Christians Hopeful for Peace Following Palestinian Election

While many voiced hope that the election of Mahmud Abbas as Palestinian president would lead to a lasting peace in the Middle East, Palestinians and onlookers are still in a ‘wait-and-see’ mood

By Kenneth Chan, Tuesday, January 11, 2005

While many voiced hope that the election of Mahmud Abbas as Palestinian president would lead to a lasting peace in the Middle East, Palestinians and onlookers are still in a ‘wait-and-see’ mood.

“The situation is difficult,” Bernard Sabela, a sociologist at Bethlehem University, told Italy-based AsiaNews. “If Israel, the U.S. and Europe together with Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan don’t work together to reach peace, Abu Mazen will achieve little.”

In general however, a climate of hope and trust is felt, AsiaNews reported. Sebela said, “We all expect changes to take place.”

Sabela, who is a member of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), pointed out that “participation among Christians was very strong” in the Jan. 9 elections “with some 23-25,000 voters casting their ballots.”

The professor told AsiaNews that he himself voted in Jerusalem where he met many Christian families going to the polling stations.

“In some Christian villages, priests did not tell their parishioners how to vote but they did tell them that they themselves had gone to vote before mass,” Sabela said.

He did mention, however, that the MECC congratulated Abbas in his victory and wished him all the best in his new mandate.

When asked about what the future had in store for Christians in Palestine, Sebela told AsiaNews that he was not worried.

“What worries Christians is what worries every Palestinian, namely reaching peace between Palestine and Israel,” he said.

Concerning the Church’s position on the Holy Land, he reiterated what Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah said at Midnight Mass: “We need courageous people to work for peace and give our people their dignity.”