Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli official asks priest to hide crucifix on visit to Western Wall

An official at occupied Jerusalem’s Western Wall asked a German Christian priest on Wednesday to hide his crucifix during a visit to the site, the Times of Israel has reported. Nikodemus Schnabel was accompanying Germany’s Federal Education Minister at the time.

German Priest Nikodemus Schnabel was asked to remove his crucifix during a visit to the Al-Buraq (Western) Wall in occupied East Jerusalem in July 2023 [WAFA]

Schnabel is the abbot of the Old City’s Dormition Abbey. He was stopped by a woman who was said to be an employee of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Haredi-dominated state-run body that administers the site, which is the western boundary wall of the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa.

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According to the Israeli daily, the footage shows the Israeli official telling the priest that the crucifix he was wearing was “really big and inappropriate for this place.” She asked him to cover it up.

“This is very harsh,” Schnabel replied. “You are not respecting my religion. You are hindering me from my human right. This is not a provocation. I am an abbot. This is my dress. The cross is part of my dress code. I am a Roman Catholic abbot. You want me not to dress according to my faith, that is the reality.”

The visit eventually went ahead as planned. Schnabel, however, continued to complain about the incident on Twitter, calling it “not so nice” and blaming the hard-right Israeli government.

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