“Christians have the eagerness to visit holy places exactly like that eagerness felt by Muslims to perform pilgrimage to the Ka’bah,” according to an informed church source who did not want his name mentioned.

He denied that those trips to Jerusalem will have any effect on the decision adopted by the Coptic Orthodox Church to prohibit Christians from going to the holy city, rejecting, however, accusations against Christians who went to Jerusalem of practicing any normalization with the Zionist entity.

Kamāl Zākhir Mūsá, the coordinator of the Coptic Laymen Front, appealed to the Coptic Orthodox Church to reconsider its position on banning visits to Jerusalem, noting the decision by late Pope Shenouda III needs reconsideration.

He rejected doubts about the patriotism of Christians who went to Jerusalem, adding the description of those Christians as “wrongdoers” involves some political pressures.

For his part, Father Rafīq Greish of the Coptic Catholic Church said his church does not prevent Catholic Copts from visiting Jerusalem but it does not arrange trips for its congregation.

Greish described Pope Shenouda’s decision in this respect as “political one with certain dimensions,” adding his church does not interfere in the decisions taken by other churches but “we will not prevent Catholics from practicing their religious rituals. [‘Abd al-Wahāb Sha’bān, al-Wafd, April 9, p. 1] Read original text in Arabic