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.
Yes, you're right of course.
Arafat is a peacemaker, the Jews have no right to live in Israel, and Palestinean "security forces" should indeed be "taking refuge" in the Church Of The Nativity.
"Dumb and dumber" is the indiscriminate belief in leftie propaganda.
Yes, you're right of course.
Arafat is a peacemaker, the Jews have no right to live in Israel, and Palestinean "security forces" should indeed be "taking refuge" in the Church Of The Nativity.
"Dumb and dumber" is the indiscriminate belief in leftie propaganda.
We talkin United State or Egypt?
Acccording to a recent cable news special (MSNBC ???) a couple of days ago about the Egyptian press, their editors have a pretty free hand, except that can't personally demean President Mubarak. Al Jezera TV does a credible job as an indepedent news source, until our free press security matron, Condie Rice, made CNN abandon the Osama bin Laden tape broadcasts.
The Church is "outraged" over this attack on a building. I wish it would issue a similar statement expressing "outrage" over the molestation of the church...the children....because the people (to include their children) constitute the church, not the buildings. In fact, "ecclesia", the Greek word for 'church' MEANS "the called out people."
It does not mean 'building.'
I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth, shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.
I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with "If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you", and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obesience.
I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea .. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.
I also deplore the loss of life, whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, regardless of nationality. I also deplore the loss of respect for the rights of others. I pray that the IDF forces are not as hateful as their supporters here on Free Republic.
I've read posters who claim to be Christians advocating razing the Church of the Nativity with the people inside just to prove a point to the Palestinians.
I am not a very good Catholic, so my own visceral response to the IDF attack on the church and the rest of Bethlehem surprises me. I was in favor of the Israelis but now that I see what they are doing I am losing my sympathy and starting to feel sympathy for the other side. Funny how one's opinions change when your own interests are being attacked.
Naturally, I condemn the Palestinians for taking refuge in the church. But this is not the way to handle the situation. Are there no cooler heads left anywhere in Israel?
WELL SAID!!
It's time these people learned their god is a fake before they sacrifice any more lives to him. They are not going to learn that until they see they see he is powerless. Elijah wasn't afraid to challenge him. We shouldn't be either.
The Catholic Church has a long history of hostility toward the Jews and justifies that hostility by branding them as Christ killers (it is all of humanity that are Christ killers, for Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and it was pre ordained by God). So, to hear that the Vatican condemns Israel for going after murderers is not jolting news.
Dream of the Capturing of Many Women - 1997
Get Ready for Twenty World Trade Center Bombings (A MUST READ interview from 1997)
That exactly the rub. These TPD's are sustained by the West and are to a greater or lesser exstent our allies or subject to our control. But their people often hate and despise these rulers. As the man in the street becomes more and more upset about the Palestinians, he becomes more radical and likely to join a Muslim Fundamentalist movement. These guys have been trying for decades to overthrow the kings or other TPD's.
So what happens when Saudi Arabia or an Egypt or Jordan falls into the hands of the Osama bin Laden's of the Muslim World. You think the World is screwed up now. Wait until it is stirred and shaken by that nightmare. That's why the US must reign in Sharon at any cost, or the whole damm Muslim world will collapse into a fervant Fundamentalist hell with America and Isael as their target. No oil or gas from the Middle East, better get in shape to ride your bicycle!
See Isaiah 21 (Babylon is Fallen etc.) where in vs 13-16 suggests the fall of Arabia (Dedan and Kedar) within a year of the fallen Babylon. The next chapter of Isaiah, 22, is an oracle about Jerusalem that has an Armeggedon feel to it. Isa 21:3 has the "travail of a women" theme which is a time marker through out the New and Old Testimates for "the birth pangs of the Messiah" prophecies.
Things could get really scary in moment.
I'm having the same response. I have a Catholic College education but don't go to church. But, when some posters started so violently expressing their hatred of the Palis, I found myself writing "I'm a Christian". Maybe the connection is the teachings of the church are valid and the symbols from the past, such as this church, remind us all that Christianity is not the psycho "priests" and their enablers...it's what we learned about respect for life.
Before this incursion started, that church was in very good shape. Bethlehem attracted tourists because of its preserved historical artifacts. The Palis did ok as protectors of this heritage. God, can't this carnage STOP?
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