BETHLEHEM, Oct 26, 01 (FIDES/CWNews.com) - The president of a Vatican-sponsored college in Bethlehem has issued an urgent appeal for help in ending the Israeli occupation of that West Bank town.
Brother Vincent Malham, FSC, said that "pressure must be put on Israel to withdraw its military from Bethlehem and the other Palestinian territories immediately, and bring relief to those of us caught in a dangerous crossfire."
Bethlehem University has been closed for a week, and will remain closed as long as Israeli troops occupy the city, the president said. The campus is caught between the Israeli military forces and the Palestinian Tanzim fighters, and the gunfire has caused serious damage to campus buildings as well as threats to the lives of students and faculty.
Brother Malham estimated the damage to the school at $20,000. Dozens of windows have been broken, he pointed out, and artillery shells have caused major damage to water pipes, laboratories, and masonry. Telephone lines have been cut, and-- worst of all-- 2,000 pupils have been forced to interrupt their studies.
Brother Malham also voices concern that attacks on Christian institutions and holy sites will continue. "These attacks will wreak incalculable damage, physical and psychological, to the city of Christ's birth," he warns.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
26. oktober 2001