Related articles and links |  1 of 3

On July 20, Father Emil Salayta was preparing to board his flight at the Toronto International Airport for a return trip to the United States. Then a U.S. Customs official told him to step aside.

The Roman Catholic priest, a Jordanian based in Rome, represents the Catholic Church and the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem. He is also cofounder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. HCEF is a nonprofit organization that raises support from American churches to encourage Christians to stay in the Holy Land.

During a five-hour interrogation by a pacing U.S. Customs inspector, Salayta was photographed, fingerprinted, and had his luggage searched. Then he was told that he had the wrong visa and could not reenter the United States. "As a Catholic priest, I was shocked," Salayta said. "I have never been treated this way, not even in Israel."

After a flurry of phone calls and lobbying by church officials, clergy, and members of the House and Senate, Salayta was allowed back into the United States 19 days later on the same visa—with the understanding that he would curb his public speaking to comply with visa restrictions.

With the resurgence of violence, the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and the Bush administration-backed "road map" for peace in serious jeopardy, Christians in the region are facing tough new questions as they work toward their own, sometimes conflicting, definitions of peace.

Salayta said his public speaking engagements usually focus on how Christians in the Holy Land are suffering "because of the Israeli occupation."

"We're presenting the state of life of the Palestinian Christian and trying to help maintain their presence, not just by sending checks but by doing justice."

But some critics, such as David Parsons of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist organization, argue that Palestinian Christian advocacy groups such as Salayta's feel pressure to be mouthpieces for the Palestinian Authority.

HCEF president Rateb Rabie and others assembled for the annual Episcopal and Catholic Bishops Conference last January met with Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. "His message to Christians was: Go back to your countries and ask them to put pressure on Israel," Rabie said.

But Parsons said Palestinian Christians have been "caught up in a theologically mandated struggle against Israel they want little to do with" and are afraid to speak out.

"It is simply too dangerous for them," Parsons said. "We know of and have assisted brave local Arab Christian clergy and believers who have had to flee for their lives for telling the truth about the relentless oppression they endure from the Muslim majority."

The Palestinian Authority's obligation to clamp down on terrorists and dismantle militant groups is one of the key requirements of the road map. It also requires Israel to freeze all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dismantle illegal outposts erected since March 2001. It calls for establishing a Palestinian state as early as 2005.

Israeli officials say they are waiting for the Palestinian Authority to follow through—and that if it doesn't, Israel will continue targeting militant Islamic leaders. But widespread support for Hamas and for Yasser Arafat's Fatah party has made such crackdowns difficult for the Palestinian Authority, which has instead been pushing for the release of thousands more Palestinian prisoners while struggling with Arafat for control of Palestinian security forces.

next page... |  1 of 3

October 2003, Vol. 47, No. 10