Attallah started an open hunger strike Monday

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, December 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Sources close to Archmandrite Attallah Hanna, of the Greek Orthodox Church in occupied Jerusalem started an open hunger strike on Monday, December 16, to protest a case raised against him two days ago by the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Arinous I calling for him to be present in court after 30 days.

Speaking to Quds Press, the orthodox source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that Attallah’s has gone on strike because he feels that the complaint which Arinous filed against him was “part of a joint conspiracy between him and the Israeli authorities and with clear collaboration with the Israeli Mossad which was following Attallah for supporting the Palestinian resistance.”

He added that pressures from the Greek Church as well as Israel have been placed on Attallah to force him to submit his resignation and leave the occupied territories, especially in the light of several offers that he is receiving from churches around the world.

The source, who was speaking on the sideline of a sit-in organized by hundreds of the orthodox followers in the Church of Ascension, stressed the Israeli-Greek prejudice against Attallah, saying that it has reached its peak and to an extent that one can not continue to remain silent about it.

He called on all Orthodox churches around the world to boycott Patriarch Arinous I who, according to the source, “does not comply, even partially, with his actions and stance to the spirit of the orthodox church.”

He also said, when he commented on the Greek Patriarch’s resistance to Arabize the orthodox church in Jerusalem, saying that “the Zionist colonization of the Palestinian land and the Greek colonization of the Orthodox Church has many points and interests in common.”

The source spoke about Attallah’s stances in which he attacked several western Christian leaders who have launched attacks against Islam recently.

Hundreds of the orthodox followers gathered in the Church of Ascension and criticized Arinous I, saying that he has breached the constitution of the Orthodox Church and its laws.

The protesters distributed a statement asking the Christian world to intervene to lift the oppression of the Palestinian Christians who suffer under Israeli occupation which stops them from celebrating in Bethlehem and also suffer from Greek domination over the Orthodox Church.