The Archbishop, The Guard of Jerusalem

“The Archbishop, The Guard of Jerusalem” is a new TV series currently being filmed by director Bassel al-Khatib. Written by Hassan Yousef, the series deals with the biography of Archbishop Hilarion Cappucci who employed his high religious position in service of the Palestine question and just Arab causes. The cast includes a number of prominent Syrian actors including Salim Sabri, Sabah Jaza’eri and Amal Arafeh.

Actor Rasheed Assaf  will play the character of  Capucci, who as the head of the Greek Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cappucci was arrested in 1974 by the Israeli occupation authorities  and accused with smuggling arms to Palestinian resistance men. On Dec. 9, 1974, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Addressing the court, he said in Arabic that if Jesus were alive they would have wept together.

Capucci’s time in prison came to an end in 1977 when the Pope made a formal request for his release on humanitarian grounds. He was exiled to Rome.

However, the aggressive measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities did not prevent him from pressing ahead with his support for the Arab causes. In January 1979, he visited Damascus to attend a meeting of the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which he was a member. He was also one of the passengers on board a ship in 2010, as part of an attempt to send relief to the blockaded Gaza Strip. He said he had taken part in the Gaza aid effort to meet the tortured, persecuted and wronged people in the Strip to assure them that we are with them morally and spiritually. He affirmed that his goal was to establish a free, sovereign, independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Capucci, who was born in Aleppo on March 2, 1922. He also played a key role during the Iran hostage crisis.  He was also an opponent of the US war against Iraq in 2003 and he condemned the US intervention in Iraq and other world states.

Due to his great honourable stands in support of the Palestine question, the bishop was honoured in Syria and several Arab states.

The series is considered the first of its kind which highlights the biography of a Christian clergyman.

K.Q.