Palestinian Politicians 'Sound Alarm' for Christians in Holy Land
Episcopal News Service. September 26, 1997 [97-1964B]
(ENI) A top-level delegation of Palestinian Christian politicians recently told journalists that the Christian community in the Holy Land could disappear in the next few years. The politicians sharply criticized the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said they wanted churches and church organizations to pressure Israel to respect the timetable for the Middle East peace process which is due to be completed before the end of the century. They also promised that Palestinians, in particular Palestinian Christians, would assume a much higher international profile in their quest for peace and for land. Afif Safieh, Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Holy See, along with Bethlehem's mayor, Hanna Nasser, and two members of the Legislative Council of the Palestinian National Authority, met leading officials of the World Council of Churches and other church organizations in Geneva to press their case. "Today you have many more Christian Palestinians in Chile than you have Christian Palestinians in Palestine," Safief told journalists at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva. "In Sydney, Australia, you have many more Christians from Jerusalem than you have Christians in Jerusalem. That is the very tragic situation of the Christian community."