The German abbot who was instructed to remove the cross he was wearing when he accompanied a German Cabinet member to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem told Ynet Thursday that the incident is part of a changed atmosphere of the government toward the Christian community in Israel and a denial that it is a holy city for three religions.

Nikodemus Schnabel, a high-ranking member of the Benedictine Order serving as the abbot of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, escorted German Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger Wednesday on her visit to the holy Jewish site when he was approached by an usher and told he must remove his cross which she saw as a provocation, despite his explanation that he was a man of the Church.