JERUSALEM - Bruised and battered from their latest battle for control of part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem, two Christian sects on Monday considered an Israeli offer to mediate.
Bumps, bruises and broken bones on both sides resulted from a scuffle set off by an elderly priest looking for a cooler place to sit. But every move on the roof of the church that marks the place where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified is full of significance to the Ethiopian and Coptic sects, contesting control of the space for centuries, and it seemed unlikely that the Israeli offer would lead to a settlement.
The latest dispute began a month ago when a 72-year-old Coptic priest — the only Copt who lives among Ethiopian monks on the roof — moved from the hot Mideast sun a few steps away into a shady area. Ethiopians saw it as an attempt to take over their section of the roof.
On Sunday a scuffle broke out. Each side says the other started it. Coptic men who came to defend the priest battled Ethiopian clerics, both sides throwing rocks and punches. Twelve men from the two sides ended up in the hospital with various wounds, including broken arms and cuts to the head.
The Coptic priest, Father Abdel Malak, pulled up the sleeve of his long robe Monday to show a bruise on his forearm. It was almost sunset and the stout, bearded man sat just outside the door to the courtyard, since the policeman had left for the day and he feared attack if he sat inside.
"I'm a sick man, I have diabetes and need to sit in the courtyard, in the shade," said Abdel Malak, who has lived on the roof for 27 years.
Inside the wooden door, across the cobblestones, sat an Ethiopian monk with his arm in a sling, next to another, whose head was bandaged.
"Step by step they want to take this area," said one of the Ethiopian monks in a brown robe, who gave his name as Abu Tsion and said he has lived on the roof for 10 of his 50 years. "It's not true that he wanted to sit in the shade."
For both sides, the area has religious significance. It contains a monastery and two chapels and adjoins the ninth station of the cross on the Via Dolorosa, where it is believed Jesus fell for the third time under the weight of the cross as he was being led to crucifixion.
The Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry offered Monday to mediate, inviting the sides to sit down this week and talk. Neither side immediately accepted the invitation.
Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, including the Old City, but turned control of the holy sites over to leaders of the various religious sects. While the Copts and Ethiopians vie for control of the roof, the interior of the church is divided into Greek, Roman Catholic and Armenian sectors, and a Muslim family holds the keys to the main entrance.
The dispute is ancient. In 1757 the different Christian sects reached agreement on exactly which location in the church each would control. The arrangement gave the Ethiopians control of the roof and its buildings and the Copts oversight of the small monastery on the roof.
Then during Easter in 1970, Ethiopian monks took over two chapels while the Copts were gone. The result was that the Ethiopians now control much of the roof.
The Ethiopians charged that the Copts want to take over the area altogether by moving the priest into the courtyard from his usual post outside the monastery.
But the scuffling sides were reluctant to let the Israelis intervene. "Local governments have no right to make any changes," said a secretary for the Coptic Church, Hilda Manarious.
As the evening light faded on a large gold cross overlooking the roof on Monday, another scuffle almost broke out. A young man came to the Coptic priest's room — which is located just next to the rooms of the Ethiopians — to help him move something. The Ethiopians began shouting "Out! Out!" In the end, they agreed that the young man could enter the priest's room to help him.