From the Revd Jeremy Moodey
Sir, — No one could disagree with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s observation in the recent House of Lords debate that the position of Christians in the Middle East is becoming increasingly precarious (News, 16 December).
It was also gratifying to see Dr Williams highlight the plight of Palestinian Christians, whose precipitous decline in numbers since 1948 he linked to “the tragic situation in the West Bank”.
This important debate was long overdue, and Dr Williams should be applauded for initiating it. But it was troubling that in almost five hours of debate only two speakers — neither of them bishops — mentioned what has led in large measure to this “tragic situation”, namely the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Only the weekend before last, Israel approved the construction of another 1000 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Every new settler home makes a peace deal harder to achieve, and it is this that is causing Palestinians of all faiths, not just Christians, to lose hope. And the settlers are becoming increasingly violent: a bus with carol-singers from the Bethlehem Bible College was recently attacked by settlers near Ramallah.
It is right that the Church should have regard to interfaith sensitivities when addressing the problems of the Middle East, but on this occasion its caution has led it to overlook one of the main reasons for Christian flight from the Holy Land.
There was a similar nervousness about addressing the real issues at the Lambeth Palace conference on Christians in the Holy Land last July. Our bishops need to do better, or they risk losing all credibility with their hard-pressed co-religionists in the Middle East.
