Posted on 04/10/2002 2:52:46 AM PDT by Khepry
The Vatican has issued a stern warning to Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations, following a gun battle around Bethlehem's besieged Church of the Nativity.
Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican was following events "with extreme apprehension" and trying to establish the truth about the fighting that flared early on Monday.
This is an act of indescribable barbarity, a violation of every law of humanity and civilisation
Father David Jaeger
Franciscan spokesman
Israel says its troops are under orders not to fire at holy places and blamed Palestinian militants for a fire near the church, which is revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Several hundred Palestinian gunmen and civilians fleeing Israeli tanks have been holed up in the church complex for nearly a week, along with a group of monks and nuns.
A spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land said earlier that Israeli soldiers were guilty of an "indescribable act of barbarity".
Israel had broken its international obligations and risked "long-term and incalculable" consequences, Father David Jaeger said.
Christian clerics from Jerusalem were kept by Israel from entering Bethlehem on Monday
Speaking from Rome, he said monks at the church had reported damage to "sacred spaces" and evidence that Israeli troops had entered the church.
The Pope, who has urged people to pray for peace in the Middle East, on Monday described the violence in the Holy Land as having reached "unimaginable and intolerable" levels.
Click here for a guide to the Church of the Nativity
The Israeli army says Palestinian gunmen provoked a fire which broke out near the Church of the Nativity on Monday.
Gunmen had opened fire from a belltower, wounding two Israeli border policemen in a nearby rooftop look-out, an army officer told Reuters news agency.
Palestinian civilians in Bethlehem have to contend with an Israeli curfew
He said the Israelis returned fire and a smoke grenade started the blaze in a second-floor meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity.
One Palestinian gunman was shot dead in the battle, the Israeli source said.
But a priest inside the church, Father Amjad Sabbara, told the BBC that the Palestinian killed was a police officer who had been trying to douse the flames.
He said the blaze had burned for an hour, destroying a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups.
Father Sabbara estimated that there were 240 people in the church. Some were armed, he said, but they were "not using their arms".
The Mayor of Bethlehem, Hanna Nasser, told the BBC that mosaics inside the Basilica of St Catherine had been "affected by the bullets".
Staying put
The Israeli army has been conducting a major military operation across the West Bank for over a week, in response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.
The army will remain in their place and prevent them [the militants] from evading justice
Ariel Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister
"It really involves going through the cities and refugee camps and taking out the infrastructure of the terrorists: weapons, documents, explosive material, laboratories," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dalal told the BBC.
Israeli troops have been using loudspeakers to demand the surrender of the Palestinians inside the Nativity complex.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that his soldiers would not "defile the holiness of the site as the [Palestinians] have" but added that the troops would remain in place until the gunmen inside were captured.
In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw described Israeli actions in the area as "totally unacceptable".
The Vatican is reported to be working out an agreement with the Israelis on safe passage for the Palestinians inside the church to the Gaza Strip.
Not yet but consider:
Secret tribunals, anyone?
If you are not with us - you are against us.
Propaganda departments in the DOD?
Insistence that Arab state suppress their free press?
The vast majority of Catholics and Christians live outside of the United State and the media bias and filter of the Isaeli lobby whose job is to keep Americans dumb and dumber as to the fact that Isael has hijacked American domestic and foreign policy. Look at the lap dog behavior of Powell and Bush in recent days: They bark, but their master doen't listen!
Don't worry, you are way over the edge already. Where is the outrage at 150 terrorists blowing in the church door and holding the Priests and Nuns hostage? How about the outrage of the Palestinians using the church for a bunker and firing at the IDF outside through the windows? NOT A PEEP!
But the horrible barbarous JOO's have the audacity to PARK OUTSIDE the CHURCH and demand the terrorists do the impossible, C out with your hands up, and you wont be hurt." Go join the Pope in the dunce corner, I hear he is planning the next inquisition and may need your help.
LOL.
Congressman Billybob
The Pope, who has urged people to pray for peace in the Middle East, on Monday described the violence in the Holy Land as having reached "unimaginable and intolerable" levels.
This is just so utterly pathetic!!! Where was the hysterical outrage when innocent people were getting blown to bits??? Where is the hysterical outrage when young Palestinians are talked into committing murder and suicide???
God cares about people, not some pile of dead stones. The Church has shown it cares more about its shrines and traditions rather than people. How morally bankrupt!
Are you actually fool enough to believe every IDF propaganda release without independent verification?
"Lt. Calley reported that they came under heavy enemy fire at MyLai village and that his company returned ..."
The Bible clearly indicates that God is angry with the wicked every day, that there are those who are worthy only of death, that the blood of innocents cries from the ground for justice and that God hears! Justice cannot equate the life of a murderer with that of an innocent!
>And rhetoric that denigrates all Palestinians and maligns their decency and aspirations as a national group is not helping the situation."...But here's the key point: Good can tolerate evil but evil can't tolerate good. That's why the U.S. could co-exist indefinitely with communism, but communism couldn't stand to co-exist with freedom. Since communism is based on a lie, freedom would always expose that lie for what it really is."The Jews in Israel could co-exist peacefully with the Arabs forever. But the corrupt Arab and Muslim leadership as distinct from the many decent Arabs and Muslims have regarded the very existence of Israel as a hot dagger twisting in the heart of the Arab world since it was re-established on May 14, 1948. That's why the very next day, Israel was attacked by the armies of five of her Arab neighbors in an intended war of annihilation.
"It's pretty simple, really. The persecutors feel compelled to put out the light, since the light causes them agony." Source
I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the pictures of the Palestinians murder victims last night here: We Should Not Forget -- Here is one picture of an innocent murdered family which I found particularly poignant. They are only four of 10 murdered and over 50 injured:
Then I spent some time reading this thread today: IDF soldiers killed by 10 yr. old boy10 killed and over 50 injured in a suicide bombing, Saturday night, in the Bet Israel neighborhood in Jerusalem. The bomber detonated
a powerful explosive in the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood as residents were leaving synagogues at the end of the Jewish Shabbat.
The bomber stood next to a group of mothers standing with their babies in strollers at the entrance to a guesthouse.
5 members of 1 family, from Rishon Letzion, were killed in the blast. - March 2, 2002.
DECENT people do NOT train their babies to grow up to be MURDERERS! The Palestinians are not a national group. There will be no STATE. The Bible says they will persist and then they will be STUBBLE!
Ob 1:18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.
Thats my take anyways.
Worse that pedophilia?
OK that was wrong. I'm sorry.
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