West Bank financial troubles keep Palestinians out of housing co-op NEWS BRIEFS Feb-13-2004, By Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- More than half of the Christian families slated to join a West Bank housing cooperative have withdrawn because of financial difficulties, said an official involved in the project. Some 48 families were to buy into the cooperative effort coordinated by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the U.S.-based Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. However, 28 of the families were unable to meet a modest monetary requirement, said George Ghattas, the foundation's representative in Bethlehem. A downturn in Bethlehem's tourism industry, an Israeli-imposed curfew and a lack of jobs in Israel left many Palestinian families unable to afford mortgage payments, Ghattas said. Last year the Latin Patriarchate and the foundation invested about $500,000 for the construction of the exterior framework of some 20 family units for the al-Bishara housing project in Beit Jalla, West Bank. The foundation recently was awarded a grant of $600,000 by a private donor in the United States; half of the grant will be used to complete interior work such as plumbing and electricity, he said.

Palestinian Christians doubt sincerity of Sharon's Gaza plan NEWS BRIEFS Feb-11-2004, By Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Palestinian Christian leaders criticized Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon's recent proposal for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. The legal adviser to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said he put little stock in the proposal. "Sharon is declaring good intentions on one hand, while on the other hand he is killing, destroying, sending his own young men to their deaths. He is just buying time with this proposal," said the adviser, Father Majdi al-Siryani, reflecting a common sentiment among Palestinians. "He has ulterior motives. Knowing Sharon and his way of thinking, his background and his mentality, I can just brush his proposal aside. It is a white elephant, a balloon he has thrown up in the air," he said. Father al-Siryani called the proposal a "satanic statement" whose significance will be discovered in the next few months.