World - Jesus Crucifixion site in unholy row

JERUSALEM: Two rival monks are posted at all times in a rooftop courtyard at the site where tradition holds Jesus was crucified: a bearded Copt in a
black robe and an Ethiopian sunning himself on a wooden chair, studiously ignoring each other as they fight over the same sliver of sacred space.

For decades, Coptic and Ethiopian Christians have been fighting over the Deir el-Sultan monastery, which sits atop a chapel at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Deir el-Sultan has become the subject of a feud that has gone far beyond the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Ethiopians control the site, but the Egypt-based Copts say they own it and see the Ethiopians as illegal squatters.

The quarrel has erupted into brawls — in 2002, when the Coptic monk moved his chair into the shade and too close to the Ethiopians, a dozen people were hurt in the ensuing melee. And today, the Ethiopians claim the battle for control could result in the monastery’s collapse and even in damage to other parts of the church, one of the holiest sites in Christendom.

Since the 1970s, the Israeli has refused to allow renovations or significant repairs at the disputed monastery until the Ethiopians and the Copts come to terms. The Ethiopian Church has commissioned a report from an Israeli engineer backing up its claim that the monastery could fall, and in October this year the Ethiopian patriarch, Archbishop Matthias, asked Israel to carry out repairs. The archbishop attached the report that the monastery structure could collapse — and possibly damage the chapel below — if steps are not taken to repair it