Of course Israel respects the desire of Christians to pray. We also respect their desire to continue being alive in the face of many, many rather bad people who would like nothing better than to blow up a whole lot of Christian pilgrims. They think of it as killing two birds with one stone -- blacken Israel's eye and kill some infidels. Israel is taking care of the pilgrims. The State of Israel goes to ENORMOUS expense to guarantee the safety and security of Christian pilgrims at Easter time. Stop complaining about the fact that Israel is worried about your safety. Alternatively, stay at home and pray. Doesn't your religion permit that? Mine does.

it 's not about christian or muslim or Jewish. Passover and Easter is a really busy time and most avoid the old city, parking is almost impossible and there are crowds everywhere. thousands of muslims pray regularly on Fridays, and at time it is holy for Jews, thousands of Israeli religiousJews descend on the old city. the old city is only so big so what can be done.security is not an excuse in this city, it's a necessity. and next year Passover will not be at the same time as Easter so hopefully less crowds for the christians.

Sure that pilgrims from Arab countries don't come to Jerusalem, there are almost no Christians left in these countries, they were persecuted and had to leave or become dhimmies.

Look at Bethlehem, it used to be 80% Christian, now maybe 20% are left because the PA forced them out.

Can you imagine the stink, if something were to happen to those good Christians?!!! I'll be the fortunate hostess of an Israeli friend starting Friday. I promised not to color Easter eggs for him, if he won't make me eat funky bread. I think, we have a deal :-) .

Did your family own the home or was it rented ? Why does your family no longer reside in it? Did your family depart to give Jordan army ease to conquer the area and not return ? Did Jordan take it and give it to another or did your family sell it. That quarter had a large Jewish population before Jordon took it and forced out the Jews living there, which was later reclaimed by the owners. There are many police in Washington DC, and many more police in Cairo.

is that the Israeli police are there to protect him, and others like him, from jihadists. Now, if a suicide bomber managed to detonate a bomb in group of pilgrims, everyone would be screaming about the lack of security. Security is indeed a "Holy Word".

You cannot move for the crowds of Christians here--this place is packed. Add to this the many tens of thousands (estiamted by the State at 350,000 Jews, and it is beyond stuffed. I walked through the Chrisitan Quarter twice a day and there are plenty of people, and the Church of the Holy Selpuchre is jammed. This story is somewhaty skewed, because it implies the CXhristian cannot get near their sites--I am a photographer on assignment on those very sites and I see no problems as ths story suggests. Everything is accessible and the so called "military" presence is very light compared to most cities in the US. I would say it si a surprise there isn 't more security. What is the goal of this story?? A Jew cannot even enter most Arab countries let alone visit a site, so what is the complaint again?? A non Jew who has EVER visited Israel cannot enter most Arab countries, so what is the complaint again? Ridiculous!

How could YNET even repeat this obvious bunch of BS. True that there are a lot of Israeli security forces evident around every corner in Jerusalem, especially the Old City, during the Holy Days. But they are only there to protect people and do not hinder anyone except troublemakers. Not one person that is a bona fide christian pilgrim is ever prevented from reaching the Holy sites. True that there are thousands that try and sometimes because of the throngs some crowd control measures have to be put in place for peoples safety. This crud about Jerusalem Arab christians being issued permits to get to the church of the sepulcher is nonsense. Anybody that lives in the area and is local doesn't need any permit and is much less prevented from reaching and accessing the sites.

Here's the thing - if the Greeks & Armenians (and other Christians) would stop fighting with each other - and I mean violent fist fights and worse - the Jerusalem Police would not have to step in to break it up and put restrictions on the Christians wanting to attend the ceremony. And if Bethlehem, Jericho, Ram'Allah and such didn't belong to the terrorist PLO, there would be no restrictions on visiting Jerusalem at this time. It's not Israel's fault - stop the terror and you'll see how quickly Christians from all over the region and world will be welcome into Jerusalem!

..........because this article made me so angry. But when I read the previous Talkbacks I realised, with relief, that many felt as I did. And expressed it better than I could! Thankyou. Let sanity prevail.

I didn't yet read all the talkbacks, but Mea and Sarah, you are right on target. What was the point of this article? Israel certainly does go to great trouble and expense to guarantee not only the safety of those of us who live here, but also the well being of tourists. This article is false, and mean spirited.

Police is everywhere: Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK. They are there to protect the local population, tourists, banks, businesses, to maintain law and order. The problem is that Arabs cannot bear to see Jewish policemen, not to mention Israeli soldiers. Cry me a river!

For all who speaks about the security and the right to secure the pilgrims at the Easter celebrations, you have to go and see how the pilgrims are treated on Saturday light around the old city. They are hit, shout at and insult by the israeli soldiers and police, not to forget mentioning the carelessness about the age; old people, young, kids, priests, nuns are hit in front of everybody and in front of media. One more thing, I really don't see the need for these troops (and i say troops) because they are more than the people celebrating Easter and they are fully equipped with guns, hand blasts, helmets, wooden sticks (for hitting and scaring the Pilgrims) instead of distributing flowers and good, nice smile; at least for the pilgrims and not for the locals because locals doesn't expect anything from these TROOPS.

...imposed by the Israeli security forces are actually angered by the fact that these restrictions are preventing attacks and are saving lives. They are in their way part of the Arab aggression.

i live in israel, and im a jew. out of curiousity i took a tour of jerusalem and explored all 4 quarters. i entered the church of the holy sepulchre and nobody questioned me or asked me for ID. what about all the jewish sites in the west bank that jews are denied access to? what about the temple mount which is very holy to jews but they arent allowed to access the mosques to see the most holy of holys

that such a newspaper, as Yedioth is ready to print this stupidity..... "ChristianS"???? and you give a biased statement of one person????? Old City was crowded with Christians today.... shame on you!!!!!!

Dahdal is way off base for I visited Old Jerusalem on Palm Sunday together with a Christian friend. Yes, there were policemen,but for the benefit of everyone. No policeman or policewoman has ever asked us anything and we were only hidered by the big crowds, but that's a good sign, isn't that ? Dahdal, your story is at most a propaganda for the old times when only Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian Christians were presumably allowed to visit the sites. And you are right - I bet you never heard a word of Hebrew during Passover, either.

IF you are a european christian tourist there is no discrimination against you but if you are a arab or palestinian christian you have no right to visit youre own holy sites

the problem is that Ynet publish such garbage and give credibility to the enemies within.

Christians had a much harder time getting access to their holy places. And Jews had no access at all. Is that what you want?

I have no idea what Chistians and so Arabs and so J*ws do in the Holy land in Jeruslaem Syria Lebanon any where in the middle east I barely understand Yahoo news reports much less the babling sluring mumbling of you people and so either learn to make sense and or pay for a interpretator and so I do not follow any religion closely but I was born J*wish but I do not speak read understand Hebrew and or any Hebrew religious beliefs I am 65 I live in a senior apartment because turning 62 I could get one 1 it is modern it is nice I hope both J*ws Arabs Christians enjoy the Pass Over and so Easter holidays bless all of you but please Assad go to war with Israel show the world Syria supports its own people militarily diplomacy is for cowards that is diplomacy only RIGHT ??? Thank You... M. S.

And it is far a way from being or looking like a military zone. There were Christian arabs (lots of them) in the holy sepulcre, like there were thousands of people. Easter traditions are not at risk at all.

the christians in the article are arabs. did you know there are arab christians and arab muslims in israel? next time you should probably know what you are talking about before you pontificate what you think you know (otherwise everyone reading it will wonder you are simply ignorant, which is not a problem if true).