Pilgrims still coming despite tensions

The tensions that have rocked Jerusalem in general and the Old City in particular have not deterred religious Christians. Pilgrims from the Ukraine, Russia and Greece are still coming, Greek Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem told reporters on Wednesday at the welcome reception hosted by President Reuven Rivlin for Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. The patriarch is due to fly to Greece next week to attend a European Union-sponsored international conference on refugees, migration policies, persecution of Christians and the escalation of violence in the Middle East. Also on Wednesday, Romanian Ambassador Andreea Pastarnac took a delegation of 12 senators from her country’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on a tour of the Old City. She told The Jerusalem Post that the group had been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and had then continued to the Temple Mount without encountering any trouble. • Greer Fay Cashman