MIDEAST BISHOPS CONVENED AMID EXODUS, VIOLENCE
VATICAN CITY, (AP) JANUARY 21, 2010 (STAR) A Vatican document released Tuesday blamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the "occupying" of lands for fomenting most of the conflicts in the Middle East, driving Christians out and making life difficult for those who remain.The document is a guide for discussions for an Oct. 10-24 meeting of Mideast bishops convened by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the plight of the Christian minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim region. The exodus of Christians from the region and religious discrimination faced by those who remain are main issues on the table.
Synod organizer Monsignor Nikola Eterovic said about 150 bishops, most of them from Eastern rite churches, are expected to attend the meeting, which follows a 2009 Vatican meeting of bishops on Africa.
The meeting document made clear that bishops in the Middle East believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be the root cause of several conflicts in the region. But it also singled out the growth of "political Islam" in countries like Egypt, and said the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been "exploited" by radical terrorism in recent years.
"In Iraq, the war has unleashed evil forces within the country, religious confessions and political movements, making all Iraqis victims," it said. "However, because Christians represent the smallest and weakest part of Iraqi communities, they are among the principal victims, with world politics taking no notice."
It criticized the Israeli "occupation" of Palestinian lands, saying it had made life difficult both for daily life and religious life since access to holy places are restricted.
Citing both the Israeli-Palestinian and Iraqi conflicts, it said: "The solution to conflicts rests in the hands of the stronger country in its occupying and inflicting wars on another country."
"Violence is in the hands of the strong and weak alike, the latter resorting to whatever violence is within reach in order to be free," it said.
Asked at a news conference if the document was referring specifically to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and construction in east Jerusalem, Eterovic said the Vatican wasn't making policy decisions or recommendations in the document.
But he noted that the paper was drafted by the bishops of the region, "who know the situation well" and that regardless the Vatican adheres to U.N. Security Council resolutions on the matter. The Security Council has endorsed the Mideast Road Map which calls for an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel and a freeze on all Israeli settlement activity.
Israel said in November that construction in West Bank settlements would slow down for 10 months, but that building in east Jerusalem would proceed without restrictions.
Eterovic said there are currently about 17 million Christians from Iran to Egypt, and that while many Christians have fled, new Catholic immigrants — mostly from the Philippines, India and Pakistan — have arrived in recent years in Arab countries to work as domestic or manual laborers, bolstering the church's numbers in areas where there had previously been little or no Christian presence.
Storms in Mideast kill British tourist, 6 others (philstar.com) Updated January 19, 2010 07:00 AM
CAIRO (AP) – Rare torrential rains across the Middle East swept away homes, marooned resort towns and killed seven people yesterday, including a British tourist, in what officials are calling the worst flooding in at least a decade.
The flooding along Egypt's Red Sea coast, the border with Israel and in the south left six people dead. It also damaged the roads leading to the resorts in the Sinai desert and brought down telephone and power lines.
Israel temporarily closed its southern border crossings with Egypt and Jordan, while Jordanians were warned off the streets after nearly a dozen accidents in one area.
Rains of this magnitude, which began Sunday night, are rare in this largely arid region and where heavy precipitation can result in sudden and deadly flash floods.
A British tourist sailing down the Nile near the southern Egyptian city of Aswan died when his sail boat capsized in the heavy winds and sudden rain. The victim's wife and two companions, a Canadian and an Indian, survived, according Maj. Gen. al-Shafei Hassan, chief of criminal investigation in the southern city of Aswan. The heavy rains also washed away a dozen mud brick homes in southern Egypt and killed two women there. Scores of families in Aboul-Rish village in Aswan slept overnight outdoors after their homes were destroyed.
In the famed monument city of Luxor, just to the north, the bad weather caused power failures in several neighborhoods and disrupted Nile cruises, sailboat and ferry schedules.
In neighboring Israel, a woman drowned when her car was caught in a flash flood in the south, where stormy weather also blocked the main road to the Red Sea resort of Eilat.
A bridge also collapsed near a cargo crossing between Egypt and Israel
Flooding wiped out large sections of a major road in Egypt's south Sinai and destroyed two dozen homes in Ras Sudr, according to Mohammed Fayez, the head of emergency services.
The heavy rains also killed one woman, left 14 missing and damaged the roof of Sharm el-Sheik's old airport, he said. President Hosni Mubarak flew to Sharm el-Sheik and inspected the damage.
Egypt's Middle East News agency reported that Mubarak ordered compensation be paid to the victims of the floods and he advised against the building of traditional mud brick homes.
Witnesses in Taba, another tourist resort across the border from Israel, said the churning waters swept the sand on the beaches out to sea.
In northern Sinai, officials at the provincial operation room dealing with the crisis said the flooding destroyed over 100 homes and many village huts.
Mohammed al-Kiki, a local government official, said a flash flood overcame a dam and a man was killed near the border with Israel.
Finally in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, a 24-year-old Egyptian woman drowned when flooding swept her off a main road, according to the state news agency.
The agency also reported five Egyptian ports on the Red Sea were also shut because of stormy seas, and lack of visibility.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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