Jerusalem’s holy sites close to public

JERUSALEM — Adeeb Joudeh, standing in front of the now-locked Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City, had a pretty specific answer when asked when the church last closed to the public like this:

“It was the year 1349, at the time of the Black Plague,” he said, holding the key that had shut things down a day earlier and back in the 14th century as well.

They measure time differently here in the oldest section of one of the world’s oldest cities, the ancient, dispute-riddled and spiritually dense center of three major religions.

COVID-19, like the medieval pandemic before it, has all but silenced this bustling Holy Land hot spot. The walls built by King Herod, the Crusaders and other keep out the throngs of tourists and pilgrims who would normally teem through this UNESCO World Heritage site, especially in the weeks before before Passover, Easter and Ramadan.

The steep, narrow lanes are empty but for police patrols and the relatively few residents who live in the Old City full time. Worship sites of all kinds are closed, most notably the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where Jesus is said to have been buried and resurrected; the Western Wall, the most sacred place of prayer for Jews; and al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

When it was ordered closed by the Jordanian religious council that manages the sites, it was an immense relief to Israeli officials, who watched with alarm as crowds assembled even as the virus spread.