COVER
IN THE TRACKS OF CHRIST


Truth That Can Be Touched

The Holy Land on the eve of John Paul II's historic visit. The places and the stones that witnessed the birth of a child of the great Presence that marked the beginning of time. A small flock, memory, and fidelity

EDITED BY PAOLA RONCONI

In the end, they are only stones. In Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem there are so many of them. Most are protected by layers of civilization: Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, the Crusades. And again, Orthodox Christians, Franciscans. The centuries have witnessed a constant alternation between those who tried to protect them and those who attempted in vain to destroy even the memory of them. Just these stones cause us to marvel, as we come to the Holy Places on pilgrimage.
In order to pray on these stones, the Pope will come to this land in March, two thousand years after the birth of Christ. This is a land that is as venerated by the majority of world believers (whether Christians, Muslims, or Jews) as it is divided and tormented by problems that are tangled up in a seemingly irresolvable manner.
In his bull proclaiming this Jubilee Year, Incarnationis mysterium, John Paul II wrote, "The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is not an event which can be consigned to the past. The whole of human history in fact stands in reference to Him: our own time and the future of the world are illumined by His presence. He is 'the Living One' (Rev 1:18), 'who is, who was and who is to come' (Rev 1:4). Before Him every knee must bend, in the heavens, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim that He is Lord (cf. Phil 2:10-11). The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 is an event that will be celebrated simultaneously in Rome and in all the particular Churches around the world, and it will have, as it were, two centers: on the one hand, the City where Providence chose to place the See of the Successor of Peter, and on the other hand, the Holy Land, where the Son of God was born as Man, taking our flesh from a Virgin whose name was Mary (cf. Lk 1:27). With equal dignity and significance, therefore, the Jubilee will be celebrated not only in Rome but also in the Land which is rightly called 'Holy' because it was there that Jesus was born and died. That Land, in which the first Christian community appeared, is the place where God revealed Himself to humanity. It is the Promised Land that has so marked the history of the Jewish People, and is revered by the followers of Islam as well. May the Jubilee serve to advance mutual dialogue until the day when all of us together-Jews, Christians and Moslems-will exchange the greeting of peace in Jerusalem."
The Pope will start out from Mount Nebo (also called Pisgah) in Jordan-from which Moses saw the Promised Land-and will stop in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Galilee.

Bethlehem
We who had left Italy for the Holy Land with a suitcase full of things to ask, a little bit of curiosity, and fairly light clothes, started our pilgrimage in Bethlehem, in the freezing cold (and under an unexpected sleet, which justifies the snow we sprinkle on the Nativity scene at home!).
We owe it to St. Helen that we can venerate the site of the manger, at the Church of the Nativity. The mother of the Emperor Constantine had a basilica built (in 323) above what by tradition was venerated as the grotto where Jesus was born. Emperor Hadrian had attempted two centuries earlier to erase the memory of every Christian site, building pagan temples on top of them, but by doing this he made it easier to identify the actual spots later on.
Like other holy places, for centuries it was the object of barter between the Turkish government and the various Christian communities. This went on until 1852, the year in which it was established that the statu quo would be maintained according to the situation of the various Christian communities on the date of the decree. Today the basilica belongs to the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians; the Franciscans (who are custodians in the name of the Holy See of the places under Catholic jurisdiction) can walk through and celebrate in the Grotto of the Nativity according to very strict schedules. You expect to find a rough cave, but beneath the choir of the church, a silver star on a marble slab bears the words, "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est"-here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Here and nowhere else. And certainly our reason has a hard time understanding that the omnipresence of God came through here, through a manger. "The Lord entered the world like a seed in the ground," wrote Father Giussani in 1986, visiting this place. "Everything happened without human excitement. The entire Jewish people and the great John the Baptist were waiting for the Messiah as something sensational. Something exceptional that would bring justice to the world…. What happened was something irresistible: a living seed that burst through the earth despite all the changing seasons."
While we waited to go down into the grot-to-which was occupied by the Orthodox Patriarch (it was the first week of January, when the Orthodox celebrate Christmas)-a Coptic priest grabbed a broom and started sweeping the rug that marks off "his territory." Seeing him, the Orthodox priest (who reminded us a lot of that poor character in the film Il compagno don Camillo, met in a deconsecrated church in Communist Russia) ran to do the same on the steps leading up to the raised altar of the basilica. And of course a third then started: a Franciscan who "took care" of "his" strip of territory. Straniti asked the guide for an explanation. His reply was simple, "Whoever cleans has right to the area." Aside from its folkloristic aspects, this surreal episode is only an example of the situation being lived in the Holy Land. Coexistence between the various Christian communities is not easy.
Something, however, is moving: last December 4th, the patriarchs and heads of the Christian communities in the Holy Land signed a joint statement for the Jubilee of 2000: "May our Christian presence be a faithful witness to the message we bear," in that "our calling is to be Christians here and not in some other place in the world." Michel Sabbah, Latin patriarch, greeted our group of pilgrims and blessed us. He said, "There are not many Christians here. But there were not many with Jesus, either: a small group, a sign of contradiction." When we asked him what the Pope's coming visit meant for Christians in the Holy Land, he grew excited, saying, "The Pope's visit means so much. First of all, an encouragement in the Christian faith; the Pope… yes, he is the head of the Church, the head of the body of Christ of which we are a part. His person is the bearer of the Spirit which becomes transparent through him. Thus his message will be the message of the Spirit of God in our land for our Christian faith, but also for the entire human situation of conflict and interreligious dialogue. We expect this to be a message to all of us who inhabit this land: Muslims, Jews, Christians."

