POPE SAYS HOLY LAND VIOLENCE AT "INTOLERABLE" LEVEL
Franciscans condemn Bethlehem assault as barbarity
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 8 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul said violence had reached an 
intolerable level in the Holy Land on Monday and one Roman Catholic group 
accused the Israeli army of "barbarity" after fighting at Jesus's birthplace 
in Bethlehem. 

"The land of our Lord's birth, death and resurrection, a land held sacred by 
the three great monotheistic religions -- has increased to unimaginable and 
intolerable levels," the Pope told members of an American foundation visiting 
the Vatican. 

The 81-year-old Pope, who visited the Holy Land in 2000, made no specific 
reference to the Bethlehem fighting. 

As he spoke, the Vatican issued a stern warning to Israel and Palestinians to 
respect religious sites in the Holy Land which are central to the faiths of 
Christians, Jews and Muslims. 

The Vatican said in a statement that it was following events with "extreme 
worry" after a gunbattle erupted earlier in the day in and around the 
Bethlehem church complex where some 200 Palestinian militants were surrounded 
by Israeli forces. 

It said Vatican diplomats had told Israeli leaders the Holy See considered 
respect for holy sites an "absolute priority" and an integral part of 
agreements with Israelis and Palestinians. 

"If the news coming from Bethlehem in these last few hours is confirmed, it 
would be a development that would aggravate an already dramatic situation," 
the statement said. 

Palestinians took refuge in the Bethlehem church complex on Tuesday and have 
remained inside along with 40 Franciscan monks and four nuns. Israeli troops 
fired shots at the church early on Monday but accused the Palestinians of 
starting the fighting. 

FRANCISCANS OUTRAGED 

After the fighting, members of the Franciscan order who had been working for 
a peaceful solution to the stand-off condemned what they said was an Israeli 
assault as an act of "indescribable barbarity" with long-term consequences. 

Father David Jaeger, spokesman for custodians of Catholic sites in the Holy 
Land, accused the Israelis of treachery and of going back on a promise not to 
attack the shrine built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born. 

"This is an act of indescribable barbarity. It is a violation of every law of 
humanity and civilisation. It is a violation of the explicit and repeated 
public and diplomatic guarantees of the State of Israel with consequences 
that will be long-term and incalculable," Jaeger, who was in Rome, said. 

"We put our trust in God and we appeal to the whole world to condemn this act 
and stop this behaviour from continuing." 

Jaeger accused Israel of "a deliberate deception, a strategy of perfidy, or 
in Israel the army has finally slipped off its moorings and is no longer 
taking orders from the civilian government." 

I don't know which hypothesis is the more alarming," he told Reuters. 

Vatican diplomats and Church officials in the Holy Land had put forward a 
proposal to end the Bethlehem standoff. 

Catholic sources said that under the proposal, which Vatican diplomats and 
Church officials had been working out with the help of other diplomats, the 
Palestinians in the basilica would be given safe passage to the Gaza Strip, 
leaving their weapons.