DAILY CATHOLIC TUESDAY November 23, 1999 vol. 10, no. 222
NEWS & VIEWS |
HOLY LAND CHURCHES CLOSE IN PROTESTBETHLEHEM (CWNews.com) - Christian leaders locked the doors of churches throughout the Holy Land on Monday, the start of a two-day protest against the construction of an Islamic mosque on disputed land next the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.Christians and Muslims had argued, sometimes violently, over the land in Nazareth with Christians claiming it as their own and wanting to build a plaza to accommodate pilgrims and Muslims declaring the land belonged to them and planning a huge mosque on the site. Israel's government stepped into the debate earlier this year and gave most of the site to the Muslims, allowing them to build a smaller mosque. "We were obliged to close our churches to make our voice heard," said Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem, the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. Israel called the church closures lamentable and issued assurances it was committed to protecting Christian interests. But Patriarch Sabbah told a news conference: "If the Israeli government had been interested in the good of (Nazareth) and its people, it would have stopped this ordeal. It should have intervened two years ago."
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had asked Christian
leaders not to include churches in areas under Palestinian
control under the ban because of its expected impact on
tourism. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah
called Arafat on Monday and offered to pay to build the
mosque on a different site "in order to enhance
Islamic-Christian brotherhood," the Palestinian news agency
WAFA reported. It said Arafat welcomed the move.
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