The Church as bridge builder in the Holy Land

(Vatican Radio) Jewish worshippers returned on Wednesday to a synagogue in Jerusalem after an attack that killed five people the day before. The victims included four members of the congregation and an Israeli policeman.

Also, on Wednesday, Israeli security forces tore down the east Jerusalem home of Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, the Palestinian who killed two people in October in an attack on commuters at a crowded light rail platform in Jerusalem.

Al-Shaludi was killed by police after the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will take strict measures to deal with an increasing wave of Palestinian attacks that in recent weeks have claimed 11 lives.

Much of the violence comes partly from tensions surrounding a contested holy site which is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. For Muslims, the area it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

As the tensions continue, what can Christians in the region do to promote peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians? The Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew speaking Catholics in the Holy Land, Jesuit Fr. David Neuhaus speaking to Vatican Radio said, that  Christians are in a very privileged position to help foster dialogue because there are both Christian Israelis and Palestinians. “…we have the Church on both sides of the divide. The Church is not in between serving as a mediator but rather deep within the society serving as a yeast,” he said.

He added, that Christians whether Israeli or Palestinians are trying to live as people who speak the truth, “who speak for justice and peace and work for peace and reconciliation and on both sides of the divide that means that they’re not always together and sometimes there is even tension among them because of the political divide… but the Church is a bridge builder.”

Fr Neuhaus stresses that there are two peoples and three religions deeply rooted in the region and the “only way forward is to recognize those basic facts and create a new political reality in which all of these people can be at home.”

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with The Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew speaking Catholics in the Holy Land, Jesuit Fr. David Neuhaus