JERUSALEM (RNS) — Early Saturday morning (Feb. 27), as Israeli and American fighter jets began striking targets in Iran, every Israeli cell phone issued an air-raid siren alarm, the signal to go immediately to the nearest bomb shelter. Soon afterward, the country’s Home Front Command announced that no public gatherings would be permitted due to fears that Iran would soon retaliate.
The safety ban on public gatherings has shuttered not only the country’s schools, non-essential workplaces and airports, but also its churches, mosques and synagogues. For Muslims celebrating Ramadan and Jews preparing for their holiday of Purim, which begins on Monday at sundown, there is a palpable sense of loss in the closures of their houses of worship. Christians, meanwhile, are looking ahead to Holy Week and Easter, at the end of March, with uncertainty.
The disappointment was compounded when Home Front Command took the highly unusual step of placing the Old City of Jerusalem, home to the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and dozens of other sites held sacred in the three Abrahamic faiths off-limits to everyone but residents, clergy and essential workers.
On Friday, the day before the attacks, up to 80,000 Muslims were able to pray at Al-Aqsa, but mass prayers …