Coptic pope visits Jerusalem for the first time in 35 years

CAIRO

Egypt’s Coptic Pope Tawadros II started a visit to Jerusalem on Thursday, the first trip by a Coptic pope to the holy city in more than three decades.

Pope Tawadros is leading a high-profile church delegation to pay tribute to Jerusalem Archbishop Anba Abraham, who died on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The trip will be the first by a Coptic pope since the church banned visits to Jerusalem in 1980. Late Pope Shenouda III had banned Copts from visiting the holy city in protest of Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.

This policy remained in place even after Shenouda’s death in 2012 with his successor Tawadros II reiterating that visits to Jerusalem while it is still under Israeli occupation were forbidden.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.

Despite the decades-old ban, many Egyptian Copts have visited the holy city for pilgrimage. Last year, more than 5,000 Egyptian Copts visited Jerusalem during Easter.

Christian Copts make up between 8-10 percent of Egypt’s population of nearly 90 million people, according to unofficial estimates.