http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/02/27/News/News.3226.html
Vatican suggests Israel denies religious freedom to Palestinians
By Haim Shapiro, Jerusalem Post, 02/27/2000
JERUSALEM (February 27) - Papal Nuncio Msgr. Pietro
Sambi last night justified Vatican demands for international
guarantees for the holy places in Jerusalem by suggesting
that Israel was denying religious freedom to Palestinians by
not allowing them free access at all times to Jerusalem.
Speaking in an interview on Channel 1, Sambi was reacting
to criticism of the agreement between the Holy See and the
Palestinians, which includes a call for such guarantees.
In response, the pope's diplomatic representative in Israel
noted that the agreement itself did not mention Jerusalem,
although the preamble did include a wish for such
guarantees.
"You know that not all Moslems from Gaza can go to the
[Aksa] Mosque and not all Christians from Bethlehem can
go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher whenever they want
to," Sambi said.
However, he added that the Vatican believed that religious
people did not have to intervene in politics. The call for
international guarantees, he added, related only to holy
places.
Israeli and Jewish leaders have criticized the document for
what they say is failure to recognize that there has been
greater freedom of access to holy places of all faiths under
Israeli jurisdiction of Jerusalem than ever before in history.
Regarding Jerusalem, Sambi expressed his disappointment
that the city was not the city of religious dialogue he felt is
should be.
"People of the three monotheistic religions should be much
more in dialogue," the nuncio said.
Regarding the controversial issue of the action, or lack
thereof, of the late Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust,
Sambi said he could understand that if someone believed that
a strong condemnation by Pius XII might have saved his
family from the gas chambers, such a person would be
unable to forgive the late pope.
However, he said, reflecting the position of many of those in
the Church hierarchy, if Pius XII had issued such a
condemnation it would have only made matters worse.
"I am convinced that a strong condemnation would only
have increased Hitler's persecution of the Jews," Sambi said.
