Palestinian Patriarch Michel Shabah on the violence in the Middle East

Dear colleagues,
among all these sad news from the Middle East perhaps you find these two
items on non-violenet Palestinian liberation theology interesting. As
always, this posting on the world systems network does not reflect in any
way official opinions of the government

Arno Tausch





15Apr2001 ISRAEL: Holy Land patriarch calls on Easter for end to arms. 
JERUSALEM, April 15 (Reuters) - The Palestinian patriarch of the Roman
Catholic Church in the Holy Land called in his Easter homily on Sunday for
religious unity in the Holy Land and an end to deadly military force.
Amid heavy Israeli security, thousands of Christians celebrated Easter in
Jerusalem, a city sacred to Christianity, Judaism and Islam, against a
backdrop of six-and-a-half months of a violent Palestinian uprising against
Israeli occupation.
"Many put the emphasis today on the right of the stronger, and on the force
which can impose itself, through sieges, bombardments or killings," Latin
Patriarch Michel Sabbah said in an apparent message to Israel.
"All these are means which can destroy houses, kill human persons, but
cannot kill the soul of a people, neither wipe off the image of God in any
person nor can it kill our hope," the Palestinian patriarch said.
The sermon was released in a statement before delivery in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified and
buried. It is in the ancient walled Old City just metres from al-Aqsa
mosque, and the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site.
"The resurrection today is an appeal to us believers, and different
religions, for more dialogue, for more respect and

mutual knowledge...so that faith may become a factor which
brings us all together nearer to justice and peace," he said.
"The resurrection is, for us...the struggle of our two
peoples in this land, a reminder of the dignity of every human
being, of the image of God in all of us, the true basis of all
rights and duties...," Sabbah said. "Military force or any other
kind of physical force will never cancel these rights, neither can it cancel
the image of God.
At least 376 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 other Israelis have been
killed in the uprising that began last September after U.S.-sponsored peace
negotiations deadlocked.
Violence has surged as Israel ended its week-long Passover holiday and
Christians celebrated Easter weekend.
Israel has imposed closures on Palestinian-ruled areas in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip for what it calls security measures. Palestinians say it is
collective punishment.
Sabbah said: "It is time for the political leaders to listen and to obey the
words of the Psalmist: 'You, earthly rulers, learn your lesson. In fear be
submissive to God...lest he be angry and your way come to nothing' (Psalms
2:10)."
(C) Reuters Limited 2001. 

01Apr2000 ISRAEL: O.C. RELIGION - A Voice Crying in Holy Land - Region's
Catholic patriarch, the first Arab in the ... 
By TRACY WILKINSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER.
O.C. RELIGION - A Voice Crying in Holy Land - Region's Catholic patriarch,
the first Arab in the post, is viewed by Israeli officials as a politicized
Palestinian nationalist. Supporters compare him to Latin America's
liberation theologians.

JERUSALEM - LEAD: Scarcely had he been consecrated as the first Arab head of
the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land when Michel Sabbah began sparring
with Israel.
The year was 1988. The Palestinian intifada, or uprising, was in full swing
and moving into the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem. Sabbah,
appointed by Pope John Paul II to the post of Latin patriarch, went on
Vatican Radio to make a very public appeal.
"I don't think the [Israeli] authorities listen to the church or ever will,"
Sabbah said. "But here I am, and I appeal to the Israeli authorities to
abandon their repressive measures.

"The violent measures taken by the Israeli authorities ... will never bring
about calm, let alone peace, because violence breeds violence and leads to
even stronger resistance."
And so Sabbah set the tone for what would be stormy relations with Israel
and sealed his position as perhaps the most controversial Christian in the
land.

