What Christians in Holy Land Are Armed With JERUSALEM, FEB. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org)

JERUSALEM, FEB. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A bishop of Jerusalem says that Christians, as bearers of values such as justice, peace, dignity and human rights, can make a key contribution to solving the Mideast conflict.

Christians' weapons are those of "negotiation, patience and bridge-building," said Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, in a statement to ZENIT.

The Italian-born prelate has been in the Holy Land for 44 years. He was ordained bishop 11 years ago and has been patriarchal vicar of the Latin Church in Israel for the past decade.

Although designated as such in newspapers, he is not bishop of Nazareth, but a bishop who lives in Nazareth, since most Christians in the region live in that area.

The prelate said that there has always been a Christian community there, "a thread that runs through everything, incarnated in the culture and local society, through the ups and downs of political and ecclesial powers and jurisdictions."

"Today Christians in the Holy Land regard themselves as heirs of the first Christian community, something that cannot be understood if one does not keep in mind this transmission of the teachings of Christ from one generation to the other, from one people to another, between one regime and another," the auxiliary bishop said.

The first Christians in the main were Jews, while the present community is Arab-Palestinian, but this does not mean that the latter "do not consider themselves descendants of the first Christian community, in the thread of faith," he noted.

That the Christian community is surrounded by a Muslim majority, under the political jurisdiction of Israel, is "a new historical, cultural and social experience," for which there is no "model or experience of reference," said Bishop Marcuzzo.

"We must mark out our path," he said. "The Christian community lives a twofold minority condition, in the Arab community and in Israel. Consider a person who is Arab, Christian and a citizen of Israel. To be these three things at the same time is difficult; it is a challenge that we have addressed in our diocesan synod.

"During the synod we said that we should recover the original land of our identity, that is, the Mother Church, the Church of the Apostles, the Church of the Holy Sites, the Church of the Gospel; we have rediscovered there a fertile terrain, not tainted by history."

He added: "By vocation, we chose to be the Church in the Holy Land and to stay here."

The Diocesan Synod of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land closed in February 2000 with the holding of an assembly that gave origin to the General Pastoral Plan.

The plan was the result of a process of several years involving the Latin, Greek-Catholic (Melkite), Syro-Catholic, Maronite, Armenian-Catholic and Chaldean Churches, and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The plan is entitled "Faithful to Christ, Co-responsible in the Church, Witnesses in Society."

Bishop Marcuzzo said that there are difficulties in relations with Muslims, but the problems are not "insurmountable."

The General Pastoral Plan may be requested from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem at media@lpj.org or from the Vicariate of Nazareth at latinvic@actcom.com.

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Holy Land: patients suffer as wall blocks access to hospitals Independent Catholic News, JERUSALEM - 22 February 2005 - 222 words

Israel's partition wall is now preventing more than 10,000 chronically-ill Palestinians from getting to hospital - say three leading medical organisations.

Over 100,000 pregnant women will not have access to healthcare and 130,000 Palestinian children may not be immunised once the barrier is finished.

Doctors from Human Rights-Israel, Medicins du Monde, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society have launched a joint campaign to highlight the impact of the barrier on healthcare services.

They say almost a third of West Bank villages will suffer from lack of access to a health system in each region once the structure is finished.

"The wall has put Palestinian healthcare at risk, both for patients and medical staff that have difficulties accessing or are denied access to hospitals," said Medicins Du Monde president Francois Jeanson.

Ruchama Marton, a psychiatrist who heads Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the wall would have a damaging effect on both Israelis and Palestinians. She said: "The main goal of the wall is to hide the Palestinians from the Israelis because otherwise it may be possible to identify with their suffering and see them as human beings."

Israel says the barrier is necessary to prevent Palestinian suicide attacks.

For more information and factsheets on the wall visit: http://www.stopthewall.org/

Source: Amos Trust

© Independent Catholic News 2005

Contact Independent Catholic News tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7267 3616 or email

Galilee village Catholics remain fearful a week after violence Catholic News, 22 Feb. 2005

Fear has remained on the faces of Melkite Catholics who have returned to the village of Maghar, a week after fleeing Druze-led violence.

Catholic News Service reports that, in the village's Christian neighbourhood, cars were vandalised, overturned and burned. Windows of houses and businesses were shattered; shutters were broken and hacked through with hatchets and axes; buildings were blackened from flames reaching up to the third floor; and the insides of businesses -- which were first plundered -- were destroyed and charred.

"[The Druze] destroyed all the Christian businesses," said one man, as he stood outside his family's ruined pastry shop.

Maghar's Christians all are Melkite Catholic, and many declined to give their names or have their pictures taken, afraid they would be singled out later for attacks.

Karawani and his family left the village; he returns to his home only during the day. His children, like the other Christian children who attend the village public school, had not been to school for a week.

There is no Christian school in the village, and no one can assure the safety of their children in the public school, where they are harassed almost daily, said the Catholic villagers.

Catholic News Service says everyone has a horror story of how they escaped the attacks. Some, whose cars were still intact, fled their homes with their children as soon as they had an opportunity. Those whose cars were already in flames ran to family and friends for safety, and others were forced to remain in their homes while outside the mobs tried to break in or set flames to stores on the lower floors.

The Druze sect originated in Egypt and broke off from Islam in the early 11th century. They live scattered in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. There are also immigrant Druze communities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

"I don't know why they hate us. We believe in tolerance. There was something like this in the '80s, too, and here we are in the year 2005 in the same situation," he said.

Noor Artoul, 38, his nephew, came to assess the damage to his minimarket. He said his four children are terrified to return to the village, and his first concern is for their safety and emotional well-being. A return to life as it was before, he said, is impossible.

Papal Message Conveyed to Harassed Christians in Galilee Nuncio Appears at Mass in Wake of Attacks MAGHAR, Israel, FEB. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).

MAGHAR, Israel, FEB. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II's representative in Israel brought words of encouragement to Maghar, during a Mass celebrated in the wake of recent attacks against Christians by fellow Druze villagers.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio in Israel, became the spokesman for John Paul II's prayers and solidarity with Christians of Maghar, during the Mass in the local Greek-Catholic-Melkite Church of St. George.

"I am here, to convey to the Christian community and to each one of its members the solidarity, the prayers, and the apostolic blessing of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II," said Archbishop Sambi.

He was joined in the celebration of the Mass by Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem, and by Maronite and Melkite bishops. Representatives of several Christian denominations also attended, reported AsiaNews.

In his address, Archbishop Sambi said that the Israeli authorities themselves described the violence suffered by the Christians of Maghar as a "pogrom" and new "Kristallnacht," bringing to mind the "abominable events in Jewish history."

The papal nuncio urged reconciliation in Maghar, but he also called for compensation for the heavy material and moral losses, and pointed out that the state of Israel did not prevent the attacks.

Maghar is a village of about 18,000 residents, 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Sea of Galilee. Half of its population is Druze, an offshoot of Islam.

The violence, unleashed Feb. 11-12 by the Druze, was sparked by a false rumor about photos that a Christian schoolboy had posted on the Internet. For two days, Druze youths rioted in the Christian neighborhood under the gaze of Israeli police.

"The Druze attacked us four times," the Catholic parish priest of St. George's Church, Father Abud Maher, told AsiaNews.

"The first two times with the Israeli police looking on, actually withdrawing from the village," the priest said. "I called the nuncio to tell him about the situation. Archbishop Sambi then called the authorities demanding that they intervene."

In a letter of protest sent to Israeli President Moshe Katzav, Patriarch Sabbah lamented the lack of protection of Christians on the part of the Israeli police.

"While a whole battalion of the army guarded a small [Israeli] settlement in Hebron, a neighborhood of Maghar has been semi-destroyed without any reaction from the Israeli police," said the prelate in the Haaretz newspaper.

On Feb. 13, days after the start of the attack, 300 policemen were sent to the village.

Father Maher said the violence left seven people injured, and 70 Christian shops and homes were sacked and set on fire. St. George's Church was stoned, windows were broken and the facade was damaged, he said. A mixed Christian-Muslim commission confirmed these figures, said AsiaNews.

Of the 4,000 Christians who live in Maghar, 2,000 fled from their homes to neighboring villages, said AsiaNews.

Elias Daw, president of the local court of appeal of the Greek-Catholic-Melkite Church, told the Missionary Service News Agency that last Saturday, in the face of the persistence "of fear of new incidents of violence," "90% of Maghar's Christians have left the village."

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Nuncio's Words at Mass in Maghar MAGHAR, Israel, FEB. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).

MAGHAR, Israel, FEB. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here are the words Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio in Israel, spoke to the Christian community in Maghar, during the celebration of a solidarity Mass.

On Feb. 11-12 the village's Christian residents were attacked by their fellow Druze villagers as Israeli police stood by without intervening.

I am here, to convey to the Christian community and to each one of its members the solidarity, the prayers and the apostolic blessing of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

These last days, Maghar, a pleasant village in Higher Galilee, has become unluckily famous in the world: not for deeds worthy of a human being, but for outrageous violence, which is unacceptable in a democratic state and a civilized society.

Israeli authorities themselves have spoken of "Kristallnacht" and "pogrom," words which bring to mind abominable events in Jewish history.

There are a few facts which have to be brought to the attention of the authorities and of the public opinion:

1) Those in charge of public order and security, failing to intervene rapidly and strongly in defense of the citizens and their properties, did not prevent the human tragedy which is under our very eyes.

2) In a democratic state, no one is allowed to take the law in his own hands and do himself justice. Those who dare to do that, violate the law of civil common life, and have to be severely punished, as a pledge that such violence will not occur again. If someone thinks he has been deprived of his rights, or injustice has been done to him, he should appeal to the competent authorities to seek justice.

3) The heavy material and moral losses have to be compensated; otherwise it will appear that violence is rewarded. 4) The authorities of public order and security should take the necessary steps to assure the residents of Maghar that such "pogroms" will never be repeated, and to restore the trust and the confidence of the citizens in the public institutions which have the duty to protect their basic rights.

Now I would like to add some more considerations:

1) Revenge is not part of our Christian cultural heritage. Jesus said: If you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? [...] If you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Reconciliation is the right path to follow. Pope John Paul II, in his message on the occasion of the World Peace Day, on last January 1, has given us a highly Christian mandate taken from Saint Paul: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

2) I am fully aware of the consternation and the terror filling the hearts of the Christians who were compelled to flee their houses and the village in order to save their lives. Nevertheless, I invite them today to recover courage and come back to their community.

3) I am here also to assure you that, from now on, the Pope as well as myself, the authorities of all the Christian Churches worldwide, and all the world will fix a watchful eye on Maghar, to check that the dignity and the safety of the Christians in the village be respected and protected.

[Text issued by AsiaNews]

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Pope’s solidarity towards Christian victims of Druze violence, say Nuncio and Latin Patriarch 20 February, 2005 VATICAN - ISRAEL, Maghar (AsiaNews)

The Nuncio calls for forgiveness and reconciliation, but also demands the State of Israel pay compensation after it failed to prevent Israelis themselves have called a ‘pogrom’. Fr Elias Chakkour asks himself if there is a place for Christians in Israel.

Maghar (AsiaNews) – A mass in solidarity with the Christian residents of Maghar, a village in the Lower Galilee, took place today. Last week they were subjected to a virtual ‘pogrom’ that included assaults, beatings, fires, shootings and destruction of property by Druze gangs. At least 2,000 Christians were forced to flee whilst Israeli police intervened only on the third day of the riots.

Mgr Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to Israel, and Mgr Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, took part in the ceremony as did Bishops from the Maronite and Melkite Churches and representatives from other Christian Churches.

Fr Abud Maher, of Maghar’s St George Parish Church, chose to avoid a large gathering. “We would have liked to have come from all over Israel,” said a priest who was present at the ceremony, but it was limited to the 4,000 local Christians and representatives of all of Israel’s Christian communities.

Mgr Sambi brought to the faithful “the solidarity, the prayers and the apostolic blessing of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II”.

In his speech, the Nuncio reminded those present that Israeli authorities themselves had compared the violence inflicted upon Maghar’s Christians to ‘Kristallnacht’* calling it a ‘pogrom’.

According to Father Maher, the violence left “seven people injured—two from gunshot wounds—and 70 stores and homes looted and burnt. The façade of the church is damaged from stone throwing, 155 cars were torched and 2,000 Christians fled to nearby villages.”

In his speech (also published in the AsiaNews website), the Apostolic Nuncio said that solidarity towards Maghar’s Christians requires three things: forgiveness and reconciliation with the Druze community, the return of the refugees to their village, and compensation of the victims for the losses they incurred.

Some clergymen who also attended the ceremony said that some of Maghar’s Christian and Druze families would contribute to the compensation.

This leaves little consolation to Druze community leaders who are still dismayed by what happened, filled with shame and stunned into silence.

Everyone, however, agrees that the government has to provide most of the compensation.

“Israel has the greater responsibility since Israeli police did nothing until someone started to burn down houses,” said one of those present.

Many are now asking themselves if there is still a place for Christians in Israel. Fr Elias Chakkour, 65, is one of them. He chairs an organisation that helps some 4,500 students from every religious background from pre-school till university.

“The pogrom,” he told AsiaNews, “occurred in a state that claims to be democratic, that claims to protect its citizens, but given what has happened one can legitimately ask whether unarmed minorities can live in this state, whether they have a right to exist or must instead always be oppressed and persecuted.

“I believe,” Father Chakkour added, “that Israel should show the entire world that Christians are not strangers in this country, that they have a place and rights; that they do need to arm themselves to have justice and protection.”

“It is absolutely urgent that life not become the law of the jungle where might is right”.

* Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass in English, was a massive nationwide pogrom in Germany overnight on November 9, 1938. It was directed at Jewish citizens throughout the country, and involved the destructions of hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish-owned businesses. For many observers it was the first hint of what is now called the Holocaust.

Pope and the world are looking at what happened in Maghar, says Nuncio by Pietro Sambi 20 February, 2005 VATICAN - ISRAEL, Maghar (AsiaNews)

Maghar (AsiaNews) – Here are the words His Excellency Mgr Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio in Israel spoke to the Christian community in Maghar (Galilee) during the celebration of a solidarity mass today. Last week the Catholic residents of the village were victims of violence on the part of their fellow Druze villagers as Israeli police stood by without intervening.

I am here, to convey to the Christian community and to each one of its members the solidarity, the prayers and the apostolic blessing of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

These last days, Maghar, a pleasant village in Higher Galilee, has become unluckily famous in the world: not for deeds worthy of a human being, but for outrageous violence, which is unacceptable in a democratic state and a civilized society.

Israeli authorities themselves have spoken of “Kristallnacht” and “pogrom”, words which bring to mind abominable events in Jewish history.

There are a few facts which have to be brought to the attention of the authorities and of the public opinion:

1) Those in charge of public order and security, failing to intervene rapidly and strongly in defense of the citizens and their properties, did not prevent the human tragedy which is under our very eyes.

2) In a democratic State, no one is allowed to take the law in his own hands and do himself justice. Those who dare to do that, violate the law of civil common life, and have to be severely punished, as a pledge that such violence will not occur again. If someone thinks he has been deprived of his rights, or injustice has been done to him, he should appeal to the competent authorities to seek justice.

3) The heavy material and moral losses have to be compensated; otherwise it will appear that violence is rewarded.

4) The authorities of public order and security should take the necessary steps to assure the residents of Maghar that such “pogroms” will never be repeated, and to restore the trust and the confidence of the citizens in the public institutions which have the duty to protect their basic rights.

Now I would like to add some more considerations:

1) Revenge is not part of our Christian cultural heritage. Jesus said: If you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? […] If you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? (Mt 5: 47). Reconciliation is the right path to follow. Pope John Paul II, in his message on the occasion of the World Peace Day, on last January 1st, has given us a highly Christian mandate taken from Saint Paul: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom 12: 21).

2) I am fully aware of the consternation and the terror filling the hearts of the Christians who were compelled to flee their houses and the village in order to save their lives. Nevertheless, I invite them today to recover courage and come back to their community.

3) I am here also to assure you that, from now on, the Pope as well as myself, the authorities of all the Christian Churches worldwide, and all the world will fix a watchful eye on Maghar, to check that the dignity and the safety of the Christians in the village be respected and protected.

US Catholic leaders press Israel on pact with Vatican Washington, Feb. 17 (CWNews.com)

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:42:01 -0800 (PST), From: firas diab , To: Martha Liles , Druze teen admits spreading rumor that sparked Maghar riots

Run in Mghar A 16-year-old Druze boy admitted Monday to spreading a rumor that sparked violent weekend clashes between Druze and Christians in the mixed village of Maghar in the Galilee.

Dozens of Christian businesses were burned to the ground and many Christian families fled the village during riots that began Thursday evening after a rumor spread that Christian youths had placed pornographic pictures of Druze girls on the internet.

After an extensive investigation that included experts on computer-related crimes, police determined the youth had lied to his friends about the pictures, after he was angered by derogatory marks about Druze made by an unidentified man with whom he had corresponded by email.

Police seized the computers of four people who claimed to have either seen or received the pictures. An inspection revealed that the pictures were never on the computers.

The youth was held for questioning in connection with spreading false information, and police are continuing the investigation with the objective of locating additional suspects.

Police finished questioning the youth Sunday afternoon, but preferred not to make the information public due to fears of additional riots. A Northern Valleys District spokesman said the information was passed on to both Druze and Christian community leaders.

On Sunday night a large crowd of Druze gathered in the village due to a rumor that a large number of Christians were gathering in the village and the surrounding area. The Druze crowd was dispersed by community leaders.

Large police forces remained in the village Monday in order to prevent further outbreaks of violence.

The violent clashes peaked Saturday afternoon when eight residents of the village were injured, two moderately and the rest lightly. Three police officers were also lightly injured Saturday, including Northern Valleys District commander Yaakov Zigdon, who sustained a leg injury.

Northern District commander Dan Ronen called the violence "a pogrom."

A 200-strong police force patrolled the streets of the Galilee village of Maghar in the wake of violent clashes at the end of last week between Druze and Christian residents that resulted in a number of injuries and caused many Christian families to flee the community. Relative calm was restored on Saturday.

Violence between Christian and Druze youth erupted in Maghar last Thursday following rumors that Christian youths had superimposed the faces of Druze girls on photographs of naked women and posted the images on the Internet. Police have yet to come up with evidence to corroborate the rumors.

It appears that the story of the doctored photographs, whether true or not, was merely the spark that set ablaze an already tense atmosphere between Druze and Christian youth in the village. One of the reasons for the tension, apparently, is the gap between the economic situation of Maghar's Christian residents and its Druze ones, who are generally less prosperous.

Police sources say that this and other reasons are behind the events of the weekend.

Druze residents of Maghar routinely complain that despite the fact that they serve in the Israel Defense Forces, the government fails to reward the community, while the Christian youths acquire a higher education and secure good jobs.

"Apparently, they didn't torch businesses by chance," a Christian businessman said yesterday. "Someone is angry perhaps about the economic standing of the Christians. There are many educated individuals among us, free professionals and businessmen; but we are a small and weak sect. Perhaps we have no place in this country."

Meanwhile, Druze leaders from around the country convened in the village yesterday to review the situation with Likud MK Ayoub Kara, calling on the two communities "to work together to mend the rift."

According to Kara, who is Druze, "we cannot wait for the police to resolve the crisis. We must bring back the Christian residents who fled, and even put them up in Druze homes."

Christian leaders also met in the village yesterday and the heads of the two communities published a joint statement denouncing the incidents of the past few days and urging calm.

The heads of the Christian community also contacted the Vatican's embassy in Jerusalem and briefed officials there on the violence. "The Vatican has been briefed on all that has happened, and so has the Pope," said Father Elias Shakur, one of the village Christian leaders.

Meanwhile, thousands of Christians who fled Maghar due to the clashes have yet to return, fearing for their lives. Many have found refuge in the nearby village of Ilabun.

"Who can guarantee me that I can return to my home in safety?" asked one Christian resident who fled to another Galilee village. "I'll wait here until the law enforcement authorities take matters in hand and take control of the rioters."

Druze attack Christians in Israeli village, Catholic World News, Jerusalem, Feb. 18 (AsiaNews)

Jerusalem, Feb. 18 (AsiaNews) - Church officials in the Holy Land are sharply criticizing Israeli security forces for failing to protect Christians from Druze assailants in a village in Galilee, the AsiaNews service reports.

At least 7 people were injured-- two from gunshot wounds-- and 70 homes and stores were looted during two days of violence by Druze mobs against Christians in the village of Maghar. About 2,000 Christians-- mostly Melkite Catholics-- were forced to abandon their homes to escape the violence.

Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem complains that Israeli police stood by, observing the violence, but failing to intervene in what one police official described as a "pogrom" against the Christians of Maghar. The patriarch, along with Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the apostolic nuncio in the Holy Land, will visit Maghar on Sunday, February 20, to celebrate massa nd show solidarity with the Christians there.

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:16:41 -0800 (PST), From: Firas Khoury Diab , To: Martha Liles , Christians Are Leaving the Holy Land, By DAVID BRIGGS, BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (AP) -

Patriarch and Nuncio to visit village where Druze attacked Christians 18 February, 2005 ISRAEL – HOLY LAND - VATICAN, Maghar (AsiaNews)

This Sunday leaders from all Christian Churches will visit the village of Maghar where Druze attacks forced 2,000 Christians to flee as Israeli police looked on. Israeli authorities call the violence against Melkite Catholics a pogrom. Christians did not respond to attacks.

Maghar (AsiaNews) – Next Sunday, Mgr Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Mgr Pietro Sambi, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Holy Land, will visit the village of Maghar, in the Galilee, where Druze residents recently attacked local Christians—who did not react in kind—forcing some 2,000 of them to flee their homes.

At 10:30 am, the Patriarch and the Nuncio will celebrate a festive liturgy as a token of solidarity towards Maghar Christians. Leaders from other Christian Churches in the Holy Land shall also take part in the event. Foreign ambassadors have been invited.

Maghar is a village of about 18,000 residents 15 km from the Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias) and 40 km from Nazareth. Half of its population is Druze*, Muslims are 35 per cent and Christians, largely Melkite Catholics represent the remaining 15 per cent.

The violence was sparked by a false rumour, namely that a Christian schoolboy had posted photos of naked Druze girls on the internet. For two days Druze youths rioted in the Christian neighbourhood under the indifferent eye of Israeli police and without any violent counteraction by Christians.

In a letter to Israeli President Moshe Katzav, Archbishop Michel Sabbah and Catholic leaders in Israel placed the responsibility for what happened to the Christians on Israel’s security forces.

In an interview with Israeli daily Haaretz, Sabbah said that while Israel stationed almost an entire army to guard a tiny group of settlers in Hebron, a neighbourhood in Maghar was almost destroyed without any reaction from the police. Only the intervention of Nuncio Sambi did lead to the police re-establishing control over the village.

Fr Maher Abud, the parish priest of St George’s Catholic Church in Maghar, spoke to AsiaNews about the incident.

“The Druze attacked us four times. The first two times with the Israeli police looking on, actually withdrawing from the village. I called the nuncio to tell him about the situation. Mgr Sambi then called the authorities demanding that they intervene.” Only on Sunday, three days after the unrest had begun, did 300 police officers arrive.

Thinking about what happened on Friday and Saturday, Christians are simply dismayed at the inaction of the Israeli police, Father Maher said.

The violence left “seven people injured—two from gunshot wounds—and 70 stores and homes looted and burnt,” Father Maher said. “The façade of the church is damaged from stone throwing, 155 cars were torched and 2,000 Christians fled to nearby villages.” After intervening the commanding officer of the police unit sent to the village called what he saw a ‘pogrom’.

The police arrested 26 Druze; 18 of them are still in custody waiting trial, including four Druze police officers.

Father Maher pointed out that Maghar Catholics “have been bearing the brunt of the idea that might is right. It is not the first time that the Druze have targeted them.”

“I do not mean to accuse all Druze,” the priest stressed. “There are among them people of good will but they cannot keep in check those who are violent”.

Eyewitnesses said that in this attack—others took place in 1990—Druze “went after Christian homes and businesses”. And what’s more, in spite of several calls, the local fire department did not intervene to put off the fires.

Maghar Christians now fear for themselves and their children. “Our students,” Father Maher said, “don’t want to go back to school in the village because they are afraid that the humiliation Druze students were already inflicting upon them will just get more violent.”

Even before the latest violence, some 200 Christian students from Maghar attended school in nearby villages to avoid being pestered by Druze.

“I am not a Saint, but neither am I afraid,” said Father Maher. “If the road to sainthood requires martyrdom I am ready.”

At the end, he asked Christians around the world to “pray for us!” (LF)

* A distinct religious community born within Islam but considered heretical and therefore not Muslim by most Muslims in the region, though some Druze believe their religion is Islamic.

For 2,000 years, her people have lived and worshiped in the land where Jesus was born. But Norma Budreh, one of the last of Christianity's "living stones",' has come to a sad conclusion: The Holy Land no longer has a place for them. "In the long run, you will not find any Christian in this country. All of us will leave,'' she says. "Christ used to do miracles to help people. But we cannot do these miracles. We are suffering.''

For Budreh, troubles seem endless. She talks of her brother, tortured in a Jerusalem prison in 1979 for driving a Volkswagen that looked like one used by terrorists. Of her husband, Elias, his lumber business shut down by Israeli officials in the '80s because he joined a tax revolt against the government. Of her sons, unable to find work because recent border closings keep the family confined to a devastated area. Mrs. Budreh pleads with a visitor for help in getting her sons to the United States.

Already, her parents and five brothers have emigrated to Honduras. Palestinian Christians are fleeing the Holy Land in such numbers that they may be an insignificant presence by the end of the millennium. Already, they have been reduced to a small minority in growing cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where they were the majority earlier this century. In 1948, Christians were 10 percent of the population of the Holy Land, according to Bethlehem University sociologist Bernard Sabella. He puts the number today at only 2 percent for the region stretching from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to the Lebanon border. Massive emigration has kept the total number of Christians in the region at 150,000 to 180,000, about the same as it was in 1948, drowning them in a sea of exploding Palestinian Muslim and Jewish population growth.

Before the 1967 war, Sabella says, Christians were leaving at a yearly rate of 7.8 per thousand - already a high number. By 1988, he says, the rate had nearly tripled to 18.7 per thousand. The rate of emigration continues to rise, raising the likelihood of a decline not only in percentage but in total numbers. Like the early Christians, who were persecuted by both Roman rulers and Jewish sects, the ``living stones'' are trapped between the hammer and anvil of two powerful forces. The hammer is Israel, whose Palestinian policies do not distinguish between Muslim and Christian in limiting access to jobs, schools, places of worship and the right to travel. The anvil is Islam, and fears about how the Muslim majority will treat the Christian minority when Palestine gains self-rule.

So the Christians continue to leave: Already, more Bethlehem Christians live in North America than in Bethlehem. Those who remain feel abandoned by their Christian brethren in the West. World Jewry is devoted to Israel. Arab countries take up the cause of Palestinian Muslims. But the plight of Palestinian Christians - the living descendants of Jesus and the apostles - goes largely unnoticed, even by Westerners who come by the hundreds of thousands to visit the birthplace of the faith. ``We feel we have been crucified in our situation, in our lives here,'' said the Rev. Zahi Nasser of Christ Church in Nazareth. ``We are experiencing the pain and suffering of Jesus.'' THE ISRAELI HAMMER Officially, the massive Christian emigration does not exist. Find me one Christian who has left, challenges Uri Mor, director of the Religious Affairs Ministry office that deals with Christians. ``It's a big lie, like the Nazi propaganda lie,'' Mor says. ``Tell it long enough ... it is true.''

But talk with Christians throughout the Holy Land, and nearly everyone, from the Christian mayor of Bethlehem to a Baptist pastor in Nazareth, tells of friends and relatives who have fled. There are about 10,000 Christians left among the 600,000 residents of Jersualem. At Israel's founding in 1948, when the city held about 100,000 Jews and 40,000 Muslims, there were three times as many Christians in Jerusalem as there are today, according to the Rev. Thomas F. Stransky, director of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute.

The Greek Orthodox alone has dropped from 21,000 members in 1948 to about 3,000 in the holy city. At Bethlehem University, the Brother Ronald Gallagher's office walls are pocked by bullets. For Gallagher, being vice chancellor of this Catholic college means picking up tear gas canisters in the hallway, and escorting students through military checkpoints in the midst of riots. Outside the university walls, Israeli taxi drivers ferrying tourists come and go at will. But the Palestinians of the West Bank, their cars branded with special blue license plates, cannot leave the occupied areas - not even to travel the few miles into Jerusalem. Even at Easter, Palestinian priests and ministers from the occupied territories are forbidden from traveling to Jerusalem to worship at the place where Jesus was crucified.

``People are losing hope,'' Gallagher says. ``Why should they raise their children here if they can't go to Jerusalem?'' Travel restrictions are also an economic trap. Unemployment in the Palestinian section of Jerusalem is estimated at 30 percent, and on the West Bank, it is worse. Israel closed its borders to Palestinians in the West Bank in January 1995 after a suicide bombing by Islamic militants. ``We live in a prison here,'' said Farid Azizeh, a Christian storekeeper surveying a nearly empty Manger Square in Bethlehem. ``There is no business here.'' The economic forces especially drive up Christian emigration, since they are more likely than Palestinian Muslims to come from middle-class backgrounds, to have higher education and to have contacts in the West.

At home, daily life for Palestinian Christians is a series of indignities that Gallagher compares to the life of the early Christians. ``When I read the Gospels, I can see he didn't make up those stories,'' Gallagher says. ``Things haven't changed that much.'' Palestinian youths - even those who would be considered model teens by American standards - live in fear that they will be detained by soldiers or police. ``If a soldier sees a Jewish person walking, he wouldn't ask him for his I.D. card. But if he sees you, whether Christian or Muslim, he will ask you.'' said Simon Azazian, a 15-year-old camp counselor at the Jerusalem YMCA.

Once, he said, a soldier detained him on the street and frightened him for a half-hour by telling him his I.D. card was false before finally sending him on his way. ``It's humiliating,'' Simon said. For Elias and Norma Budreh, it goes far beyond humiliation. In the late 1980s, Elias got fed up with paying taxes to a government that provided him with neither services nor representation. So he joined the tax revolt by the Christian village of Beit Sahour. In response, the Israeli Army raided the village, emptied homes of furniture, and stripped businesses, including the Budreh's lumber company, of their equipment. Elias Budreh has been unemployed ever since. Christians want to stay in the Holy Land, Mrs. Budreh says, ``But they want to eat. My son, my grandchildren are starving.'' Her voice cracks.

``Our situation is very sad and you want to cry.'' Israelis defend the intrusions, border closings and property seizures in the name of security. When terrorist acts are committed, Mor said, Palestinian Christians must be punished. ``They are part of the Palestinian nation and they are treated not as Christians, but as part of the Palestinian nation,'' he said. ``They exploded buses. They are killing people in the midst of our cities. So they have to suffer.'' Bring the terrorists to justice, say the Palestinian Christians, but do not punish the entire population. The acts of terrorism by Jewish extremists - the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, for example - do not result in punishments for all Israelis. THE MUSLIM ANVIL It started as a minor traffic accident. Mannal Bannoure's husband got out of his car to talk with the other driver. The Palestinian Muslims piled out of the other vehicle and beat him, almost to death. The authorities did nothing. And the Palestinian way of resolving disputes - by talking to the parents of the assailants - accomplished nothing.

As Christians, the Bannoures were simply dismissed as people with no standing in the community. ``It was more safe before the intifada,'' Mrs. Bannoure said. ``I prefer the Israelis more than the Palestinians.'' Tensions between Palestinian Christians and Muslims is not something people here like to talk about. Community leaders on both sides prefer to speak of a shared cultural heritage that transcends religious divisions. ``The Christians are part and parcel of the Palestinian people, indivisible,'' says Doris Saleh, executive director of the YWCA in Jerusalem. In areas governed by the Palestinian Authority, efforts have been made to insure Christian representation. Christians have been given six seats on the authority's 88-member legislative council. Elias Freij, the mayor of Bethlehem is a Christian. ``We have one motto here,'' Freij said. ``We say religion is for God, but we say the city is for all.'' But in neighborhoods and city streets, tensions surface. ``In Jerusalem, Muslims treat us very bad. They hate us,'' said 20-year-old Niveen Saleh, sitting across from a Muslim friend in the pastoral courtyard at Bethlehem University.

``If they see us walking in the street, they start to tell us bad things about the cross.'' Like Saleh and her Muslim friend, most Palestinian Christians and Muslims get along. But the situation is neither as good as officials would have everyone believe, nor as bad as many Christians fear, Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. ``The one extreme I see is talking about a state of paradise between Muslims and Christians. And there is no paradise,'' Raheb said. ``And the other one ... is that we are living in hell. And we are not living in hell. We are living with human beings.

'' For Christians there are increasingly frequent reminders of their minority status. In Jericho, for example, Friday prayers once limited to the mosque are broadcast on loudspeakers all over town. Budreh and Mrs. Bannoure no longer feel free to wear shorts or sleeveless dresses in the summer for fear of what their Muslim neighbors will think.

What will happen, they wonder, as the power of conservative Islam continues to grow? THE LAST FEW STONES Christian leaders here are saddened and angered by Western tourists who kiss the stones Jesus trod on but ignore the plight of the living stones of the faith. The living stones are more important than the dead stones, said Catholic Bishop Boulos Marcuzzo of Nazareth. They represent the continuity of the faith from Jesus's time to the present. ``The first Christians and the Christians of today, they are one,'' he said. ``The community ... is the best link which unites us with Jesus Christ himself. That's why the Rev. Faud Sakhnini, who runs a school and church in the center of Nazareth, is determined to stay, even though two of his sons, in search of better lives, have gone to America. Every day, he misses them. But he thanks God he can continue to walk in Jesus's footsteps. ``If I leave, if you leave, if that person leaves, who is going to witness?'' he asks from inside the Near East Mission of the Southern Baptist Convention. ``I always tell the Lord, `Lord, I am very unworthy to serve you in your hometown.' I feel this is a great honor and privilege.'' AP-NY-03-15-97 1123EST

Palestinian president meets Russian Patriarch , 1 February, 2005 RUSSIA - PALESTINE Jerusalem, Catholic World News from AsiaNews

Feb. 02 (AsiaNews) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II on a visit to Moscow this week.

The Palestinian leader was in Russia to sign a joint statement with President Vladimir Putin, pledging efforts to promote the "road map" to peace in the Holy Land. During his trip Abbas met with Patriarch Alexei at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. The Russian prelate promised that the Orthodox Church would stand "ready to help Palestinians through dialogue among religions."

Peace begins in the Holy Land, Russian Patriarch tells Palestinian President, 1 February, 2005 RUSSIA - PALESTINE Jerusalem, AsiaNews

On an official visit to Russia, Mahmoud Abbas signs a joint statement with Putin to implement the road map.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – The Holy Land is an “irreplaceable component” of the Middle East peace process, this according to Aleksij II, Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia who met at the Danilov monastery in Moscow Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), currently on an official visit to Russia.

Peace, according to the Patriarch, requires that “the possibility to visit the holy places is not only guaranteed to local residents but also to all peoples since it is here we find the three religions with faithful around the world”.

The Patriarch stressed that the Orthodox Church is in favour of inter-faith dialogue in the Middle East. “The Russian Orthodox Church,” he said, “has been present in the Middle East for a long time and is ready to help Palestinians through the dialogue amongst religions”.

Aleksij II thanked Mahmoud Abbas for “returning the Orthodox properties in Hebron and Jericho” and stated “that is time to define the legal title of the Russian mission to these properties”.

In his meeting with the Patriarch, Abbas, who was elected on January 9, reassured him saying that talks between Palestine and Israel “focus on the Holy land”.

The PNA President added that “ongoing negotiations offer some optimism” and that “soon we shall hear some good news”.

The Palestinian leader also signed a joint statement with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in which both parties pledge to implement the road map and call on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a step towards peace.