The armed siege at the Church of the Nativity has become the focus of considerable international interest, particularly from Christian groups.

The Vatican issued several statements condemning both sides, but implicitly seeing Israel as the more responsible of the parties.
The Reverend David Jaiger of the office of the Custodian of Catholic Sites in the Holy Land claimed that Israel was at fault and said that it was involved in 'violations of every canon of human decency.'
On Tuesday April 9th, L'Oservatore Romano, a Catholic newspaper, included a dispatch from Israel, which stated that the Holy Land was being 'profaned with bombs and with fire and is on a daily basis the victim of aggression that's turning into extermination.'
Apparently, the Vatican was 'livid' about the use of the word 'extermination' because - as critics have noted - the Holy See refrained from employing such vocabulary to describe the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Since that date, the Vatican's Foreign Minister has explicitly stated that the hostage-taking in the Church is a descration of its sanctity.

Points to Ponder

1. The renewed attempt by Palestinian groups to use holy sites as a points from which to draw Israeli fire with impunity, in the hope of securing Israel's censure by Christian groups and the Western powers:
   This approach was used earlier during the Intifada, when Palestinian gunmen used the predominantly Christian areas of Bet Jala and Bet Sahour to shoot at the Gilo neighbourhood of Jerusalem. These efforts are not only designed to draw censure from the international community but also as a means of undermining Israel's status in administering Holy Sites, if and when these will become the subject of future negotiations over Jerusalem.
   Critics of the Palestinian position might ask how the Palestinians behaved at Joseph's Tomb near Nablus and the ancient synagogue of Jericho during the initial stages of the intifada. It will be recalled that these sites were desecrated by Palestinian mobs with no intervention by the Palestinian authority.
2. Also worthy of focus is the historic role of the Church in providing refuge to those who request it and the abuse of this privilege:
   Use of Church property is a clear violation of the First Additional Protocol (1977) to the Geneva Conventions, and constitute war crimes by any standard of international humanitarian law.
   • How do you interpret the Church's response, internationally and locally?
   • Why is the world silent?
   • What can be done at a local level to contact Churches and protest this desecration?
3. Finally, there are other motives behind this exploitation of a holy shrine and Israel's commitment to respect their sanctity:
   Attempts to draw Israeli fire on Christian holy sites are designed to undermine Israel's relations with the Christian world, and especially the Vatican, which have been improved after considerable efforts. Since 1993, Israel has an ambassador to the Vatican and during 2000 the Pope visited the country. Relations between the Catholic Church and Israel were strained largely because of Pope Pius XII silence during the Holocaust during which time he made no public statements concerning the extermination of the Jews. Recently, the Vatican has discussed plans to beatify Pius and put him on the path to sainthood.
   

Sites consulted:
For a plan of the Church of Nativity see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/mwsid_1910000/1910843.stm

See also: The New York Times, The Times (London), The Guardian, Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, IDF, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anti-Defamation League, Vatican Post.