Jerusalem
Our hotel sits on top of the Mount of Olives and from it you have a spectacular view of Jerusalem and its walls. Our thoughts go to Jesus, when he wept at the sight of the city: "If you too had only recognized on this day the way to peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes! Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing in its place, because you did not recognize the moment of your visitation." (Lk 19:42-44) The chaos in the streets of this city, the variety of its people, the buildings, the sentinels standing guard over the holy places of "half the world," the spicy smells and the roadblocks. All this mixes together and creates a fascination that is unique. But it also leaves behind it an immense sadness for those stones, pieces of Christ's presence, and for man's inability to live together.
These contradictions explode at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built atop Christ's tomb). Thus Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, said here, "A sense of wonder and pain is felt by Christians coming here from far away as they see the disorder, the confusion of people and things, of languages, rites, and faith that surrounds the Holy Sepulchre." (Amicone, Sulle tracce di Cristo, p. 150)
In the basilica, just by taking a few steps, you retrace the events of the days of Christ's Passion: to pray on the stone of the Sepulchre you have to go into the aedicule inside the church. Then, climbing some steep stairs, you come out on Calvary, right by the rock into which the cross was stuck. And among all the heavy decorations, we faithful can do nothing but pray and run our hands over the stones.
Father Giussani, in a letter to the Fraternity written a few years ago, said, "'What our eyes have seen, what our hands have touched, what our ears have heard of the Word of life,' wrote St. John to the early Christians. The truth touched with their hands. This is the response to the thirst the Lord created in man. Man is made up of the thirst to touch, see, hear the Word of Life. The Nobel Prize-winner Milosz said this in one of his poems: 'I am only a man. So I need perceivable signs. Building scales of abstractions soon tires me.'"
Walking through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, slick with rain and the grease from the stands selling sweets that can't be trusted, we wondered if the Pope will be able to move about in these places, which are not easy for walking. More than one person expressed perplexity about the practical difficulties of this trip and the political consequences that could arise, but listening to them talk our minds go back to John Paul II as he opened the Holy Door: What can be more certain than that glance?

