Protothema.gr at Mount Sinai Monastery: “They don’t need to expel you; just don’t renew your visa”

The Sinai Desert is much than conscionable a landscape. It is simply a trial — of endurance, of thought, of faith. The vigor probes the limits of quality tolerance. The stones burn, the airy blinds, yet here, successful this unimaginably barren land, beats a vibrant pulse that defies forgetfulness for 15 afloat centuries. This is the Monastery of Saint Catherine. A awesome not to beryllium displayed for show, but to service arsenic a reminder. Today, it stands against a menace that does not deterioration subject uniforms but bears signatures and administrative seals.

Entering the monastery’s courtyard, the archetypal sensation is physical. It’s not conscionable what you spot — it’s thing that permeates you. The walls adjacent successful astir you. Their thickness makes you consciousness arsenic if you haven’t entered a specified abstraction but a antithetic time. The airy wrong filters differently. It does not onslaught aggressively. It glides implicit icons, mildly falls into corners, silently rests connected aged wood, charred stones from incense, doors that opened for the archetypal clip nether Justinian and ne'er closed.

The monks determination quietly. They don’t talk unless asked. When they do, it’s arsenic if they transportation thing deeper than words — a legacy. A young antheral waters the flowerbeds with hibiscus and basil that look similar miracles successful the desert. An elder sweeps the stone-paved paths with a handcrafted broom. Another holds a publication that took 5 centuries to get here. None look successful a hurry; yet each are afloat present. They serve, they bash not simply live.

Within the church, the oldest mosaic of the Eastern Church takes your enactment away. The Transfiguration of Christ isn’t determination to dazzle; it’s to remind. Remind you of who you are, whom you serve. Nearby, successful the library, the particulate is older than the ink. The Sinai Codex is not stored successful immoderate underground vault — it is alive, open. Opposite it, the celebrated “Achtiname,” the missive purportedly signed by Muhammad himself, assuring that the monks’ radical would beryllium protected everlastingly — adjacent from authorities violence. That assurance present appears to beryllium shaken, not by invaders oregon wars, but by a judicial document.

The Ismailia Court of Appeal successful Egypt has decided that each the buildings and lands of the monastery — from the room and religion to the fields and guesthouses — beryllium to the state. The monks, who unrecorded determination arsenic guardians of supplication and tradition, are present recognized simply arsenic “users.” Not owners, not custodians. As if they are visitors. As if it’s nary longer their home.

Those who talk bash truthful calmly. But down their voices, determination is simply a knot. “They don’t request to expel you; conscionable don’t renew your visa,” says one. Many unrecorded connected limited-duration permits — 9 months. Nothing guarantees they tin instrumentality aft 9 months. There is nary forced eviction, lone ineligible deterioration and teardrop — a soundless eviction.

Behind the scenes, tensions escalate. In Athens, diplomatic circles mobilize. Church authorities explicit concern. All this while, conscionable weeks ago, the Egyptian president visited Athens and publically assured that the peculiar presumption of Saint Catherine’s Monastery would not change. Suddenly, this connection present seems contradicted by the coldest instrumentality of all: a court’s seal.

Intense negotiations unfold overnight

The turmoil intensified truthful overmuch that wrong hours of the tribunal decision, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a nighttime statement. The spokesperson declared, “The court’s determination does not alteration the monastery’s status.” The Egyptian presidency besides issued a statement: “The determination is afloat accordant with President Sisi’s commitments during his sojourn to Greece,” and “solidifies the ineffable and unsocial spiritual quality of the monastery.” Is this a retreat? An effort astatine de-escalation? Or simply an acknowledgment that everything hinges connected the details?

The monks of Sinai bash not marque statements. They bash not respond with announcements. They respond arsenic always: with patience, with prayer, with lighting candles, with tending to their flowerbeds. With continuing a soundless work that has lasted 15 centuries. That is their response, and it is enough. Because Sinai does not beryllium to states, archaeological councils, oregon ministries. It belongs to the conscience of humanity. Every chromatic bears witness. Every leafage successful the manuscripts is the sweat of a believer. Every fig successful the mosaic reminds america that the satellite changes, but the airy — the existent airy — remains.

As we were leaving, we saw a young monk sitting unsocial nether a fig tree. He was not reading. He was not writing. He was not speaking. He simply looked toward the mountain. And I understood. This is the loudest reply to anyone who thinks they tin subjugate the intangible with laws. That regard — sure, calm, rooted — was the monastery itself. And arsenic agelong arsenic determination are radical who spot the satellite that way, the monastery volition ne'er surrender.

Diplomatic backstage and the still-unclear ownership issue

Within hours of the ungraded caused by the Ismailia Court’s determination regarding Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Cairo attempted to code down the rhetoric. Late yesterday, with astir simultaneous announcements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Egyptian Presidency, determination was an effort to defuse the contented institutionally. The statesmanlike connection mentions that the court’s ruling “aligns with what President Sisi confirmed successful Athens” and “establishes the ineffable and unsocial spiritual quality of the monastery.” Likewise, the Foreign Ministry denied reports of confiscation, calling them wholly false.

Despite persistent reassurances astir respecting the spiritual and spiritual relation of the monastery, neither connection explicitly addresses who owns the buildings and land. The ownership presumption remains ambiguous.

It is lone noted that immoderate distant areas, acold from the monastery’s core, are passing to the Egyptian authorities owed to deficiency of spot documents. For the monastery itself, the absorption is connected maintaining its functioning and usage agreements, with nary notation of ownership.

While attempts person been made to downplay the issue, a pressing question remains: does the monastery legally beryllium to itself oregon to the Egyptian state? Official responses debar this question. And that, successful itself, speaks volumes.