Middle East - AP
Top Clergyman Calls for Mideast 'Reason'
Date: Mon, Apr 05, 2004
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land on Monday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders "to come back to reason," saying the area has plunged into bloody madness.
Despite the violence, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said in his annual Easter message that he remains hopeful about peace.
"We have to believe that peace is possible, because when we say peace is impossible, that's the death for everyone," Sabbah said.
At a news conference, Sabbah criticized Israeli and Palestinian leaders. But he reserved his harshest words for the Israelis, saying peace will come only if Israel changes its military policies.
"This is the question: whether the Israelis are ready now to stop all violence," Sabbah said. "The Palestinians are ready now to stop all violence."
Israel says Palestinian cease-fire efforts have been halfhearted and demands a full crackdown on militant groups.
Sabbah presides over about 400,000 Catholics in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and Jordan. He is also the region's first Palestinian patriarch, elected to the post in 1987. All his predecessors were Italian.
Sabbah said that in the current round of fighting, "we are abandoned to 'human madness' that sees solutions only in bloodshed and in crushing the human being."
He said leaders should remember that "all human beings are equal, whether Palestinian or Israeli."
More than 2,780 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and more than 940 on the Israeli side since September 2000.
"It is high time for the leaders to come back to reason and to reconsider what they have done in order to avoid for themselves and for their people the sin of more bloodshed, and the permanence of insecurity," he said.
He criticized the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.
Israel says the barrier is needed to protect its cities from suicide bombers. But Sabbah said the structure, which has separated Palestinians from schools, jobs and farmland, is breeding further ill will.
Palestinian good will, after an end to Israeli occupation, "will be the best wall and the best protection, which will give the best security for Israel," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) has proposed withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements to separate Israelis and Palestinians. He says the "disengagement" plan is necessary because the Palestinians are not serious about peace.
Sabbah called on Christians from around the world to come to the Holy Land, saying that the presence of pilgrims sends a peaceful message to leaders.
SOURCE
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