By The Africom
President Mahmoud Abbas, attended the midnight mass in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrated by the Orthodox Christian denominations that follow the Eastern calendar in Palestine.
Scuffles with the police erupted as protesters demanded that he resign due to suspicions that the church had struck deals to sell Palestinian land to settlement companies and official institutions in Israel.
Scores of Palestinians blocked the convoy of Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday.
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III arriving in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations. They threw stones and water bottles and pounded the Patriarch’s auto with their fists, chanting “traitor, traitor”, before Palestinian security forces pushed them away.
In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nintendo would delay the rollout of 64-gigabyte Switch game cards until 2019. Nintendo released a system that everyone seemed to want while also providing it with its most popular games.
People threw stones and smashed windows of the vehicle the patriarch was riding in as they demanded he be stripped of his titles and removed from the church. They identified some Jewish and Israeli investors as potential buyers, reported Reuters.
Elyeef Sayegh, one of Saturday’s demonstrators, said: “What happened today is a message to the Palestinian Authority and to Jordan that we will not allow this traitor to stay in the Church”.
In 2015, a patriarchate spokesperson denied that the church was selling off lands in Jerusalem – a claim that did not convince many members of the faith at the time.
Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah, Secretary-General of the Presidency Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina and Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman attended the midnight mass among many other prominent figures. Palestinians oppose the sale of land to Jewish and Israeli groups and consider it an act of treason.
