Electricity pole for East Jerusalem settlers gets in Catholic Church’s way

[rug]

Pole put up two years ago at one of the holiest sites to Christians tainting relations between Catholic Church and Israel,

Oct. 17, 2013 | 2:55 AM
By Nir Hasson

Pope Francis is planning to visit Israel in the next few months, and the Prime Minister’s Office announced Wednesday that Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with the pontiff during his trip to Italy next week. In the meantime, however, a single electricity pole continues to bother the Catholic Church and taint relations between it and Israel.

The electricity pole was put up by the Israel Electric Corporation two years ago across from the church near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. The site at the foot of the Mount of Olives is one of the holiest to Christians - the place where tradition says Jesus and his disciples prayed together before Jesus was arrested by the Romans and crucified the next day. The church there is one of the oldest and most impressive in Jerusalem.

The electricity pole was placed across from the church as part of the construction of a separate electricity infrastructure for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, who have asked to be disconnected from the Jerusalem District Electricity Corporation, which supplies electricity to Arab neighborhoods on the city’s east side.

Jerusalem District Court Judge Yoram Noam on Wednesday criticized the Jerusalem municipality, which has allowed the IEC to place the electric pole in such a sensitive spot. “You wouldn’t have done it in the Kotel plaza,” said the judge off the record during a hearing on the matter Wednesday.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.552872

[intaglio]

1. Rug this article has a WTF? moment for me

Specifically

The electricity pole was placed across from the church as part of the construction of a separate electricity infrastructure for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, who have asked to be disconnected from the Jerusalem District Electricity Corporation, which supplies electricity to Arab neighborhoods on the city’s east side.

The settlers do not want to share electricity???

[rug]

3. That stuck out for me as well.

It bears more looking at but I'm leaving it alone for now.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. Anything to do with Christian shrines in Jerusalem has the potential for tainting relations

The obvious example is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the relations are between the various Churches which inhabit the site. In 2002, a Coptic monk moved the chair he was sitting in so he would be in the shade. Unfortunately, he moved it into space claimed by the Ethiopian Orthodox, and the ensuing fight sent 11 people to hospital.

The best known example of the bad relations is the Immovable Ladder, which has been there for over 250 years.

In 1192, Saladin gave the keys to the Church to a Muslim family, since they were deemed a neutral party. The family has had the keys ever since.

[rug]

4. There was a brawl there between Greek and Armenian monks there five years ago.

The fight was over who had access rights during a feast.

Unfortunately, it was not the last brawl.

It makes the Religion Group look civil.