RAMALLAH, January 4, 2016 (WAFA) – Palestinian Christian and Muslim clerics Monday denounced remarks expressed by leader of anti-assimilation Lehava group Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, describing Christians as blood sucking vampires.

Member of PLO Islamic-Christian Committee in Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites father Manuel Musallam denounced Gopstein’s remarks as indicative of Israeli policy of racism against ‘non-Jews’ aimed to stir up a religious war.

Musallam pledged that Palestinian Muslims and Christians would serve as an effective barrier against Israeli occupation’s terrorist racism.

The Christian cleric warned about Israeli settlers’ attempts to blow up Christian and Muslim holy sites. “We are concerned that settler gangs would blow up Muslim and Christian holy places in order to foment sectarian unrest in Palestine.”

He called for the provision of international protection for Muslim and Christian holy places in Palestine.

In an article published in Haaretz, Gopstein said that “Christians are blood sucking vampires” and “Christmas has no place in the Holy Land”.

Gopstein harshly denounced the Christian presence in the Holy Land, accusing it of harboring ambitions of proselytism of Jews and subsequently forcefully exclaimed “Christmas has no place in the Holy Land.”

He wrote in the article that he is disturbed by “the fall of the line of defense of the Jewish people against our deadly enemy for hundreds of years – the Christian Church” and called for removing “the vampires before they once again drink our blood.”

Furthermore, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein condemned the remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of Tel Aviv shooting.

Netanyahu reportedly vowed to enforce “noise regulations” against mosques, in reference to restricting the use of loudspeakers in mosques, “enforce building codes” in Arab communities and to treat “incitement”.

“The call for prayer, ‘God is Great’ (Allahu Akbar) is in fact an act of worship and an expression of faith, but not a call for incitement as alleged by the Israeli occupation,” the Grand Mufti responded to Netanyahu’s remarks.

The Grand Mufti decried Gopstein’s calls for torching churches in Jerusalem. He said: “This extremist call contributes to criminality and extremism and clearly expresses Israeli occupation’s racism against and denial of non-Jews.”

He slammed such a call as part of “the ongoing series of Israeli occupation’s aggression against non-Jews and incitement against churches and mosques in order to obliterate the Arabic character of Jerusalem”.

Hussein called upon the United Nations’ bodies, most notably UNESCO, to immediately intervene to halt such attacks and warned against Israeli settlers and occupation authorities’ “abhorrent racism” and “exacerbated criminality” against Palestinian people and its holy places. 

K.F/M.H