Security for Israel is linked to justice for Palestine: this, in essence, is what emerged from the international meeting of European and North American bishops for solidarity with the Christians in the Holy Land, held between 14 and 19 January (cf. SIR 1 and 4/2006). Representing the German Bishops’ Conference at the meeting was Bishop Reinhard Marx, president of the German Commission of Justitia et Pax who, on his return from the Holy Land, said: “There have been Christians in Jerusalem for 2000 years; the presence of Christians in the Holy Places, and the contact with the mother of all Christian communities in Jerusalem, is a task for Christianity as a whole”. The maintenance of Christian schools and social structures, and pilgrimages to the Holy Land are also, in Bishop Marx’s view, other important goals that should not be lost sight of. In this regard he announced a pilgrimage of German bishops to the Holy Land in 2007. “The task of Christians he said is to strive for peace despite all the sources of tension and discrimination. The Israeli security barrier is not a signal for the future, but rather a sign of fear and mistrust. Peace can only be born from the meeting of the leaders of both sides and the fostering of mutual trust between them”.
