Papal nuncio tells Israeli villagers Vatican watching their situation

Published: 2005-02-21

MAGHAR, Israel (CNS) -- The papal nuncio to Israel assured Christian residents of this Galilee village that the Vatican would continue to keep an eye on their situation following violent attacks against them by their Druze neighbors. "The pope as well as myself, the authorities of all the Christian churches worldwide, and all the world will fix a watchful eye on Maghar, to check that the dignity and the safety of the Christians and of the whole population in the village be respected and protected," the nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, said at a special Mass in the village's Melkite Catholic church Feb. 20. In the homily at the Mass, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem said that love, not revenge, should prevail. He called for community efforts to resume good relations among all the villagers by creating feelings of deep respect and rejecting stereotypes spread by rumors. The violence reached its peak a week earlier when thousands of Druze in Maghar -- a mixed Druze, Muslim and Christian village of some 18,000 residents -- attacked the Christian neighborhood, burning cars, homes and businesses after a rumor was spread that a Christian youth had posted a photomontage of naked Druze girls on the Internet. A police investigation later revealed that no such photographs existed and that the rumor was spread by a Druze teen. The Druze, a religious sect, broke off from Islam early in the 11th century.

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