You talking to the general Arafat!!! Israel must leave the Church of Nativity the Christians and Muslims holy site.
Posted on 05/05/2002 8:45:30 AM PDT by Cachelot
Church officials allege Bethlehem cover-up
Lauren Gelfond
High-level Christian clerics covered up the real goings-on in the Church of the Nativity standoff, a church official involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations said Friday.
“It is not true that all the clergymen are staying in the church of their own free will and that everyone inside is getting along,” a Jerusalem-based cleric told The Jerusalem Post.
“But propaganda is all that is heard, in part because of many cover-ups by the Christians who don’t dare to speak up. They are cowards.” Fear of Muslim militants silences those in the church and their communities, he said.
“They are afraid and prepare for good relations after the siege instead of shouting at the gunmen to stop violating our holy site.” He also charged that clerics have been slipping in and out of the church to participate covertly in negotiations, under cover of IDF smoke grenades, an allegation the IDF denies.
There have been conflicting accounts from those who fled the church and from church officials since Hamas, Fatah Tanzim, and Islamic Jihad militiamen holed themselves up with civilians and clergy members on April 2, evading capture during the IDF siege.
Though some who have escaped the church compound have described a takeover, confinement at gunpoint, threats, violence, vandalism, and theft by Palestinian gunmen inside, Christian spokesmen continue to deny strongly any hostage situation or lack of cooperation between gunmen and civilians.
“The Palestinian gunmen are treating our priests with respect,” said Bishop Aris Shirvanian, spokesperson for the Armenian Patriarch on Friday. “But we want this situation to come to a peaceful end.”
Clerics inside and Canon Andrew White, acting spokesperson for the Christian negotiators and Anglican Church envoy to the Middle East, have also said that clergy members remain inside voluntarily and are treated well.
Catholic leaders of the Latin Patriarch and the Franciscan order have been the strongest in their defense of the gunmen seeking refuge, charging Israel with violating the holy site.
But a Bethlehem priest corroborated allegations of a cover-up.
“We [Christians] are a small minority with little rights left, so it’s obvious you have to be cautious with what you say. But I would have preferred silence rather than saying that everything is okay. We are worse than cowards, we are lying.”
Though he spoke of “horrible” conditions and “unpleasant incidents,” he said that some Franciscan clergy and seminarians are there by choice. Among them are two friars, who are Christian Arabs.
The Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics remained in their separate convents in the compound after the gunmen broke in to the Franciscan section, church officials said.
The three orders share control of the church and live under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, since Bethlehem was ceded to it in 1995 under the Oslo accords.
“I am angry with Palestinians for exploiting and profaning holy places and I am angry at Israelis for their military absolutism,” said the Bethlehem priest, with a caveat that the Christians will ultimately benefit from the standoff.
“Our situation is paradoxically a good one and we gladly assume the hardships. In the second intifada the Islamic street accused Christians of indifference or cynicism. We have now proven we are real Palestinians, not foreigners; that the church more than any other place helps people without discrimination.”
Christian-Muslim relations faced a new chapter in the Bethlehem area in late 2000 when Palestinian Muslim militants began firing at the nearby Gilo neighborhood under the cover of neighboring Christian Beit Jala, against their wishes.
The Abayat Clan, accused of masterminding the Gilo shootings and other terrorist operations, has three members inside the church who are on Israel’s most wanted list.
“We are working on keeping what little rights we have left, under Arab Islamic or Israeli regime,” the priest said. “The Christians have not been free in the Middle East or the Holy Land for at least sixteen centuries. We have to be careful, but that doesn’t justify being cowards or liars.”
Arafat has claimed the church as a muslim holy site. Talk about writing new chapters. With no Christianity in them.
You talking to the general Arafat!!! Israel must leave the Church of Nativity the Christians and Muslims holy site.
Balderdash. At best, you postpone the inevitable. Typical Chamberlain-at-Munich mentality. It takes the Fools of the Century to try to appease the "Islamic street."
If you want on or off me Israel/MidEast/Islamic Jihad ping list please let me know. Via Freepmail is best way.............
"Holy sacred place for the Muslims include the Nativity church and the Wailing Wall,
and Washington, DC, Paris, and London, the Pentagon, and ..."
You would think sentient people could see through this most obvious of tactics: INSTEAD OF DEBATING YOUR POINT OR PROVING IT'S VALUE, SIMPLY PROCLAIM IT AS THE UTTER TRUTH...LOUDLY AND OFTEN.
For example: HILLARY WILL RUN IN 2004 or 2008 AND SHE WILL BE ELECTED. No objective truth in it, just a statement as if fact.
So the opinion of the "Arab street" essentially means nothing, as our military has proven time and again. Once faced with action their lies, threats, and hot air evaporate.
He's ugly and his Momma dresses him funny.
The reason (cited by the whack jobs) for the current 18 months of nonstop violence has been the Temple visit by Sharon. Which was known in advance and authorized by Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security service. Rajoub even stated there would be no reaction.
Does the seizing of the Church of Nativity by the PLO justify a bloody campaign of nonstop terror against the Arabs that want to create a Palestinian nation? Or Muslims?
I believe it does not.
This is the deference.
That you'd see this kind of paralysis in the face of naked fear is not too surprising: Look at how afraid we in this society are about being labled a bigot. We will do many things, including telling untruths, finding "alternate" explanations for events, and displaying cowardice in order to not be labled. Bold and dramatic action is only allowed if the individuals taking that action are free, by circumstance, from the stigma of bigotry. Christians are not free from that. And so they take the course of least resistance, publicly proclaiming their captors to be something they are not (civilized).
Yes, it is cowardice. But cowardice and it's stepchild, guilt, has been drilled into the heads of those hailing from Western Civilizations for a couple of generations now. Hard to expect anything different.
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