Haaretz
Adar 6, 5766
President Moshe Katsav condemned Saturday a Jewish
family's attack on a major Catholic holy site the night before, urging
religious leaders to not let the incident harm relations between Jews and
Christians in Israel.
Katsav also said that Israel pledges to
unconditionally defend the holy sites of all religions.
Leaders of
the Arab sector in Israel met earlier Saturday in Nazareth with Catholic
leaders to discuss Friday night's detonation of fireworks by in the northern
city's Basilica of the Annunciation.
The Higher Israeli Arab
Monitoring Committee read a statement calling on the Israeli government to
"take full responsibility for the incident in the Church of the
Annunciation, and to deal with forces considering attacks on holy sites,
forces that developed against a backdrop of hatred and defiance of the
Arab public."
Chairman of the Monitoring Committee, Shuweiki Hatib,
said that that "Arab public cannot absorb such blows, and we warn the
leaders of the state against another attempt at harming the Arab
public."
Responding to police statements that mental illness
motivated the attack, MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta'al) asked, "Why is it that
when a Jewish extremist goes crazy, he burns a mosque or blows up a
church? This is a sickness of racism and hatred of Arabs, Muslims and
Christians alike."
Israeli police said the man involved in the
attack, Haim Eliyahu Habibi, had mental problems and was not a religious
extremist. Habibi's Christian wife and daughter helped him carry out the
attack.
Hadash Chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh warned, "The issue is
not who carried out yesterday's attack in Nazareth, but rather who is next
in line. All of the these criminals are known to security officials, who
bear the responsibility of arresting them and preventing further attacks
on the Arab public."
Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin traveled with a
party delegation to Nazareth on Saturday to meet with the Catholic
leadership in Israel to discuss the incident. Beilin spoke on the phone
with Nazareth Mayork Ramez Jiraisi, and praised him for his role in
calming tensions.
Ismail Haniyeh, the designated Palestinian prime
minister from the Islamic militant Hamas group, also held Israel
responsible for the attack.
Haniyeh said that it is the result "of
a hate culture which Israel is feeding its public against the
Palestinians, and their Christian and Islamic holy places and
believers."
Boulos Rececinto Marcuzzio, vicar of the Latin
patriarch in Israel and a bishop in Nazareth, said Friday's attack and
anti-Christian riots last year in the northern village of Ghajar were
cause for concern. "What happened ... is strong enough to let us think
that we have to ask for our legal protection here," he said
Saturday.
In Ghajar, Druze villagers had burned down dozens of
Christian-owned businesses after rumors spread that Christian youths
disseminated naked pictures of Druse girls on the Internet. No evidence
has been found to
substantiate the rumors, but villagers said they
fueled longstanding tension in the divided village.
Ezra: Arab
MKs trying to make electoral gain out of church attack
Public
Security Minister Gideon Ezra on Friday accused Israeli Arab MKs of trying
to make electoral gain out of the church attack.
Speaking at a
press conference, Ezra said that the Arab MKS were trying "to exploit for
electoral purposes" the incident.
Israeli Arab Knesset members
responded angrily to the Friday evening attack. "Such an act is proof of
the fact that radical right-wing and settler terror groups feel they are
free to perform their crimes, both in the territories and in Israel,
against the Arab population," said Hadash Chairman MK Mohammed
Barakeh.
Balad Chairman MK Azmi Bishara condemned the attack and
said the motivation appeared to have been religious or nationalistic. He
called on police not to relate to the angry crowd as a hostile
element.
Arab MKs also complained that Habibi had not been arrested
in the past.
Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said that Habibi was
known to police and was suspected of wanting to carry out such an
attack.
Ezra also said the attack had international implications
and it should therefore be made clear that the incident was carried out
due to personal distress of people who probably did not grasp the meaning
of their actions.
Karadi said, however, that police was not
responsible for limiting a suspect's movement, but the judicial system.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called her counterpart in
the Vatican, Monsignor Lajolo, and told him Israel is making every effort
to handle the events at the Basilica of the Annunciation.
"We will
do our all to protect the holy sites of all faiths," Livni
said.
Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz condemned the attack: "Any
attempt to damage holy sites destroys the delicate relations between
different faiths in Israel," he said.
Church officials: Suspect
'born, bred on racist views'
Latin Archbishop Michel Sabbah, the
most senior Catholic figure in Israel, said the Vatican was following
closely the events in Nazareth. Sabah said that the person who tried to
perform the terrible deed was born and bred on racist views and wild
incitement against Christians in particular and Arabs in general.
In a radio broadcast Sabah called on the angry crowd around the
church to leave the area once they had expressed their protest.
Advisor to the Latin Archbishop, Wadiya Abu Nasser, told
Haaretz a full report of the incident was passed on to the Vatican
and directly to the pope's office. Abu Nasser reported Vatican sources
described the incident as very serious.
Bishop Eliyas Shakur said
"this is an evil attack on one of the holiest sites for Christianity, not
just in Israel but in the entire world. I call on the country's leaders to
act immediately in order to obstruct and arrest those who try to damage
holy sites of both Christian and Muslim faiths."
"We ask the
Israeli government if it is still willing and capable of taking care of
its citizens and minorities or do its citizens need to look after
themselves," he said.