ISRAEL: Israel's policies towards Palestinians were criticised by the spiritual leader of Roman Catholics in the Holy Land in his Easter Mass homily yesterday. Nuala Haughey reports from Jerusalem
In his address to worshippers in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said killing, demolition and the construction of "segregation walls" did not lead to security.
Several hundred foreign pilgrims and Palestinian Christians gathered for yesterday's service at the church in Jerusalem's Old City, said to be built on the spot where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead.
This year's celebrations were more muted than in previous years, with many Palestinian Christians from the West Bank unable to receive travel permits to enter Israel due to an Israeli "closure" or general lockdown imposed on the territories following security concerns in the wake of Israel's assassination of the leader of the Hamas group late last month.
Archbishop Sabbah, who presides over about 400,000 Catholics in Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan, is the region's first Palestinian patriarch. All his predecessors were Italians.
In a reference to Israel's policies in the territories, he reiterated that "the means used to create security are by themselves ways of insecurity".
"One must finally come to this conviction that the security of the one part resides in the security of the other part; if one part seeks to secure his own life, he has to refrain from oppressing the others life."
He added that Palestinians and Israelis were capable of mutual respect and reconciliation. Israel has defended the controversial security barrier it is building in the West Bank as necessary to prevent terror attacks. But Palestinians have labelled it a de facto annexation of land they wish for a future state.
The Patriarch has recently expressed concerns about Israeli delays in granting or renewing residency visas for dozens of Catholic clergy, which he said were undermining the ability of the church to function.