Episcopal Press and News
MIDDLE EAST: Jerusalem diocese clarifies incident involving former bishop's wife
Episcopal News Service. December 17, 2008 [121708-02]
Matthew Davies
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem has said that the wife of former bishop in Jerusalem Riah Abu El-Assal was "at no time ... ever physically or verbally abused" during a December 4 incident at the diocesan offices to which the police were called.
Suad Abu El-Assal "was also witnessed by members of the diocesan staff to scratch and slap herself on the face," said a December 13 diocesan press release clarifying details of the incident, the result of a dispute involving the retired bishop's pension payments.
The press release, a more detailed version of one that was released on December 6, was issued one week after El-Assal's daughter, Rania, alleged in a widely distributed email that two assistants of incumbent Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani "started pushing" the retired bishop's wife, "dragging and fighting with her."
El-Assal's wife made two visits to the diocesan offices on December 4 to collect payments due for her husband's pension for October and November, but when she was informed that the second check was not ready "she became quite emotional and verbally abusive to the diocesan staff," the December 13 press release said. "She overturned the Christmas tree, pulled the painting of Bishop Dawani off the wall, threw vases and glassware against the walls and floor and disrupted the furnishings of the Bishop's House reception hall."
The retired bishop has said that the diocesan finance department has been withholding his pay since June 2008.
Tarek Ibrahim, a Nazareth lawyer and legal staff advisor to the diocese, called the police when the situation on December 4 got out of hand. He said that on her second visit to the diocesan offices, El-Assal's wife had been assured that the bishop's pension check would be delivered to their home the following week. "I was present throughout the incident. At no time was she physically abused," said Ibrahim. "I am still in shock that the wife of the retired bishop … would exhibit such behavior of verbal abuse and destruction."
In August, a letter from El-Assal's wife to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams outlined concerns about the pension pay. The letter, seen by ENS, called for Williams' intervention. In response, Williams said that although he was "saddened" to hear about the continuing difficulties, there was "little I can formally do about this."
The December 4 incident is the latest development in an ongoing dispute between Dawani and El-Assal, who claimed ownership of the diocese's Christ School in Nazareth immediately after his retirement in March 2007 and set up a society to collect pupils' fees. The Israeli High Court in January ruled in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem in a legal battle regarding the ownership of the school.
Dawani has said that the legal case has been in the church's best interests and a necessary measure to secure the diocesan institutions for future mission.