorist attacks, by radical Israeli groups, targeting churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties… have become almost a daily occurrence that evidently increases in intensity during Christian holidays,” said the Greek Orthodox Church.
And not all incidents even make the news. Father Matthew, secretary to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III, told The Times of Israel that last Tuesday, a handicapped priest making his way slowly out of the Greek Orthodox monastery was spat on by two religious Jewish youths. When another priest confronted the assailants, they pulled up their shirts to show canisters of pepper spray.
According to Father Matthew, the police detained, then released, the attackers.
Jerusalem Police told The Times of Israel it was not familiar with the incident, and asked for additional details.
A Border Police guard stands next to anti-Christian graffiti reading in Hebrew, “Jesus is a monkey” on the Church of the Dormition, in Jerusalem on May 31, 2013. (Flash90)
Church officials are critical of the overall police response.
“The police try to paint each attack as something isolated, and try to paint the attackers as mentally unstable,” said Amir Dan, spokesman for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. “In doing so, the police remove themselves from all responsibility.”
Indeed, after the Church of the Flagellation attack, police said they were checking whether the suspect had mental health issues. Police told The Times of Israel that the attacker at Mary’s Tomb — a Christian Moldovan-Israeli — was committed to a mental hospital temporarily.
A US tourist, left, is led away by police on suspicion that he vandalized a statue in the Church of the Flagellation in the Old City of Jerusalem, February 2, 2023. (Israel Police)
The Franciscans in the Old City are so worried that they have been locking the doors to their San Salvatore compound in the Old City at night ever since the desecration of the Jesus statue. They have never taken such a measure in the past, said Father Alberto Pari, secretary of the Custody
“I think all the Christians, they are more aware that someone can enter and do something,” said Pari.
The police try to paint each attack as something isolated, and try to paint the attackers as mentally unstable.
Multiple officials repeated the charge that the rise in attacks is connected to the current ruling coalition, which includes far-right figures like National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Franciscan Father Alberto Pari, secretary of the Custody for the Holy Land (Lazar Berman/The Times of Israel)
“Because of the government situation, some extremists, they feel like they have a protector,” said Pari. “Nobody will stop them if they do something that maybe they were thinking to do also before. But then there was more control from the police or they were not supported by some political leaders.”
Dan concurred with Pari’s assessment: “Unfortunately after this government was elected, there are those who feel they can do whatever they want. That they can lift up their fists and nothing will happen to them.”
Concerned ministries
The Israeli bodies in touch with Israel’s churches all condemn the attacks and insist they are aware of the problem.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the annual Jerusalem Conference of the ‘Besheva’ group in Jerusalem, on February 21, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“We are very attentive,” said Tania Berg-Rafaeli, director of the Foreign Ministry’s World Religions Department.
She said her office called the Greek Patriarchate after the attack at Mary’s Tomb to express solidarity and condemn the attack, as it regularly does.
“These attacks aren’t representative of Israeli society,” she said.
The Interior Ministry told The Times of Israel that its Religious Communities Department is in close touch with the Custody of the Holy Land, recently visited Patriarch Pizzaballa and the Protestant Cemetery, and is involved in dealing with the spitting incidents and the attacks in the north.
“The Interior Ministry, through the Religious Communities Department, works continuously through a guiding ethic of providing freedom of religion and worship, and protecting the Status Quo and Holy Places, and is present at all times to help and assist as much as possible, and hopes that violent incidents will end immediately,” the ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The ministry added that the personal safety of Israel’s residents is the responsibility of the police.
The police stressed to The Times of Israel that they arrested the Mary’s Tomb attacker before he could cause any damage or injuries. They interrogated the 27-year-old and brought him to court to extend his custody.
“We view with severity all kinds of violence,” said the police in a statement, “and will continue to act against acts of violence in general, and specifically violence in holy places, with a heavy hand without compromise on the goal of bringing offenders to justice.”
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum has led the attempts to get a handle on the situation on the municipal level.
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, poses for a picture during an interview at Dubai’s al- Habtoor palace in the United Arab Emirates, on October 13, 2020. (Giuseppe CACACE / AFP)
“We have become increasingly more aware of the situation,” Hassan-Nahoum told The Times of Israel. “In my hat as both tourism and international relations head, I have been gathering all the different stakeholders to talk about solutions.”
The Times of Israel viewed the minutes from a meeting Hassan-Nahoum chaired in December, in which city councilmembers, police, and representatives from Old City NGOs sought to address the attacks.
Tammy Lavi of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center told the forum that at least 50% of the Friday Armenian processions are interrupted by spitting, cursing, or people intentionally walking through the ceremony.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews read lamentations outside one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, during the annual Tisha B’Av (Ninth of Av) fasting and a memorial day, commemorating the destruction of ancient Jerusalem temples, on August 14, 2016, in Jerusalem’s Old City. (AFP PHOTO / AHMAD GHARABLI)
The attendees placed much of the blame on the “Zilbermans,” members of a 300-family-strong Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in the Old City that distinguishes itself from other Haredi communities with their unique approach to Torah study that includes right-wing Zionist ideas.
