Jerusalem, 9 April 2002
Pres. Katsav sends message to Pope John Paul II - Apr 9, 2002
(Communicated by the President's Spokeswoman)
President Moshe Katsav today (Tuesday), April 9, 2002, sent the
following message to Pope John Paul II:
"I am aware of your personal concern regarding recent events in the
Holy Land.
It was our fervent hope that the Palestinians would fulfill their
signed commitments to prevent terrorism against our country and
people. However, the Government of Israel has, regrettably, been left
with no alternative but to defend itself against a massive wave of
violent terror, culminating with a bloody attack on Passover Eve,
directed by the highest levels of the Palestinian Authority and
designed to destroy the State of Israel.
In this campaign our forces are taking every reasonable precaution to
prevent any harm to civilians and institutions. On the other hand,
Palestinian terrorists regularly and reprehensively exploit innocent
civilians as cover for their activities. The unacceptable breaking in
of some 200 Palestinian armed terrorists into the Church of the
Nativity is of common concern to you and to us.
The State of Israel has the highest esteem for all religious
communities within its borders. Therefore, in the current context,
all members of the Israel Defense Forces have been ordered not to
fire upon or violate the sanctity of church property. For their part,
the Palestinians have repeatedly desecrated the holiness of churches
within their jurisdiction, abusing Holy Places as a base of
operations.
In the particular instance of the Church of the Nativity, the
Government of Israel scrupulously ensures that the Church does not
become a focus of hostilities. While operations are being conducted
in its vicinity, the Church has remained unaffected by the IDF,
despite the confirmed presence of armed Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
Tanzim terrorists inside the sanctuary.
Our objective remains to extricate these armed terrorists, unharmed,
from the Church and to this end, our forces continue to refrain from
taking actions that may harm the Church or its clergy. Since giving
safe conduct to the extremely dangerous terrorists presently in the
Church would constitute a grave danger to public safety, we have no
choice but to maintain our presence in the immediate area. We
anticipate our redeployment once the terrorists hand themselves over.
However, under the circumstances, I regret that with all the respect
and consideration we have for the Christian Holy Places, we have no
alternative but to prevent armed Palestinian terrorists, who have
murdered innocent Jews and have taken refuge in a holy Christian
sanctuary, from escaping and continuing their acts of bloodshed."