[IsraelTimes] Holy site architect asks police to cap crowd size for safety reasons, but Greek Orthodox Church criticizes ’heavy-handed’ restrictions
The Orthodox Church has a long as well as recent history of antisemitism. Contradicting allegations by church leaders earlier this week that Israel Police was unnecessarily infringing on Christians’ freedom of worship, a letter reviewed by The Times of Israel on Friday indicates that restrictions on Saturday’s Holy Fire ceremony were imposed at the request of a Greek Orthodox official.
The April 3 letter, sent to the cop shoppe outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by church architect Teo Metropoulos, stresses that the maximum number of visitors for the ceremony should be 1,800 inside the building and 200 more in the courtyard.
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