“The situation itself is quite, in many ways, depressing, and seems unsolvable,” said Archbishop Paul-André Durocher. “In spite of that men and women, Christians, Catholics, continue to be involved, gather, celebrate and do good to the people around them.
“I was particularly impressed by the openness of relationships with Muslims they share living conditions with, and the great respect many Muslims have for the Christians who are a tiny minority but do incredible good there... Continually the refrain was, do not forget us and pray for us.”
The archbishop was among a delegation of bishops from Europe, South Africa and North America who participated in the annual Holy Land Co-ordination meeting mandated by the Holy See Jan. 11-16. This was the 14th such co-ordination trip, but Durocher’s first.
This trip was “one of growing awareness and first-hand involvement with Christians," so the bishops would then be able to “support them from a distance either through our own aid agencies or advocacy work,” he said.
Durocher’s last visit to the Holy Land had been 25 years ago, when there was no security wall under construction dividing Israel from parts of the West Bank and Gaza.
“One of the bishops put it well: the security wall is the outward manifestation of walls set up within the human heart,” said Durocher. “These walls are being solidified in the hearts of all the people who live there.
“We are going to have to work at bringing those walls in our hearts down before we can work to bring down the security wall, which is an embodiment of the alienations between two peoples. It’s very painful.”
The 13 bishops visited Gaza, which their communique called “a man-made disaster, a shocking scandal, an injustice that cries out to the human community for a resolution.”
“We’re not blaming any one party,” Durocher said, noting the position of Hamas, which governs Gaza, is “deplorable” and “ruins any chance for peace” because it refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and “Israel reacts from a total sense of fear.”
Egypt is “reacting from an ideological perspective” because of Hamas’ ties to the recently deposed Muslim Brotherhood, he said. That leaves 1.8 million people “caught in a situation of poverty and injustice that is just heart-wrenching.”
It was not so much what they saw but the stories they heard, he said. People are hardly allowed to move in or out. A Christian hospital director told them about patients diagnosed with cancer who must travel to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem to receive treatment. She said they usually die before they get their permits. No commerce is possible, he said. People who live off the sea cannot go any further than three kilometres offshore without getting stopped by the Israeli blockade.
Goods used to come in through tunnels from Egypt, including gasoline for cars, but the present Egyptian government has stopped this, he said. This leads to long lines of cars trying to fill up at gas stations.
In the West Bank, under a Fatah government, there is “a world of difference,” he said. Though there are “many frustrations,” there’s the possibility of movement and development that is impossible in Gaza.
“There is a government that is functioning, more open,” and there is more contact with the outside world.
The bishops viewed a number of projects run by Christians that are open to people of all nationalities, he said. Bethlehem University is one example as a Catholic university where 85 per cent of the students are Muslim.
“It is beautiful to see Muslims and Christians learning together and getting to know each other,” he said. “In a world marked by antagonism between Muslims and Christians, what I saw in Palestine was very hopeful and can be presented as a model for Muslim Christian dialogue.”
What’s unfortunate is there is “hardly any possibility for Muslim and Jewish dialogue” because Jews are not allowed to live in or even go into the West Bank, leaving little opportunity for contact.