Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beit Jala (Agenzia Fides) - The Society of St. Yves - Catholic organization active in the field of human rights and sponsored by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem - released a statement on Monday 1 December on the results of a new hearing which was held on 30 November at the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice, on the "Cremisan case", concerning the route of the separation wall that the Israeli authorities want to pass in the Valley Cremisan, on the land of 58 Palestinian families in Beit Jala and two Salesian religious communities.
The hearing was convened in order to know the opinions of the parties on the alternatives suggested by the Israeli Ministry of Defense regarding the route of the separation wall. St. Yves, in the statement relaunched by the media of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and sent to Agenzia Fides, expressed its absolute rejection of the alternatives proposed by Israel, and asked the Israeli Ministry of Defense to propose new alternatives that leave both the convent and the Salesian monastery on the Palestinian side of the wall. Even the Peace and Security Council, a body that works with the status of "Amicus Curiae", pointed out that the alternatives proposed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense appear questionable with regards to the security for Israel.
Even the mayor of Beit Jala, Nael Salman, stressed the serious damage that the alternatives proposed would cause to the local Palestinian community. While Professor Vera baboun, mayor of Bethlehem, added that these alternatives make the subsistence of dozens of peasant families of Cremisan, mostly Christians impossible, and over time would cause their inevitable exodus from the Holy Land. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 02/12/2014)
