Le Vatican et l'Islam - Les Papes et la Palestine

"Il semble que le Vatican est conscient que la décroissance démographique de la minorité chrétienne en  Terre Sainte est bien davantage une conséquence des actions préjudiciables à leur encontre de la part de la majorité musulmane. Il ne fait aucun doute que l'émigration de masse continue des chrétiens de Terre Sainte est un objectif des dirigeants palestiniens. Ils veulent évidemment, en plus d'une zone exempte d'infidèles, s'approprier des terres, des immeubles et des entreprises chrétiennes. [...] Il y a une distinction fondamentale entre la façon dont les chrétiens sont traités en Israël et dans la plupart des Etats arabes et musulmans. Dans les Etats arabes et musulmans les chrétiens vivent dans la peur. En Israël, ils pratiquent leur foi ouvertement, des messes catholiques sont célébrées en arabe et en hébreu, la liberté de religion est célébrée et garantie pour tous, y compris les Arabes israéliens qui représentent environ 20% de la population du pays. Le Vatican est très conscient de la fracture:  comment les minorités religieuses sont traitées en Israël et en Palestine arabe."

The Vatican and Islam par Lawrence A. Franklin @ Gatestone Institute.  Extraits:

The Popes and Palestine

Pope Benedict may be relying less on the counsel of the Vatican's individual Papal Nuncios, especially with papal representatives in Palestine. This is a diplomatic "lesson learned" for the Vatican, since a few delegates seem to have been unduly influenced by militant anti-Israel positions by Arab states in the Levant. Some of the pro-Palestinian pronouncements by Church officials are motivated by genuine concern for the plight of the Palestinian people. Others are more polemically motivated. It is an open secret, for instance, that within the offices of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, the Latinate Patriarch to Jerusalem, Michel Sabah, has been a virtual mouthpiece for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and has supported the legitimacy of the role played by the terrorist group Hamas in the governance of Gaza. Sabah's relations with Israel are at best coolly correct. [...]

Despite local misunderstandings in Palestine, the Vatican maintains many direct avenues of communication between religious and secular Jewish organizations. For instance, the Holy See's "Committee for Religious Relations with the Jews" held its 10th meeting with Israel's Chief Rabbinate last year in late March. The Vatican apparently realizes that the Holy Land's dwindling minority of Christians is much more a consequence of prejudicial actions against them by the Muslim majority. There can be no doubt that the continued mass emigration of Christians from the Holy Land is an objective of Palestinian leaders. They evidently want, in addition to a region free of infidels, Christian land, homes, and businesses.

A few recent administrative decisions by the Vatican are congruent with the Holy See's decision to project a more balanced approach on the Arab-Israeli divide. Benedict named the former Papal Nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, to the Nunciate Post in Washington D.C. The Archbishop had earned a reputation among Israeli and Palestinian alike for being tough but fair. Sambi, a realist when it came to Vatican dialogue with Muslims, has said that the Holy See must approach such discussions with an open heart but without naivete. In private discussions at another time, Sambi echoed the Pontiff by welcoming inter-cultural dialogue with Muslims, but not theological dialogue. [...]

[...] all sides will miss Sambi's nuanced positions on divisive issues. It was Sambi's apolitical demeanor during the six-week occupation of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 that earned him praise from the Israeli government. During that period, he was quick to contradict the outlandish falsehoods spread by the Latin Patriarch Sabbah, about the comportment of Israeli forces at this revered Christian shrine. It was, after all the decision by Palestinian gunmen to enter the Church and seize hostages in the process. Sambi's sober attitude during this episode was in marked contrast to most Vatican media organs, which were critical of Israel. The Vatican at that time was concentrating on the IDF presence that surrounded the Basilica, rather than on the Palestinian occupation of the sacred site,[42] perhaps the product of a desire to protect the Christian community in the Holy Land at the expense of the Israelis. The anti-Israel stance may also have been motivated by a desire to shield the Church of the Nativity from more permanent desecration. Nonetheless, the critical comments did not do much for Vatican's relations with Israel.

There is one overriding distinction between how Christians are treated in Israel as opposed to most Arab and Muslim states. In Arab and Muslim states, Christians live in fear. In Israel, they practice their faith openly; there are Catholic Masses in both Arabic and in Hebrew, never failing to celebrate the religious freedom guaranteed for all, including Arab Israelis who make up about 20% of the country's population. The Vatican is acutely aware of the divide, how religious minorities are treated in Israeli and in Arab Palestine. When, for example, the annual meeting between Catholic and Muslim religious leaders took place on the Islamic "new year" (the 1st of Muharram 1433), 24 November 2011, the Catholics remonstrated with the Muslims for concrete efforts at improving tolerance for Bethlehem's Christian minority. The Catholics pressed their counterparts to implement long-promised textbook reforms. Father Ibrahim Shomali, a parish priest from the West Bank town of Beit Jala, also pleaded for greater respect for pluralism. It should be remembered that in the past, Palestinian Arab militants have violated the grounds of Beit Jala's Catholic Seminary to acquire better lines of fire for their automatic weapons into Jewish Jerusalem. The Mufti of Bethlehem, Sheikh Abdel Majid Ata, responded that he had instructed the region's Friday Imams "not to be too negative in their sermons."[43] [...]"

Essentiellement ce que les Européens apprennent c'est qu'Israël est coupable, forcément coupable.  Dans ce texte anti-israélien, Mgr Jacques Perrier, ancien évêque de Tarbes et Lourdes, impute  la situation difficile des chrétiens en Terre Sainte aux Juifs israéliens et ... cite Mgr Sabbah. Pour le consulter cliquer ICI.  Nous relevons ce passage: "S’il n’y avait pas les stratégies des Etats défendant leurs propres intérêts, si les populations chrétiennes et musulmanes [sans les populations juives?] étaient laissées entre elles, elles pourraient très bien coexister comme elles l’ont fait depuis des siècles, plutôt bien que mal. Mais les manipulations sont toujours possibles. Alors, dit-il [Mgr Sabbah] tout en affirmant que ce n’est pas la perspective la plus probable, il faut accepter d’aller jusqu’au martyre."