Jerusalem's Christians want to have one voice, refuse to be split
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/21/2000

Jerusalem's patriarchs for the Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian churches on Wednesday asked for international guarantees to the holy sites in the city, stressing thereby the traditional stand of the Christian churches over these sites.

The request made by the three patriarchs came in reply to information issued by the Israeli papers on Wednesday saying that the Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak is ready to transfer control on the Christian and Muslim quarters from old Jerusalem to the future Palestinian entity, while the Armenian and Jewish quarters remain under the Israeli control.

In a message addressed to the US President Bill Clinton, the Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and to the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, the three patriarchs said that one of the possible means to achieve peaceful unity and solidarity for the Christian presence in the city of occupied Jerusalem stated to lay the system of international guarantees which ensures the three religious sects the right to have access to their holy shrines.

They also called for avoiding any agreement about the holy city that obstructs the basic freedom to worship and the arrival of Christians to the holy sites in the old city.

The same as the whole international community, the Vatican has never admitted Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem or even West Jerusalem as a capital for it, and that the Pope never signed any agreement with Israeli over the holy city.

Worthy mentioning, in a document signed with the PLO on February 15, the Vatican said that any unilateral decisions or steps that will change the special trait of the situation of Jerusalem is a matter which is not accepted morally and legally, in remarks to the Israeli settlement in the Arab East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel and annexed by it in 1967.

Previous Stories:
  Ashrawi warns of partial agreements   (7/20/2000)
  PLO official: Barak blew Camp David summit   (7/20/2000)
  Jerusalem committee refuses continuation of the holy city as Israel's capital   (7/20/2000)

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