Numerous fights have broken out recently near the Stella Maris Monastery on Haifa’s Carmel Mountain. With the justification that the Prophet Elisha is interred there, some 30 Hasidim from Rabbi Eliezer Berland’s Shuvu Banim Yeshiva visited the monastery to pray on Sunday.
According to a 13th-century legend, the cave inside the Stella Maris complex—which is located above the Cave of Elijah at the southwest entrance to Haifa—is where Elisha’s grave is located.
The Catholic Christians forcibly shoved the Chasidim out into the street as soon as they arrived at the location, and the altercation continued outside the monastery as well.
During prayer, a stranger with a dog entered the church in the Wadi Nisnas district of the city.
The Haifa police were summoned to Stella Maris, where they used force to separate the parties and direct the chasidim, most of whom were children, to board the bus they had been on.
According to the police, they handled the situation in this way out of “fear of violating public order and harming religious feelings.
The Haifa police declared that a police unit would stay on the scene at this point to ensure public order as they coordinated their investigation into the events surrounding the bus’ arrival.
It has been a stormy morning in Haifa’s churches. An unidentified guy with a dog barged into the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood’s Mar Elias Catholic Church during Sunday services.
He was asked to leave by the worshipers. Numerous Chareidi Jews also showed up at the Stella Maris Monastery at the same time to pray. According to Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Center, which advocates for the rights of Arab Israelis, dozens of young people gathered on the scene and blocked them from entering to pray there.
Ayman Odeh, an Arab MK, and over 300 other members of the Christian-Catholic community in Haifa rallied against the Breslav Hasidim’s entry to pray in the Stella Maris Monastery last month.
To stop the worshipers from entering the spot, they dialed the police. They threatened to expel them if they came, saying that they were attempting to sow division and animosity.
Police detained a 53-year-old Haifa resident a week before the meeting on suspicion of attacking a Breslav Hasid and ejecting him from the monastery after he arrived to pray there.
A video of the Breslavers on the grounds of the monastery was uploaded to social media two weeks before this incident, along with an Arabic commentary that read: “Dozens of religious Jewish settlers invaded the church plaza and started to pray.
This is an act of hostility and a break-in at one of the most sacred locations for Christians.
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