AN ISRAELI cabinet minister apologised yesterday to the leaders of Ireland's four main churches, who are on a visit to the region, after they were barred from visiting the Western Wall because they were wearing crosses.
"When we arrived [at the wall] there was some hesitation about letting us in, especially with crosses," Cardinal Seán Brady told The Irish Times. "We had to get to a meeting at the foreign ministry and so we decided to move on."
The incident took place when Cardinal Brady and the three other church leaders - Church of Ireland Archbishop Alan Harper and Presbyterian and Methodist moderators John Finlay and Roy Cooper - decided to pay an unscheduled visit to the Western Wall having just finished a visit to the Al Aqsa mosque.
The security officers at the entrance to the wall, which is Judaism's holiest site, wanted the church leaders to remove their crosses and asked them to wait while they consulted superiors.
Israel's foreign ministry said that social welfare minister Isaac Herzog, who met the church leaders yesterday afternoon, had apologised for the incident. "The minister also invited them to visit the wall whenever they want," said foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel. "We believe this misunderstanding is now behind us."
Cardinal Brady confirmed that Mr Herzog, whose grandfather served as the first chief rabbi of Ireland, had apologised for the incident. "We accepted and we regret any inconvenience we may have caused," he said.
"We realise that this is a place of great sensitivity and at a sensitive time," he added. Israelis were yesterday marking Holocaust Remembrance Day when they commemorate the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis.
The Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said the leaders had been asked to remove their crosses "but they refused".
"I think it is important that they visit the Western Wall, but they should have covered up the crosses to respect the place, just like Jews wouldn't wear their ritual prayer shawls when entering a Christian holy place."
Stephen Lynas, the Presbyterian Church press officer accompanying the church leaders, said he didn't think they would have been "too worried about removing their crosses". Mr Lynas said the church leaders had not encountered any resistance when they wore their crosses at the main commemoration ceremony on Wednesday evening at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial site.