Galilee
We leave Jerusalem and cross the desert of Judah, from south to north. This was the caravan route across Palestine, 150 km that Mary traveled to visit Elizabeth, and that she traveled again to enroll in the census. The same 150 km that Jesus traveled when he went to Jerusalem.We left behind us the arid, rocky area of Judea to arrive in the fertile land of Galilee.
For almost 100 km we traveled along the line of demarcation between Israel and the occupied territories. In the midst of the reddish earth, the brush, and the barbed wire every so often a military jeep with UN forces controlling the area emerges. Before we had left, a friend told me, "It is useless to go to the Holy Land wanting to judge and find out who, among the contenders, is right; everyone who lives there has very valid reasons. You come home more confused than before. The only thing to do is to try to understand, to talk with the people." And to love this land.
Nazareth will welcome John Paul II on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation. It all started here. "Hic," as in Bethlehem, "Verbum caro factum est." The Word was made Flesh in the discreet area of a town that was not very important at the time, until the moment when "the Angel Gabriel was sent by God." The Basilica of the Annunciation, in the shape of an upside down lily, shelters in its foundation the place where Joachim and Anne lived with their daughter Mary. It is a humble house, nothing more. You wonder what that angel was like, what Mary felt. Maybe she sat down, still shocked, on that outcropping of rock inside the house, on the right.
Even though it is not a nice day, Lake Tiberias welcomes us with a gentle landscape. From the Mount of the Beatitudes we look at the outline of the surrounding mountains. In two thousand years the landscape must have changed, but those hills are still the same. In this land, it is easy to imagine Jesus' life with his friends. The remains of Peter's house in Capernaum, where he lived with his wife, mother-in-law, brother, and Jesus, can be visited today. It is a simple house, a fisherman's home.
At Tabgha, 3 km from Capernaum, a rocky beach awaited the disciples landing with their nets full of fish. We enter the church containing the rock of the "Mensa Christi," where Jesus prepared fish for the disciples. Here Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him and conferred on him the Primacy. Of all the places we have seen in a week of pilgrimage, few are as moving. Here it is easy to immerse oneself, see Peter answering Jesus, and want to be loved like that.
Here, Pope Paul VI prostrated himself in prayer during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964, and wept.
It is true, they are only rocks, but it is because right there something happened that we feel a thrill, just as when, during Mass, the priest recites, "This is our faith, this is the faith of the Church, and we glory in professing it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."
When the wheels of the airplane lift off the runway of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, I feel a strong sense of nostalgia. A little like when you leave home.

The Point of the Matter
David Jaeger is a member of the Israel-Vatican Permanent Bilateral Working Commission and teacher of Canon Law at the Pontificio Ateneo Antonianum in Rome. Of Jewish origin, he converted to Catholicism at the age of 17, and later was ordained priest. In 1993 he was one of the protagonists of the agreement between Israel and the Vatican

After the December 1993 and November 1997 agreements, how have relationships between Israel and the Vatican evolved? What is the current situation and what are the most serious problems still unresolved?
The basic agreement signed on December 30, 1993, provided, first of all, for two complementary agreements, and then a series of further agreements. The first complementary agreement is the civil recognition of ecclesiastical entities, signed November 10, 1997, but ratified only on February 3, 1999.
The second complementary agreement, the one concerning economic questions, especially the fiscal position of the Church, was to have been reached, according to the basic agreement, in 1996. Instead, discussions are still going on and no date can been foreseen for their conclusion. The negotiations take place in an atmosphere of great cordiality, and it is evident that the Israeli officials involved are highly competent and full of good will, but the rhythm is still very slow. We would hope that the rhythm could be picked up significantly, because in the meantime the concrete problems that could arise in this area are not minor. Then, later, other agreements provided for in the basic agreement will require attention, on many different questions, such as pastoral care for the people in exile, in prison or hospitals, soldiers, etc. There are also the agreements to eliminate prejudice and to promote a positive, balanced presentation of the Church and of Christianity in Israel, especially in the school system, etc.
Then there is a full agenda for the bilateral commission. Even if the rhythm has been very slow until now, we can hope for a more vigorous one from now on. Recently, however, an unforeseen problem has arisen, and that is the decision of the Israeli government, despite the many public and private interventions of ecclesiastical authorities at every level, to build a mosque right by the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is the sanctuary of the Incarnation of the Divine Word in Nazareth. The mosque is the first step of a broader program on the part of a group of Islamic extremists.
The government has adopted this ambition. It seems that the decision was made by a minister who is fairly marginal within the government coalition and is also completely inexperienced in matters of government. It appears also that the council of ministers has not yet found the courage to reverse this decision. And yet it must be reversed, because it is inconceivable that a project of this sort can go forward. It is opposed by every Israeli official with whom I have talked personally. Some of them told me recently that the protests from the Christian world have made an impression and that if the protests continue there could be good hopes for success. If the mosque were ever built, the consequences… it's better not even to think about it.

