Hundreds attended the traditional procession on the Mount of Olives with palm fronds and olive branches that celebrate the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week.
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"In Easter, we celebrate the feast of love and life. My wish to all is that love and life can determine our life more than the violence we are living," the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said after mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.
Christians in Jerusalem have also complained of increasing violence in recent months, Israel has said it maintains the status quo of holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, where some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians, and Muslims sit virtually side by side, but Christian leaders have voiced growing alarm "What we are seeing is that what we call the status quo, the balance between the different communities – Jews, Muslims, Christians – is not respected anymore," Pizzaballa told reporters in Jerusalem last week.
"That aspect is problematic for me, that they consider Christians as guests. We are not guests. We are part of the identity of the city." But the pressure felt by the city's local Christians has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of foreign visitors. According to data recorded by the Franciscan Pilgrims' Office, at least 261,353 pilgrims were expected to travel to Jerusalem this year, with visits peaking around Holy Week to numbers even higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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