Muslim family will not give up keys to iconic Jerusalem church despite pressure
The controversy over the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City says more about the lack of political leadership in Jerusalem than about the current custodian's suitability for the role.
A Jerusalem family that holds the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is resisting community and political pressure to relinquish them. Adeeb Joudeh al-Husseini, who says his family was granted the keys in the 12th century, told Al-Monitor there is no reason he should give them up. The key holder says his family's custodianship dates back to the time of Saladin, the Muslim leader who liberated Jerusalem.
Reuters ran a long article late in 2017 explaining that the key was given to the Joudeh family after the city was liberated from the Crusaders in 1187. Another of the city’s oldest Muslim families, the Nusseibehs, was entrusted with the duty of opening and closing the church doors, a task they perform to this day.
But if local Palestinian politicians have their way, the keys will be stripped from Adeeb and given to another member of the Joudeh family. Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian government Adnan Husseini told Al-Monitor that considering problems involving Adeeb's home, it would be best if the symbolic keys to the church were no longer with him. “What happened with his family home can't be ignored,” he said.
Adeeb, whose family home in the Old City of Jerusalem ended up in the hands of the extremist Jewish organization Ateret Cohanim on Oct. 3, told Al-Monitor that he should not be blamed for it.