From a diplomatic viewpoint, what does the Pope's visit to the Holy Land mean?
Above all, as has been reiterated numerous times by the Holy See and as we all know, this is a pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Redemption for the Jubilee of 2000. However, the contingent situation gives the Pope the chance also to meet the highest authorities of the two nations who live in this territory, the Palestinians and the Israelis. The hope is that, on one hand, this will promote understanding and good will on the part of their respective countrymen toward the Christians living in their midst, and that, on the other, it will serve to encourage these Christians who find themselves in a minority position within two societies whose process of formation is not yet complete. That is, in both societies, the Palestinian and the Israeli, we are hoping for an evolution toward stable democratic values in all fields, including freedom of religion and of conscience, which is a more deeply felt need than anything else. Thus we hope that the witness of the successor to Peter will help to promote these goals as well.

At what point is the question about Jerusalem itself?
Israel and Palestine have committed themselves bilaterally to solving the political and territorial question of Jerusalem within the framework of a definitive peace agreement between them. However, by themselves they are not competent to give a juridical definition to Jerusalem, given that the final decision must be made by the international community as established by the UN resolutions. The Holy See calls for a special, internationally agreed statute for Jerusalem, that will guarantee at the level of international law the safekeeping of the cultural and religious patrimony of Jerusalem, which is of interest to all mankind, including the guarantee of freedom and equality for all citizens of Jerusalem, of whatever religion or creed. Thus the hope is that Palestine and Israel will accept that a definitive resolution on the question of Jerusalem will go beyond their own unilateral or bilateral jurisdictions and that they can be a part of the search for the international juridical instrument that is desired for Jerusalem.

The Israeli State
1897: Congress of Basel: The Zionist Movement, presided over by Theodor Herzl, lays the foundation for the constitution of a Jewish State.
1922: Palestine is placed under the protection of Great Britain.
1947, November: The UN divides Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab State, but the latter never takes form.
1948, May 14: The British mandate expires and the State of Israel is born. Jerusalem is divided: the new part is Israeli, the old city Arab.
1967: The Six Days War. Israel defeats Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, conquering the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and the Arab part of Jerusalem (from this date called the occupied territories). The UN approves Resolution 242, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and Palestinian self-determination.
1973: Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria attack Israel. The Israelis win again, and an agreement is reached with Egyptian President Sadat.
1978-79: At Camp David and later in Washington, Egyptian President Sadat and Israeli President Begin sign a peace treaty. Israel returns Sinai.
1981: Sadat is assassinated by Islamic extremists.
1987: Beginning of the Intifadah (war of rocks): In the occupied territories, the Arabs rise up against the Israelis.
1989: With the fall of the Berlin Wall, thousands of Russian Jews emigrate to Palestine (now numbering more than 600,000).
1991: Gulf War and interruption of all negotiations.
1993: In Washington the Palestinian leader Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin sign a peace agreement concerning the autonomy of Jericho and the Gaza Strip.
1994: Peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
1995: Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv by an Israeli student.
1998: Wye Plantation agreement between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the presence of U.S. President Clinton and King Hussein of Jordan.
1999: UN declaration on the Middle East which recognizes Arafat's right to proclaim the State of Palestine. September 5th: Memorandum of intent at Sharm el Sheikh which sets February 2000 as the deadline for agreements on the Palestinian territories.

Centuries of Custody

Father Giovanni Battistelli is currently Custodian of the Holy Land. The Franciscans have been present in this area since the thirteenth century and take care of the Holy Places in the name of the Holy See. Currently, more than 300 of them are in the Holy Land where, besides their pastoral ministry, they provide care and hospitality to pilgrims (their "casae novae," pilgrims' hostels, are present throughout the territory) and they operate the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum for archaeological and scientific activities

