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Archbishop of Canterbury condemns Israeli wall around Bethlehem

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  • Archbishop of Canterbury condemns Israeli wall around Bethlehem

    Archbishop of Canterbury condemns Israeli wall around Bethlehem

    Independent Catholic News, UK
    Dec 22 2006

    The Israeli-built wall is "a sign of all that is wrong in the human
    heart", the Archbishop of Canterbury said today in Bethlehem.

    Speaking to the town's civic representatives shortly after walking
    through the wall, Dr Williams said the wall symbolised "the terrible
    fear of the other, of the stranger, which keeps us all in one kind of
    prison or another", from which God 2,000 years ago came to release
    people.

    Dr Williams was speaking on behalf of a delegation of UK church
    leaders to the town of Christ's birth, which included the Archbishop
    of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the moderator of the
    Free Churches, David Coffey, and the Armenian patriarch of Great
    Britain, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian.

    Accompanied by Christian church leaders from Jerusalem, the
    delegation made its way through the notorious checkpoint at the
    entrance to the town, which prevents all but a few Bethlehemites who
    need special permits - from travelling and trading with neighbouring
    Jerusalem.

    The church leaders had planned to walk through the pedestrian
    checkpoint an elaborate steel construction involving turnstiles, CCTV
    cameras, and gun-wielding soldiers.

    But at the last moment, the Israeli security forces diverted them
    through the less humiliating vehicle entrance point, causing camera
    crews waiting on the other side to rush to get pictures.

    The delegation walked from the checkpoint down Star St to Manger
    Square, following the route said to have been made 2,000 years ago by
    Mary and Joseph.

    They were greeted in the square by civic leaders at the International
    Peace Centre, close to the Basilica of the Nativity.

    The Archbishop of Canterbury,s remarks were in response to a speech
    by Bethlehem,s Mayor, Dr Victor Batarsheh, which described how
    Bethlehem was now cut off from the outside world by the wall, causing
    economic hardship and the emigration of families. Bethlehem, he said,
    had been "transformed into an open prison" by the wall.

    He told the church leaders that future peace depended on "dialogue,
    not separation."

    "Your presence is challenging this ugly wall," Mayor Batarseh told
    them.

    The Archbishop of Canterbury said they were "here to say to the
    people of Bethlehem that they are not forgotten. We are here to say:
    what affects you affects us. We are here to say, your suffering is
    our suffering too, in prayers and in thought and in hope."

    He continued: "We are here to say, in this so troubled and complex
    land, that justice and security are never something which one person
    claims and the expense of another, or which one community claims at
    the expense of another. We are here to say that security for one is
    security for all. And for one to live under the threat of occupation
    or of terror is a problem for all."

    Citing an Advent hymn which sings of "Jesus Christ, the one who comes
    the prison bars to break, Dr Williams said it was the church leaders,
    "prayer and our hope for all of you that the prison of poverty and
    disadvantage, the prison of fear and anxiety, will alike be broken."

    He added that the church leaders had come because the Incarnation
    "assures us that these prisons could be broken, broken by the act of
    God in whose sight all are equally precious - Palestinian, Israeli,
    Jewish, Christian and Muslim; and for whom all lives are so equally
    precious that the death of one is affront to all."

    Following the speeches, the Mayor of Bethlehem declared the delegates
    honorary citizens of Bethlehem.

    The delegates then made their way to the Basilica of the Nativity,
    where they prayed at the spot in a cave said to be where Jesus was
    born. As well as the Greek Orthodox-controlled Basilica itself, they
    visited the Catholic church alongside, from where the delegates made
    their way down to the cave where St Joseph is said to have received
    the angel,s warning to flee Bethlehem. Alongside it is another cave
    where St Jerome made the first translation of the Bible.

    The delegates return tomorrow, after a day of prayers and visits in
    the town of Christ's birth.

    FULL TEXT OF DR WILLIAMS'S SPEECH:

    Your Beatitudes, Your Eminences, Your Graces

    We are overwhelmed by the welcome we have received and although we
    are used - we who have been visitors before - to being welcomed with
    generosity, today has been exceptional.

    We are indeed here to say to the people of Bethlehem that they are
    not forgotten.

    We are here to say: what affects you affects us. We are here to say,
    your suffering is our suffering too, in prayers and in thought and in
    hope.

    We are here to say, in this so troubled and complex land, that
    justice and security are never something which one person claims and
    the expense of another, or which one community claims at the expense
    of another. We are here to say that security for one is security for
    all. And for one to live under the threat of occupation or of terror
    is a problem for all.

    The wall, which we walked through a little while ago, is a sign not
    simply of the passing problem in the politics of one region; it is a
    sign of the things which are deeply wrong in the human heart itself.
    That terrible fear of the other, of the stranger, which keeps us all
    in one kind or another of prison. In one of the hymns we sing in
    English during the Advent season, we sing about Jesus Christ, the one
    who comes the prison bars to break. And it's our prayer and our hope
    for all of you that the prison of poverty and disadvantage, the
    prison of fear and anxiety, will alike be broken.

    We are here on pilgrimage because we trust that 2,000 years ago an
    event took place here which assures us that these prisons could be
    broken, broken by the act of God in whose sight all are equally
    precious; Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. And for
    whom all lives are so equally precious that the death of one is
    affront to all. That is why we are here. We are here not to visit an
    ancient and interesting site; we are not here to visit a theme park.
    We are here to visit a place and a people which speak of the freedom
    of God to set human beings free. That is the truth which remains the
    same day after day, year after day, and millennium after millennium.
    It is that Good News which has driven us here. It is that Good News
    which teaches us the response to despair, and the response to the
    terrible conditions in which so many of you now live. Thank you, once
    again, for what you have done to make us feel at home here, we who
    are now fellow citizens with you here in this place.

    Pray for us in the western world, for us in England, that our faith
    may be strengthened by yours. Because you are a gift for us. Unlike
    the wise men who came from the east 2,000 years ago, we, the not very
    wise men from the west, have not come to pour out our gifts; we have
    come to receive the witness of your faith, your endurance and your
    hope; to receive the gifts of God. So pray for us, pray that we may
    be strong, and loyal friends to you, and to all the peoples of this
    land. And we shall pray for you also.

    Source: Open Bethlehem
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