CAIRO — The Supreme Constitutional Court issued a ruling Feb. 5 granting Christian employees a one-month paid vacation to visit Jerusalem, just as as their Muslim counterparts get time off to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. In March 1980, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, the 117th pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark Cathedral, had prohibited travel by Orthodox Christians to Jerusalem in protest of Israel’s oppressive practices against the Palestinian people.
The court ruling opened the door for controversy, with proponents saying that the order aims at achieving equality between Muslims and Christians, and opponents arguing that it aims at indirectly normalizing relations with Israel and circumventing the Israel travel ban issued by the Orthodox Church.