Catholic World News News Feature

Vatican prelate condemns Israel's "security wall" November 12, 2003

A top Vatican diplomat has condemned the Israeli "security wall" that is being built through Palestinian territories.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said that the wall "inevitably creates a geography of apartheid, which provokes rather than controls violence."

The French prelate-- who has handled several delicate diplomatic assignments for the Holy See since resigning from his post as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace-- made his remarks in Jerusalem, during a short trip to the Holy Land.

Cardinal Etchegaray was the Pope's representative at the installation of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Gourion, an auxiliary bishop of the Latin-rite Patriarchate of Jerusalem, whose assignment will be to care for the pastoral needs of Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel. The cardinal said that the installation of Bishop Gourion should be recognized as "a great sign given by Pope John Paul II to encourage the two Catholic communities, Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking, to come together as tireless builders of peace between Israelis and Palestinians."

Cardinal Etchegaray remarked that each time he visits Jerusalem and sees the tragic consequences of years of violence, "the more I sense how much you need peace, how much you aspire toward peace." He gave his encouragement to all those who are "advancing down the long road toward peace with small gestures of reason and of pardon."

However, the cardinal reported that during his trip, when he made a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to pray at the Basilica of the Nativity, "I saw the Palestinian settlements where Israeli authorities are building a 'security wall.'" The wall cuts through Palestinian lands, separating neighbors and dividing communities; in some cases it cuts families from access to their own property. That project is "intolerable," he said, adding that he was joining many other religious leaders in condemning the Israeli plan.

The wall, Cardinal Etchegaray said, "lacerates the human fabric" of the community, "with grave consequences for the society, economy, education, and health." He argued that a more effective way to fight against terrorism would be to address the root cause of the conflict, and to undertake a realistic campaign to promote peaceful negotiations.