Request Hearing in Present and Future Negotiations
JERUSALEM, JULY 19 (ZENIT.org).- In the midst of the fragile Palestinian-Israeli negotiations taking place in Camp David and mediated by the U.S. government, the Patriarchs of Jerusalem: Catholic Michel Sabbah, Armenian Torkom II, and Greek Orthodox Diodoros I, as well as the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, have requested the opportunity to express their positions on the future status of the Holy City.
The religious leaders sent letters to Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asking that the Christian community be kept in mind in current negotiations and future agreements.
Fr. Raed Abusahlia, secretary of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, explained on Vatican Radio that the Patriarchs have two additional requests. "In the first place, that Christians of the Holy Land and Jerusalem be considered as a human and geographic whole - that the division of the ancient city of Jerusalem and its environs not be accepted. In particular, the Armenian Orthodox do not wish to be annexed into the Jewish neighborhood."
"In the second place, they ask that the future of Jerusalem be based on a special statute guaranteed internationally to respect free access to Holy Places by Christians, Muslims, and Jews of the country, including tourists and pilgrims," he concluded.
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