After Paul VI in 1964, at the end of March John Paul II will come to visit the Holy Places. What does this event mean to you and to Christians in the Holy Land, in this Jubilee Year?
It is an extremely important event. The Pope is the successor of Peter, who set out from right here, from this land, for Rome. With the visit of the Holy Father to the Holy Land, Peter returns to Jerusalem. The symbolic meaning of this gesture is very important.
For every Christian, pilgrimage to Jerusalem means above all retracing a journey of conversion, returning to one's evangelical roots, rediscovering, in short, one's faith in its essential core: Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of Mary of Nazareth, who was born, lived, died, and rose again in this land.
But if this pilgrimage is made by the successor of Peter himself, then it is the whole Church that traces this journey together with the Bishop of Rome. It seems to me that this is precisely John Paul II's intention. It is not necessary here to list acts, documents, speeches made by the Holy Father that, looking to the Jubilee, are an invitation to an examination of conscience about the lack of faithfulness of all Catholics. But we do need to ask ourselves-two thousand years after the Event of the Incarnation-what it means to be Christians today, what is essential about our faith, and how we can re-evangelize the world which has a right to encounter Christ. The Holy Father's pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Redemption, that is to say, to the roots of our Christian faith, should seal this journey in which we all, as the Church, are involved and make us understand what the criterion for achieving this work of conversion is: starting again with Christ.
For the local Christian population, the visit of the Holy Father is an encouragement and a comfort. We are proud of the importance that this event will have at an international level and its weight in a religious sense.

What does it mean to be the Custodian of these places 2000 years after the Incarnation of Christ and to walk the same streets where Jesus walked?
It is a responsibility that I do not bear alone. In reality it is the entire Franciscan family that for centuries has taken on this responsibility in the name of the Catholic Church.
Often problems of logistics and personnel, the organizations, and the various institutions-although legitimate and necessary-distract our attention and we do not think very much, unfortunately, about the importance and spiritual and theological significance that these places have.
The environment has changed radically, and we must make a great effort-at times-to recover the atmosphere and environment of Jesus' time.
I often happen to meet non-Christian brothers who are struck by the fascination and spiritual riches of the Holy Sepulchre. Here, while we Christians discussed, scandalized (perhaps rightly), the divisions present in the basilica, these persons, free of so many prejudices, remind us of the importance of these places, which are not only walls and structures, but above all the memory of the death and resurrection of Christ.
As custodians we want to do just this: to allow everyone to perceive, as far as possible, the force of these places. We do not always succeed, I believe, but we do our best.

What is your favorite Holy Place, and why?
All the sanctuaries are dear to me, because in each one some special divine grace was manifested. Certainly, there are those that are linked to the kerygma (Nazareth and Bethlehem: the Incarnation; the Holy Sepulchre: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection). But how can one not love the others? Gethsemane, the sanctuary where Jesus prayed until He bled. Capernaum, the promise of the Eucharist and Peter's house, transformed into a house of worship from the earliest times of the Jewish-Christian Church. Cana, Jesus' first miracle in the presence of Mary of Nazareth, and the consecration of the family. Tabgha, Jericho, and we cannot forget Nain, where Jesus restored the dead son to his grieving, weeping mother, especially important now that there is so much talk about the difficulties of youth (drugs and violence) and children (malnutrition, mortality, abuse).
But I do have some preference. It is for two sanctuaries where I can pray with greater concentration because of the silence and the events that took place there: Nazareth and Gethsemane. They are two places which interrogate, involve, and force a response: Mary's yes, unreservedly, and the gift of Himself that Jesus made in order to redeem us.
What does your presence contribute to the construction of a real ecumenism, looking toward a peaceful coexistence?
It is a challenge that we face. In the Holy Land, the three great monotheistic religions come together (and sometimes "collide"); Western and Eastern culture, Arab and Israeli civilization, the Christian communities that are different from each other. In this fascinating context, the presence and role of the Friars Minor are not secondary ones. The challenges we face undoubtedly touch the heart of our Franciscan vocation and call us into question.
Our presence in the Holy Land has always been an international one, and this greatly facilitates contact with all the religious and social realities. In some places, we actually live with our Orthodox brothers. Our relationships on a personal level are good, while at the institutional level they are often very formal. We are trying to facilitate as best we can a better mutual understanding, not only through study meetings but also on the level of interpersonal relationships. We always visit each other at Christmas and Easter to exchange greetings. On various occasions the heads of the Churches, with whom we too are associated for the responsibilities we bear, have signed joint declarations. The work of restoration at the Holy Sepulchre continues thanks to the meetings our representatives have kept up for more than forty years with the representatives of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox Patriarchates. For a few years now, our theology students organize excursions or sports events with the Armenian Orthodox students. The bindery annexed to the Franciscan Printing Press, which for 150 years has been our printer and publisher, is visited every day by Russian nuns and Greek Orthodox monks, and even Israelis who very naturally use our structures. These are forms of practical ecumenism that are not noisily visible, but build the every day life of this city, which is unique in the world, and they help to create a more serene and peaceful climate. On an interreligious level, things are more complex, because often the political aspect is involved. Our Center of Bible Studies has, for years, organized interreligious symposia on specific themes, in which local scholars of the three monotheistic faiths participate. It is easy to find foreign scholars in Jerusalem, but it is not easy to find local Jews, Muslims, and Christians willing to meet to discuss together a Bible topic they share.

