Bad conditions also forcing non-Christians from Holy Land NEWS BRIEFS Feb-24-2004, By Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Christians are not the only ones leaving the Holy Land; many Muslims and Jews also are leaving as the economic and political conditions in the region decline, said two prominent Mideast Catholics. Peace could bring a halt to this trend, but since peace is unlikely in the near future, young people will continue to leave, said Bernard Sabella, a Catholic professor of sociology at Bethlehem University in the West Bank. He said instead of just blaming the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories people need to ask themselves "What next?" "What do you do? You can encourage people to stay, create business enterprises for young people but, in the final analysis, it is a personal choice," he said. "This will continue, and I don't think we should make out of this a political issue. It is also an issue to discuss about how it reflects on the society, its traditions and (how it affects) communities dying off. For me as a sociologist, this is the tragedy."

West Bank mayor says church-funded center will help city youths NEWS BRIEFS Feb-20-2004, By Catholic News Service

BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (CNS) -- A new church-funded community center will help provide much-needed cultural activities for young people, said a West Bank mayor. Beit Sahour Mayor Fuad Kokaly said the building would be the first municipal community center in his largely Christian city of 14,000 people. The city has lacked outlets for its young people since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000, he said. "That means creating life here," Kokaly said at the opening of the center in mid-February. "To create life in the old city means to keep the city active, and we hope it will serve cultural and economic needs, and people will return to the old city," he said. Work on the Dar Dakarat Beit Sahour Community Center began two-and-a-half years ago with an initial $30,000 grant from the Pontifical Mission for Palestine to help restore a 100-year-old building.

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JERUSALEM (CNS) -- More than half of the Christian families slated to join a West Bank housing cooperative have withdrawn because of financial difficulties, said an official involved in the project.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.

Israeli Catholic family fights legal battle so dad can live with them NEWS BRIEFS Feb-03-2004, By Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- On a midwinter morning, Yousef Nasser sat on his sofa, smoking a cigarette next to his wife, Dina; their three children sat nearby. The Nassers, who are Catholic, are breaking Israeli law: Yousef, 50, is in his home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina illegally. As a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, Dina Nasser, 42, has an Israeli identity card that gives her Israeli residency rights in Jerusalem. But after 20 years of marriage and three children, Yousef Nasser, 50, who was born in the West Bank village of Bir Zeit and moved to San Francisco as a child before returning at age 27, has not been given an Israeli residency permit. The Nassers, who spent the early years of their marriage in England completing university studies, have filed five applications for family reunification with the Israeli Ministry of Interior, but all have been denied. Before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, Yousef Nasser, an assistant professor of economics at Bir Zeit University, was given temporary visitor permits on a regular basis, and the family was able to live a normal life. For the last several years the family has lived in a twilight zone of uncertainty.