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Muslim family still proud to hold key for Christian church

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  • Muslim family still proud to hold key for Christian church

    The Times (London), UK
    March 30, 2013 Saturday
    Edition 1; Ireland


    Muslim family still proud to hold key for Christian church

    Sheera Frenkel



    For every morning of the past 40 years, Wajeeh Nuseibeh has climbed
    the same rickety wooden ladder to open the doors to the Church of the
    Holy Sepulchre, the most revered site in Christendom.

    In a ritual passed down through the centuries by Nuseibeh men, he raps
    the door three times before pulling out a 12-inch iron key to unlock
    the gates of the church, the place where Christ was crucified, buried
    and resurrected.

    However, as tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered at Holy
    Sepulchre yesterday to mark Easter, few would know that the family
    charged with such an important ritual is actually Muslim.

    His ancestors were chosen for their long service and ability to
    navigate the sometimes violent rivalries between the various Christian
    sects represented in the church.

    "I am the custodian of the key of the Holy Sepulchre," said Mr
    Nuseibeh, 62, as worshippers made their way up the Via Dolorosa
    through Jerusalem's Old City to mark Good Friday.

    "I see these people and I feel how important the task is, how good it
    is that my family has held the tradition all these years. I am proud
    that my family will continue to hold this honour."

    This year, Mr Nuseibeh will pass the responsibility as key holder over
    to his son, 30-year-old Obedya Nuseibeh who works by day as a
    hairdresser in Jerusalem.

    After the Easter festival he will begin to take over responsibility
    for his father's gate-keeping, arriving at the Church at 4am to open
    the doors, and at 8pm to lock them shut.

    "I'm nervous I won't do it correctly at first, there is a lot of
    ritual to remember. But I've been watching my father do this for
    years, and I think I know it very well," said Obedya. "My father
    advised me to stay neutral, to remember this is an important, historic
    role."

    Mr Nuseibeh senior said it was not always easy to stay out of Church
    politics, especially as the various Christian factions that worship in
    the church have been known to come to blows over the right to clean a
    particular window or sweep a set of stairs.

    In 2008, on Orthodox Palm Sunday, priests from the Armenian and Greek
    denominations scuffled after a priest was asked to move positions near
    the tomb of Jesus. Police were called to break up the fight, as the
    priests lashed out at each other with palm fronds.

    During British Mandate rule in Palestine, troops with fixed bayonets
    sometimes had to separate the Christian sects who jealously protected
    their sections of the church.

    "Some people see it is as ironic that a Muslim family holds the key to
    the church. But our ancestors, in their wisdom, saw this was the only
    way to keep the peace," he said.

    The Nuseibeh family was first made custodians of the key when Caliph
    Umar Ibn Khattab first conquered Jerusalem in 638AD.

    The only gap in the family tradition was during the 88 years of
    Crusader rule in the 12th century, which ended in 1187 when Saladin
    recaptured Jerusalem and promised Richard the Lionheart that he would
    restore the Nuseibehs as the custodians of the key. Since then, the
    three largest denominations in the church - Greek Orthodox, Roman
    Catholic and Armenian - hold an annual ceremony where they renew their
    request to the Nuseibehs to be "custodian and doorkeeper" of the
    church, a title that the family proudly places on its business cards.

    "I maybe didn't take the tradition so seriously when it was first
    given to me by my father," said Wajeeh Nuseibeh, who said he was 22
    years old when he began training in his duties. "I grew to love it."
    He said he was relinquishing his duties only after having a second
    heart attack late last year.

    "I won't live for ever and I have to make sure to pass down the
    tradition," he said. "That is the most important thing."

    Yesterday, as the square in front of the church filled with pilgrims,
    he reflected that he had had a "good run". "Things have changed so
    much since I took this job. Pilgrims used to crawl to the church on
    the knees to show their reverence," he said.

    "Now they walk up looking at the church through their iPhone cameras,
    and post the photos to Facebook before they've even set foot in the
    church. It's a new generation, it's very different."

    But he is glad that one thing has stayed the same.

    "For as long as there are Nuseibehs we will hold the key," he said.

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