Are you working on any archaeological excavations?
The major excavations were done in past years: Nazareth, Capernaum, Dominus Flevit, etc. The most recent excavations were done at Cana in Galilee, on the occasion of the restoration of the church that was reopened for worship last December. The scholars have not yet published their conclusions, but I am certain that they will arouse interest among many. The pilgrims who visit Cana will have the pleasure of seeing the remains of past centuries with their own eyes. On the other side of the Jordan, excavation has gone on for years on Mount Nebo (reminding us of Moses' death), where the Pope will visit. I am confident that the archaeologists of our Bible Studies Center will sooner or later commence excavations at the sanctuary of Sepphoris, where the remains of an imposing Crusaders' church can be admired.



Christians and the Crescent

BY RODOLFO CASADEI

On the potholed lot across from the Basilica of the Annunciation, a semblance of calm has finally been restored. Soldiers are no longer massed on guard around the presumed tomb of Shibab Al Din, Saladin's grandson; the Muslims' mass prayer gatherings have stopped; and the Christians' protest strikes have ceased as well. But this is only a truce. In a year the crisis will reopen, worse than ever, as soon as supporters of the Islamic Movement demand that the State of Israel keep the promise signed by the Minister of Security Shlomo Ben Ami, which calls for the beginning of construction of a great mosque on an area of 700 square meters facing the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Christians will claim they have been provoked, and tension will rise once again.
The story of the tent mosque of Nazareth, set up two years ago by Islamic extremists at a short distance from one of the most important churches in Christendom with the ambition of making it one of the most majestic places of worship in the Islamic world, is emblematic of the current condition of Christians in the Holy Land, reduced to a dwindling minority and condemned to symbolic, if not actual, expulsion from the history and identity of Palestine. The numbers are merciless: at the end of the nineteenth century, Palestinian Christians of all denominations represented about 13% of the population of the region. Today they are only 2-3%; of these, 120,000 live in the territory of the State of Israel as defined in 1948, and the remaining 50,000 in the so-called Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem. Despite the protection of Yasser Arafat, in the territories administrated by the Palestinian authorities their situation is worsening: the national curriculum currently being prepared for the schools of the West Bank and Gaza date the history of Palestine from the moment of its Islamic conquest. The only references to Christians and Christianity concern the Crusades and Napoleon. This exclusion is made even more paradoxical by the fact that the Christian schools render a substantial, non-parochial service to the Palestinian community: in the Occupied Territories they serve 18,000 students-both Christians and Muslims-including, as all those who supported AVSI's Christmas tents fund-raising campaign know, 385 children with learning difficulties or disabilities in 11 elementary schools, a service that neither the schools of the Israeli military administration nor those of UNRWA (the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees) nor those of the new Palestinian Authority furnish.
Nazareth is not part of the Occupied Territories because it is within the 1948 borders, but even there the situation has not been rosy for some time. Held up for many years as an example of peaceful Islamic-Christian coexistence, the city of Jesus' childhood and youth is now going through some difficult times. For two years now, the most radical of the Muslims who live in Nazareth have demanded the construction, on a contested area, of a large mosque in a city that already has eleven mosques for an Islamic population of 40,000 people. The population of Nazareth, once mainly Christian, today is two-thirds Muslim: since 1948, many Muslims have moved into the city from the country occupied by the Israelis, and this has reversed the demographic relationship between the religious groups for some time. The project of the new mosque-which is not shared by all Muslims: Yasser Arafat, the Islamic High Religious Council of Jerusalem, and the Saudi Arabian government have all expressed their opposition and have tried to mediate between the sides-is part of a continuing pattern: wherever possible in the Holy Land, Islam has built its places of worship right across from Christian churches to proclaim its superiority, as in the case of the mosques right by the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.