![\"Palestinian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-29T105503Z_1024799285_RC25EKA9BBZ4_RTRMADP_3_RELIGION-EASTER-JERUSALEM-PALM-SUNDAY-177479655.jpeg\")
Issa Kassissieh, a Palestinian Christian who is popular for being the Santa Claus of the city, holds a cross and a palm frond while standing at the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after finding them locked, following the cancellation of the traditional Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives, amid restrictions on group gatherings and the US-Israeli war on Iran, in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City on March 29, 2026 [Ammar Awad\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
In a statement to the AFP news agency, Israeli police said Pizzaballa\u2019s request to deliver the Catholic mass to mark Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Christian Holy Week that ends with Easter, could not be approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Old City and the holy sites constitute a complex area that does not allow access for large emergency and rescue vehicles, which significantly challenges response capabilities and poses a real risk to human life in the event of a mass casualty incident,\u201d the force said.<\/p>\n
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X that the blocking of Pizzaballa was out of \u201cspecial concern for his safety\u201d as holy sites in Jerusalem had been \u201crepeatedly targeted\u201d by Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no malicious intent whatsoever, only concern for his safety and that of his party,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, given the holiness of the week leading up to Easter for the world\u2019s Christians, Israel\u2019s security arms are putting together a plan to enable church leaders to worship at the holy site in the coming days,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
While the Catholic Church had already announced it had cancelled the traditional Palm Sunday procession, in a statement, it said Israel\u2019s actions to ban Pizzaballa and Ielpo were a \u201cmanifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hasty and fundamentally flawed decision, tainted by improper considerations, represents an extreme departure from basic principles of reasonableness, freedom of worship, and respect for the status quo,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
But the prevention also caused condemnation.<\/p>\n
But US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the incident an \u201cunfortunate overreach already having major repercussions around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHome Front Command Guidelines restrict any gatherings to 50 people or less. The 4 representatives of the Catholic Church were well below that restriction. Statements from the Gov\u2019t of Israel indicate the action to prohibit Cardinal Pizzaballa entry to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were for safety reasons, but churches, synagogues, and mosques throughout Jerusalem have met with the restrictions of 50 or less,\u201d Huckabee wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Patriarch to be barred from entry to the Church on Palm Sunday for a private ceremony is difficult to understand or justify. Israel has indicated it will work with the Patriarch to accommodate a safe means of carrying out Holy Week activities,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the incident was \u201can offence not only to the faithful, but to any community that respects religious freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also said in a post on X that he had summoned Israel\u2019s ambassador over the incident.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the decision and said worship \u201cfor all religions\u201d must be guaranteed in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran, Israel has closed holy sites in Jerusalem, citing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,1258,1259,44,23156,11530,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-569272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-religion","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}