JERUSALEM, December 13, 2017 (WAFA) –  The custodian of the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher Adib Joudeh al-Husseini will not meet US Vice President Mike Pence during the latter’s visit to the region next week.

The Muslim family from Jerusalem has been entrusted since the Ottoman period with the key to Christianity’s most sacred site, where Jesus was crucified and resurrected and where his tomb is located.

“Based on the Joudeh al-Husseini family’s religious and moral commitment towards the holy sites, I will not receive Pence as an expression of my absolute rejection to US President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine,” he announced.

He also called on the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Patton, to boycott Pence’s visit to the church.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in 333 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine, seven years after his mother, Queen Helena, had marked the location of Golgotha during a visit to the Holy Land. The church is considered the oldest and holiest in Christianity. Tradition also has it that it was built on the rock where Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

K.F./M.K.