- (AP) -- The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy
Land on Monday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders "to come back
to reason," saying the area has plunged into bloody madness.
-
- Despite the violence, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said
in his annual Easter message that he remains hopeful about peace.
-
- "We have to believe that peace is possible, because
when we say peace is impossible, that's the death for everyone," Sabbah
said.
-
- At a news conference, Sabbah criticized Israeli and Palestinian
leaders.
-
- However, he reserved his harshest words for the Israelis,
saying peace can only come if Israel halts its harsh military policies.
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- "This is the question: whether the Israelis are
ready now to stop all violence," Sabbah said. "The Palestinians
are ready now to stop all violence."
-
- Israel says Palestinian cease-fire efforts have been
half-hearted and demands a full crackdown on militant groups.
-
- Sabbah presides over about 400,000 Catholics in Israel,
the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jordan. He is also the region's first Palestinian
patriarch, elected to the post in 1987. All his predecessors were Italian.
-
- Sabbah said that in the current round of fighting, "we
are abandoned to 'human madness' that sees solutions only in bloodshed
and in crushing the human being." He said leaders should remember
that "all human beings are equal, whether Palestinian or Israeli."
-
- More than 2,780 people have been killed on the Palestinian
side and more than 940 on the Israeli side since September 2000.
-
- "It is high time for the leaders to come back to
reason and to reconsider what they have done in order to avoid for themselves
and for their people the sin of more bloodshed, and the permanence of insecurity,"
he said.
-
- He criticized the separation fence Israel is building
in the West Bank. Israel says the barrier is needed to protect its cities
from suicide bombers. But Sabbah said the structure, which has separated
Palestinians from schools, jobs and farmland, is breeding further ill will.
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- Palestinian good-will, after an end to Israeli occupation,
"will be the best wall and the best protection, which will give the
best security for Israel," he said.
-
- Sabbah called on Christians from around the world to
come to the Holy Land, saying that the presence of pilgrims sends a peaceful
message to leaders.
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