Dozens of Egyptian Christians have traveled to Jerusalem to visit Christian landmarks and celebrate Easter, breaking the late Pope Shenouda III's ban on visits to occupied Jerusalem, DPA reported on Monday. DPA quoted official sources at the airport who said 76 Egyptian pilgrims traveled on Air Sinai flight number 54, all having obtained the required permission from the Interior Ministry's customs authority. Visiting Egyptian Christians will remain in Jerusalem until the middle of next week, the source added. The traveling of Egyptian pilgrims to Jerusalem so soon following the death of Shenouda has caused controversy in recent days. For years, the pope banned Copts from visiting Jerusalem and the holy sites because of his opposition to the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem. He is quoted as having said, “Copts will only enter Jerusalem hand-in-hand with their Muslim brothers.” Such position has been widely praised by Muslims in Egypt and the wider Arab region. Meanwhile, a representative of Air Sinai, a subsidiary of EgyptAir, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that while the company had increased its weekly flights to Tel Aviv from four to 13 this week to accommodate the pilgrims, their total number has not increased much compared to the year before. The paper said that around 500 Copts visit Israel for Easter out of the total 125,000 visitors who come to Israel for Easter.
