By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
(From the issue of 4/11/02)
A week after some 200 Palestinians -- some of them heavily armed -- took refuge in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, Israeli soldiers increased the pressure for their surrender, firing at the monastic complex and leaving one person dead April 8.
The Vatican expressed "extreme apprehension" at the developments and said holy places like the Church of the Nativity were guaranteed protection by tradition and treaties.
Approximately 40 Franciscan priests and nuns waited inside, vowing to stay and pleading against an Israeli assault on the church. Church officials in the Holy Land were meanwhile trying to arrange an Israeli withdrawal that would allow the Palestinian gunmen to leave.
Pope John Paul, who was closely following the news in the Holy Land, called for a worldwide day of prayer for peace in the Middle East April 7, Divine Mercy Sunday.
Speaking that day at his noon blessing at the Vatican, the pope said only prayer could help people overcome "hatred and the thirst for vengeance" and take up the road of dialogue.
"How can we forget that Israelis and Palestinians, following the example of Abraham, believe in the one God?" he said. Without referring to the details of the standoff in Bethlehem, he said the basilica was in his "constant prayers."
When he announced his prayer day initiative, the pope warned that the events in the Holy Land seemed to be drifting toward "inhuman cruelty."
The papal plea came as Vatican diplomats met with Israeli, Palestinian, U.S. and Arab League representatives, urging an immediate cease-fire and an end to Palestinian suicide bombings.
In the discussions, the Vatican criticized the "injustice and humiliation imposed on the Palestinian people" and the wave of reprisals that only "increase the sense of frustration and hatred," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
U.S. Ambassador Jim Nicholson was given a diplomatic note conveying the pope's hope that President George W. Bush would use his influence to convince Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt the reprisals. The Vatican also sought U.S. support for international monitors or peacekeepers in the region.
Navarro-Valls said Vatican officials made five key points in each meeting:
-- "The unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, from whatever side it comes." Israel said its military operations were designed to uproot terrorists, who have carried out a series of deadly suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.
-- "Criticism of the conditions of injustice and humiliation imposed on the Palestinian people, as well as for the reprisals and retaliations, which do nothing but increase the sense of frustration and hatred."
-- The need for Palestinians and Israelis to respect the resolutions of the United Nations aimed at bringing a cease-fire, promoting Palestinian statehood and guaranteeing the security of Israel.
-- The need to ensure "proportionality in the use of legitimate means of defense."
-- "The obligation the conflicting sides have to safeguard the holy places, which are very important for the three monotheistic religions and for the patrimony of all humanity."
At a special session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva April 5, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin explained the Vatican's position and urged international action to stop the cycle of "terror and reprisal."
In Bethlehem, the tense situation at the Church of the Nativity worsened as food and water supplies dwindled and after Israeli forces blew open a door of the church, according to Franciscans inside.
The Franciscans said that early April 8, shelling by Israelis caused a fire to break out in the monastic complex; they said a 23-year-old monastic worker, Khaled Syam, was shot dead while trying to put out the fire.
Israeli soldiers said they were fired upon first by gunmen inside the church complex; that was denied by those inside.
The Vatican responded by issuing a statement insisting on respect for the "status quo" of holy places -- a term that refers to the centuries-old tradition of inviolability of such sites. It said this principle was all the more important because of the presence of armed men inside the church.
It noted that respect for the holy places was included in accords between the Vatican and Israel and the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority.
Father David Jaeger, a spokesman for the Franciscans, who are in charge of the holy sites in the Holy Land, reacted strongly to the Israeli shelling of the complex.
"We are in absolute shock. ... We condemn this barbaric act," said Father Jaeger, an Israeli citizen who in 1993 helped negotiate a Vatican-Israeli agreement that paved the way for diplomatic relations. He urged international action to stop further military moves against the church complex.
Efforts by religious groups to enter Bethlehem and help mediate the crisis were unsuccessful. A convoy of church leaders and Christian activists tried to enter the city April 3 and April 8 as a sign of solidarity with Bethlehem residents, but was prevented from doing so by Israeli soldiers.
"Israel has won. There is no reason for them to stay in Bethlehem," said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem after being turned back from the checkpoint. "Their forces can now leave peacefully."
In Jerusalem, Patriarch Sabbah led about 100 people, mostly priests and nuns, in a demonstration in front of the Israeli prime minister's residence.
Meanwhile, in Rome, the Franciscan minister general, Father Giacomo Bini, sent a letter to Bush, asking him "to intervene to put an immediate stop to this latest and most serious escalation of violence."
Father Bini said the Franciscans had asked the armed Palestinians inside the complex to lay down their weapons and asked the Israeli army to withdraw its tanks and troops from around the complex.
The Vatican denied reports it had put forward a plan to end the impasse at the Bethlehem church. But Catholic officials in the Holy Land voiced support for a solution outlined in an Israeli newspaper, under which the armed Palestinians would be given safe passage to a region of Gaza that remained under the control of the Palestinian National Authority.
The Israeli operations in Bethlehem also affected the church-run Bethlehem University, where Israeli soldiers first searched the premises for Palestinian gunmen -- none were found -- then took over the university and used it as a military headquarters.
In Washington, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the recent events "require stronger efforts by the United States and the international community to bring to an end the violence and terror, occupation and attacks, which are destroying so many lives and hopes."
He said the Bush administration should apply pressure on both sides to stop the Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli civilian areas and to promote a "rapid withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank."
The heads of men's and women's religious conferences in the United States urged Bush to seek an "unconditional end to the violence" in the Middle East.
In a letter sent to Bush April 4, the religious leaders urged the president to "call for an unconditional end to the violence by both parties and to insist that the Israeli military withdraw from the occupied territories immediately."
Bush later twice called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian areas, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defied the request. The U.S. president also dispatched Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East to negotiate peace.
Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald. All rights reserved.
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