Israeli security wall causing problems for Bethlehem's Catholic university
January 25, 2012
Bethlehem University, the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, is losing both students and faculty members because of the Israeli “security wall” that divides the West Bank from Israeli territory.
Brother Jack Curran, a vice-president of Bethlehem University, said that up to 20% of the school’s students must cross through Israeli security checkpoints every day—sometimes two or more times each day--in order to attend classes. The process is tense and sometimes degrading, he reported. “We lose students but we also lose faculty who have been teaching at the University and who come from Jerusalem but don´t want to go through that humiliation every day.”
Officials of Bethlehem University are hoping that Vatican diplomatic influence might ease the problem for their students.
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Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Jan. 26, 2012 3:06 AM ET USA
The solution is simple: give all of Bethlehem back to Israel. Not only will the wall disappear, but it would immediately become safe for Christians to live there again. The sooner that some in the Church lose their mushy-minded attachment to the execrable Palestinian Authority, the better.
