Religious scholars agree bloodshed desecrates the Holy Land

Published: 2007-12-12

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the political implications of saying the Holy Land is holy can be debated, a Catholic priest and a Jewish and a Muslim scholar agreed that the land is being desecrated by bloodshed, fighting and claims of exclusivity. The three speakers, who have worked together in Jerusalem, spoke about their religions' teachings about the land during a Dec. 11 conference sponsored by the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. Yehezkel Landau, who directs the "Building Abrahamic Partnerships" program at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said he believes "the holy land of Israel-Palestine is God's primary laboratory on earth for the practice of justice and loving kindness." Paulist Father Michael McGarry, director of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, emphasized the importance of Christians reflecting "on the place of the land of Israel and its meaning for the Jewish people." Mustafa Abu-Sway, director of the Islamic Research Center at Jerusalem's Al-Quds University, said that while most Muslims believe the Holy Land was given to them in a perpetual endowment in the seventh century, the only way he sees to resolve the competing claims over the territory is to emphasize "the primacy of human life over that of land."

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