The pope made his way across the Holy Land last week in an effort to promote
peace and heal the 2,000-year rift between Jews and the Catholic Church. In
Israel and the Palestinian territories, however, the historical friction
between Jews and Catholics, marked by centuries of anti-Semitism, is further
complicated because most Christians are Palestinians.
It is a tension inextricably linked to international politics and the fitful
Middle East peace process.
Sabbah has told associates that the animosity Israel displays toward him is
not because he's a Christian but because he is an Arab. True or not, he is
clearly a lightning rod for criticism and anger.
Israeli officials see Sabbah as nothing short of an ardent, politicized
Palestinian nationalist.
His supporters, by contrast, compare Sabbah to the liberation theologians of
Latin America, who speak out on behalf of an oppressed people against a
dominant ruler. He uses his pulpit and his annual Christmas and Easter
messages to denounce what he sees as discrimination and to call for an
independent Palestinian state freed of "Israeli occupation."
Born in Nazareth 67 years ago this month, Sabbah studied and worked as a
priest in Jordan, Lebanon and France in addition to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
He has a doctorate from the Sorbonne and speaks classical Arabic, as well as
English and French.
A short man with a round face and balding head, Sabbah was chosen by John
Paul to be the first Arab to preside over the Catholic Church in this
region. All patriarchs had been Italians since the Catholic Church was
restored to the Holy Land in 1847 after its post-Crusades banishment. The
pope wanted to send a message of support to indigenous Christians by
appointing one of their own to the highest-ranking local church position.
As patriarch, Sabbah is responsible for the welfare of Roman Catholics in
Israel, the Palestinian self-ruled territories, Jordan and Cyprus.
Under Sabbah's pen, the church's statements during the intifada repeatedly
challenged Israeli sovereignty and complained of abuse. Until those intifada
years, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Christian communities had
been able to straddle the fence in their dealings with Israeli authority.
But the intifada forced them to take a stand, and invariably they came down
on the Palestinian side.
During the uprising, which eventually became a catalyst for breakthrough
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Sabbah ran an underground
educational system for Palestinians that taught catechism and other subjects
in people's homes when military closures prevented free movement.
In his first Christmas homily as patriarch, Sabbah entered a tense, bleak
Bethlehem. He canceled the traditional religious procession in the face of
demonstrations and rioting that had claimed many Arab and Israeli lives that
year.

"The people, the Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem and the Holy Land, do
not have the joy of Christmas in their hearts," he intoned in the ancient
Church of the Nativity during a Christmas Eve Mass that is broadcast the
world over. "Some had a son or a father killed, others are still in prisons,
and all face heavy military repression."
Eleven years later, in last December's Bethlehem Christmas message, Sabbah
again touched on the most sensitive points dividing Israelis and
Palestinians. He demanded "dignity and rights" for Palestinian refugees and
freedom for Palestinian "political prisoners." He said any solution for
Jerusalem, a sacred city claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians, had to
be based on "sharing and equality in sovereignty."
The clearly political message rankled Israeli officials once again. Uri Mor,
head of the Christian department in the Israeli Ministry of Religious
Affairs, said at the time that Sabbah teetered on incitement of a "religious
war."
In a recent interview, Mor said that on a personal level he and Sabbah are
friendly and often chat amiably in Arabic. But the formal and official
relationship is a different matter.
"He sometimes forgets he is a religious leader," Mor said. "He becomes very
political. He makes statements that we don't expect from a religious
leader."
But Mor said he is resigned to putting up with Sabbah's irritating
pronouncements.
"We cannot do anything about it," Mor said. "He was nominated by the
Vatican. What can we do?"
Sabbah declined requests for an interview for this story, citing his busy
schedule of events associated with the pope's visit. But his defenders say
Sabbah is fulfilling the duty of a cleric who has seized the strain of
Catholicism in which the fight for social justice is paramount.
He routinely denounces Israeli authorities for confiscating identity cards
from Palestinians, for closures that restrict Palestinian movement into
Israel, for what he calls the Israeli "siege" that is choking Palestinian
life. Only rarely, however, has he criticized Arafat's Palestinian
Authority.
"He is standing up for the basic human rights of his people, people who
cannot go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem freely, people who can't get
passports," said Father Robert Fortin, who has lived and worked in this
region for more than a decade. "Because the patriarch does not depend on the
government, he can speak up where others cannot."
Israeli officials blame Sabbah for fanning the flames of a dispute involving
the Arab-Israeli city of Nazareth, Jesus' boyhood home. The Israeli
government gave permission to Muslims in the city to build a mosque near the
Basilica of the Annunciation, the site where the angel Gabriel is said to
have informed Mary that she would give birth to God's son.
Nazareth Christians were furious, and Sabbah led the charge. Apparently at
his urging, both the Vatican and American Christian groups issued scathing
condemnations of the decision, putting the blame squarely on Israel. Israeli
officials maintained that they were merely trying to reach a compromise.
In a letter drafted by Sabbah and sent to Israel's president and prime
minister, Christian leaders in Israel blasted Israel's action as a "grave
historical mistake."
Sabbah has met, only twice and not until 1998, with Israel's two chief
rabbis, Eliahu Bakshi Doron and Meir Yisrael Lau, reportedly at the
patriarch's initiative. But there is no ongoing dialogue.
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