ETERNAL VIGILANCE

Israel’s ‘Wall’ Imprisons Christians

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Christians—especially Catholics—should be outraged that Israel’s wall is sealing off holy sites. The issue emerged in a March 25 letter protesting the wall to Secretary of State Colin Powell from Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill), chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Hyde also is a devout Roman Catholic and a fierce advocate of support for Israel.

Hyde asked Powell to help persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to change the wall’s planned path that would block the scriptural pathway of Jesus Christ from Christians.

“I fear that important religious sites will become museums for commercial purposes and will no longer be maintained as places of spiritual worship shared by billions across the world,” Hyde wrote. He asked Powell’s help to “ensure that the Stations of the Cross are not cut off from each other, preventing the normal celebrations of Easter and the commemoration of the last days of Christ.”

The Bush administration has leverage, approving of $10 billion in annual giveaways while imposing no effective
restraints on Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands. But does Bush have the courage?

Sharon’s government cut off negotiations about the wall with the Vatican. Catholic clergy and laity inspecting the
deplorable conditions of Christians in the Holy Land found the Israeli military and bureaucracy uncooperative, even
hostile.

Catholics first visited Hyde last year about the wall, now being built, that will seal off vast portions of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Jordan, greatly expanding Israel’s borders. The meandering wall—the portion now built and the path it is to take to completion—reaches out to grab Palestinian orchards, vineyards and water sources.

Hyde had advised Catholic leaders to obtain proof about the threat to access to holy sites. A delegation headed by the Rev. Donald Rooney of Fredericksburg, Va., and the Rev. John Podsiadlo of Baltimore did so. They returned to Hyde with photographs taken over the objections of Israeli soldiers.

“If we do not turn the tide of events,” Rooney and Podsiadlo wrote on their return, “Christian charity, sacred sites and the living Christian community in the Holy Land will be destroyed.” The wall, they said, “could forever change the Holy Land and the people who live in and visit this cherished historic land.”

In his letter, Hyde laid out the problem. A concrete wall will completely enclose the last passage from Bethany to the
Mount of Olives, restricting the Palm Sunday procession from Bethpage into Jerusalem. Access will be blocked to the
Sisters of Emmanuel Monastery north of Bethlehem. The proposed route of the wall separates the convent and school
of the Rosary Sisters.

The Vatican charges that Israel has violated a 1993 agreement between Rome and Israel guaranteeing access to West
Bank land owned by the Catholic Church. Sharon has refused to keep this promise, say Vatican officials, and abruptly ended negotiations on Aug. 28.