Church official in Israel welcomes court decision condemning wall

Published: 2004-07-12

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- A Latin Patriarchate official in Jerusalem said he welcomed the International Court of Justice decision condemning the Israeli security barrier. "I hope this decision will be implemented on the ground and can be put into practice," said Father Shawki Baterian, patriarchate chancellor. "I hope Israel finds other ways to defend herself and to keep her security. (We believe) the only way for this is to go back to negotiations and the peace process," he said. Father Baterian said the construction of sections of the barrier along the Jerusalem-West Bank border intruded on some church property in violation of the Vatican-Israeli treaty. But the "main problem of the wall" is in the northern areas of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nablus, where "people are really isolated, always suffering," he said. "The wall is increasing hatred between Israelis and Palestinians. It is really humiliating people," Father Baterian said. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, vacationing with Pope John Paul II in the northern Italian Alps, told Italian television July 11 that the world court's opinion coincided "with what has been the position of the Holy See and, more precisely, with what the pope said some time ago: what that land needs is not a wall, but bridges."

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