In the municipality meeting, right-wing city councilor Yehonatan Yosef agreed to go with deputy mayor and activist Aryeh King to speak with the Zilberman rabbis about stopping their students from harassing Christian tourists and ceremonies.
Rhetorical tax
Though violence has risen of late, church leaders in Israel were sounding the alarm well before the current government came to power. But many Israeli officials feel that the churches often go too far, paying a sort of rhetorical tax to the Palestinian Authority every year at Israel’s expense to ensure the well-being of their Palestinian congregants.
What’s more, though the heads of many churches are often European, the congregations and priests are primarily Palestinian, and the local churches are suffused with Palestinian liberation theology. In this school, Zionist Jews play the part of oppressive Romans, and Palestinians are identified with Jesus. Old and persistent tropes of Jewish deicide and supersessionism are regular features of Palestinian church rhetoric.
People attend a mass on a Palm Sunday at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Sunday, March 28 2021. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A 2021 joint statement ahead of Christmas by “the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem” warning that radical Jewish groups were working to drive Christians out of Jerusalem was met with indignant fury by the Foreign Ministry headed by Yair Lapid, and by President Isaac Herzog, neither of whom could be called right-wing extremists.
An Israeli statement said that the Church leaders’ accusations “are baseless, and distort the reality of the Christian community in Israel.”
“The statement by Church leaders in Jerusalem is particularly infuriating given their silence on the plight of many Christian communities in the Middle East suffering from discrimination and persecution,” the statement continued.
Israeli Arab Christians celebrate the annual Christmas parade in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Dec. 24, 2021. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
Days later, the Central Bureau of Statistics released a report stating that Israel’s Christian community grew by 1.4 percent in 2020 and numbers some 182,000 people, with 84% saying they were satisfied with life in the country. The statistics revealed that Arab Christian women had some of the highest education rates in the country.
Another looming crisis
The involvement of multiple Israeli ministries and offices in ensuring the welfare of the country’s Christian communities is a sign of an inherent problem. Since no one office is ultimately responsible for the file, Israeli policy is usually piecemeal and reactive. Problems often fall between the cracks until a crisis breaks out, forcing senior officials to put out fires.
In 2018, the heads of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian churches stepped up to a bank of microphones in front of the Holy Sepulchre Church, and accused the Jerusalem municipality of a “systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land.
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III delivers a statement to the press as he stands next to the Custodian of the Holy Land Fr. Francesco Patton and Armenian Bishop Siwan (L) on February 25, 2018, outside of the closed doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. (AFP Photo/Gali Tibbon)
Theophilus then delivered the dagger: “This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.”
The Church elders gathered in front of their holiest site after they discovered that the Knesset was set to discuss — and in all probability pass — a bill that day allowing the state to confiscate land sold by the churches to private investors. It was also motivated by a recent decision by the Jerusalem Municipality to freeze churches’ assets until they cough up millions of shekels in what the city claims are unpaid taxes.
The point made, the Palestinian keeper entrusted with the church’s keys climbed up a ladder and locked the ancient doors. They would stay closed for three days, until Netanyahu intervened, suspending the tax collection and freezing the legislation until a newly formed committee — to be headed by then-regional cooperation minister Tzachi Hanegbi — could work out the issues with the churches.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Likud lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, right, at the weekly Likud party meeting at the Knesset on March 28, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
But the damage was already done. Netanyahu’s involvement only came after Israel buckled under heavy pressure from the Vatican, Orthodox countries like Russia and Greece, and Evangelical Christian groups that are staunch supporters of Israel.
It seems Israeli policy-making is no more forward-thinking today. Days after the Church of Flagellation attack, the Jerusalem municipality demanded that the Vatican-owned Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center pay overdue city property taxes of NIS 18 million ($5 million), placing a lien on the institution’s bank accounts until it settles the payment.
It was the latest product of Israel’s long-standing refusal to view its relationship with the Christian world as a distinct policy issue that demands dedicated staff and attention from senior officials.
Christian pilgrims hold candles as they gather during the ceremony of the Holy Fire at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem dead, Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
If Netanyahu doesn’t start treating the tax fight and the safety of Christian clerics and pilgrims as issues that demand holistic solutions led by his government, he could soon find himself under even more pressure from Israel’s most important allies. Those same Western countries have not hidden their discomfort over the proposed judicial reform and statements from the coalition’s right wing.
“The Vatican, and the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Belgium and the United States are regularly updated on the events,” said the Franciscan Custody’s Dan of the attacks and vandalism. “All of them are following the situation with great concern.”
But there isn’t much optimism among Christian clergy in Jerusalem that the situation is going to get better anytime soon.
“Nothing is going to change,” predicted Father Matthew ominously, “until someone gets killed.”
