Party condemns pope’s Jerusalem visit
Sat, 28/11/2015 - 13:48 Al-Masry Al-Youm
http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/party-condemns-pope-s-jerusalem-visit

The Misr Al-Qawia Party has condemned a visit by Egypt’s Coptic Pope to
Jerusalem on Thursday as a violation of “popular consensus against the
normalization of relations with Israel”.

The visit by Pope Tawadros II “opens the door for passiveness towards the de
facto policy adopted by the Zionist entity since it usurped the lands of
Palestine,” said a statement by the party founded in 2012 by former
presidential runner and dissident Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim
Abouel Fotouh.

Tawadros is attending the funeral of Bishop Abraham, Archbishop of Jerusalem
and the Near East, who died on Wednesday. He is heading a delegation of
eight senior church clerics. Tawadros will lead funeral ceremonies for the
late archbishop on Saturday.

Tawadros' visit is the first by a head of the Egyptian Church since 1967
when his predecessor, late Pope Shenouda III, imposed a ban on visiting the
holy city while it is under Israeli occupation.

“As Egyptians, of all religious and political affiliations, we used to be
proud of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s stances against all forms of
normalization with the Zionist entity since the signing of the Camp David
treaty,” the party said in its statement. “We viewed Pope Shenouda III’s
insistence not to visit Jerusalem, except in the company of the Grand Sheikh
of Al-Azhar, as evidence of a unified popular stance.”

The party said it condemned the visit as a violation of that consensus.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm