[Peace-discuss] Holy Land Christians blame Israel

[David Green]

Robert Novak, not a pesonal favorite, but not wrong
all of the time.

Holy Land Christians blame Israel
July 5th, 2006

by Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times columnist

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak03.html

On June 19, two young members of Congress received an
extraordinary
letter from Jerusalem. On behalf of Christian churches
in the Holy
Land, they were told a House resolution they were
circulating blaming
the Palestinian Authority for Christian decline there
"is based on
many false affirmations." The Very Rev. Michael H.
Sellers, an
Anglican priest who is coordinator of Jerusalem's
Christian churches,
said the real problem is the Israeli occupation -
especially its new
security wall.

Prior to hearing this, freshman Republican Rep.
Michael McCaul of
Austin, Texas, and four-term Democratic Rep. Joseph
Crowley of New York
(Queens) had collected 21 co-sponsors (mainly
conservative Republicans)
for their resolution. Sellers' communication was
followed two days
later by a letter from Rep. Henry Hyde, House
International Relations
Committee chairman. He told the two congressmen their
claim of
systematic persecution by the Palestinian Authority is
"inaccurate
and incomplete."

McCaul and Crowley put their resolution "on hold"
going into the
long Fourth of July recess. So apparently ends an
audacious effort by
Israeli public relations to place full blame for the
Christian exodus
from the Israeli-controlled Holy Land on Muslims.
Instead, problems
caused by the security wall have been highlighted once
again.

The House was pulled into this issue by Justus Reid
Weiner, an Israeli
lawyer with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Weiner, who long
has blamed Christian misfortunes on the Palestinian
Authority,
contacted Ari Stein, a staffer in McCaul's
congressional office.
Stein in turn brought in Crowley, a prominent
Democrat, through his
staffer, Gregg Shelowitz.

The result was a "Dear Colleague" letter from McCaul
and Crowley
blaming the Palestinian Authority for "the systematic
destruction of
the oldest Christian community in the world." The
staff-written
letter asserted: "If we do not act now, Christians
around the world
risk losing control of and access to the most ancient
and holy sites in
Christendom."

Their subsequent resolution spent three pages
detailing alleged
persecution of Christians by Arab Muslims, even
assailing the State
Department for failing to put "treatment of
Palestinian Christians by
the Palestinian Authority" in its annual report on
human rights
violations. The resolution immediately picked up 16
Republican
co-sponsors and five Democrats.

This process was slowed by Sellers' letter from
Jerusalem. He said
Christian churches in the Holy Land that he represents
can take care of
any problems with Muslims and "are not seeking your
interference in
their internal problems." Where Congress could help,
he added, was
influencing Israeli government policy: "Your support
for the
Christian presence in the Holy Land will best be
served by helping to
remove the separation wall (which has converted all
the Palestinian
towns into big prisons for Christians and Muslims
alike) and by helping
to bring occupation to an end with all its inherent
types of oppression
and humiliation."

After his letter to McCaul and Crowley, Hyde made an
unscheduled
appearance last Friday at an International Relations
subcommittee
hearing on the plight of religious minorities. He
argued the problem
for the Holy Land's Christians is not Muslims but
Israel. Long a
steadfast supporter of Israel, Hyde testified: "I have
been unable to
understand how the currently routed barrier in
Jerusalem - which rips
asunder the existential poles of Christian belief, the
Nativity and the
Resurrection, and encloses 200,000 Palestinians on the
Jerusalem side
of the barrier - will improve the security of Israel's
citizens."

Hyde was followed at the hearing by the Rev. Firas
Arida, the
31-year-old Roman Catholic priest in the West Bank
village of Aboud.
Asserting that the Israeli security wall causes his
parishioners to
lose water and olive trees, he said "the Israeli
occupation must
end," and "there must be no more settlements on
Palestinian
land."

McCaul and Crowley did not attend Friday's hearing and
surely have
not been to Aboud. Both Catholics, they might well
visit the village
and talk with Firas' flock while prudently keeping
their
ill-considered resolution on hold.


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