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Palestinian Christians will be deeply disappointed and demoralized if Benedict XVI simply repeats the itinerary of John Paul II.

JERUSALAM (Inside Catholic) - “The Holy Father should not be coming to the Holy Land without visiting Gaza.” The bitterness in his voice was obvious, as Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem University, talked to me about the trip scheduled next month by Benedict XVI. His attitude is the rule, rather than the exception, among Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land.

In interviews conducted with over twenty Palestinian Christian leaders last week, I was surprised to discover no enthusiasm whatsoever for the upcoming papal visit. “The Pope’s visit here will only legitimize the recent Israeli operation in Gaza and the intentions of the right-wing government elected in February,” explained Dr. Qumsiyeh.

Palestinian Christians have expressed their concerns directly to Benedict XVI. In a little-noticed letter of February 20, forty members of the Christian community in the Holy Land told the pope his visit “would only serve to endorse the Israeli government’s policies and atrocities, leading to more cooperation from the United States and Europe.”

Nidal Abu Zuluf is associate director of the YMCA in Bethlehem and coordinates a network of Christian organizations. As he gave me a copy of the letter, he asked, “Why now? It’s a bad time for the pope to come, and there is no clear message, unless he goes to Gaza.”
The itinerary of the trip, May 8-13, basically repeats that of John Paul II from March 2000.

Benedict XVI arrives in Amman, Jordan before visiting Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. The problem, according to Abu Zuluf, is that the Holy Land is a “very different place’ then it was in 2000. Since the Palestinian uprising (Second Intifada) elicited by the visit of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in September 2000, the West Bank has been in a state of lock-down enforced by hundreds of miles of Israeli-built security walls, military checkpoints, settlements, settler roads, and harsh restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians.

Palestinian Christians have virtually no access to the holy sites in East Jerusalem, Galilee, and Nazareth. Abu Zuluf, a native of Bethlehem, has not been able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem since 1993, even though it is a few miles away. His situation is typical for a Christian in Bethlehem and the adjacent, largely Christian towns, of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

According to Brother Jack Curran, Vice President for Development at Bethlehem University, students in religion classes are routinely denied by the Israeli military the permits they need to travel out of the city. Even sadder, he told me, “We can’t get permission from Israel for any students to attend the University from Gaza.” In spite of the government obstacles, Bethlehem University has mounted a new effort to engage students from Gaza. Brother Curran told me the University needs help from American Catholics both “politically, to get the Israeli permission for these young people to come to Bethlehem, and financially, to support their living and educational costs.”

The visit of Benedict XVI will be viewed by the Christians living in the Holy Land through the lens of 1417 deaths in Gaza, including 313 children, during the 22-day Israeli campaign. With the election of Benjamin Netanyahu, Christians in Bethlehem expressed fear that their city could become another Gaza. “We already live surrounded by walls and check points. Why shouldn’t we think that what happened in Gaza could happen to us?” said a young woman in her mid-twenties who comes from one of the oldest, and most prominent, Christian families in Bethlehem.

Palestinian Christians will be deeply disappointed and demoralized if Benedict XVI simply repeats the itinerary of John Paul II. “There will be bad consequences for the Church if he does this,” Abu Zuluf told me. He did not explain this comment, but when I asked an American priest who had lived near Bethlehem for over a decade he related it to a comment he heard from a Christian woman in Bethlehem. She said to him, “Tell the Holy Father not to lose his dignity when he comes here.”