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