Brussels, 15/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - MEP, Michèle Striffler (EPP, France) expressed her regret, on Wednesday 14 December, that Christians of the East had become the “forgotten ones” of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said she hoped the Christian community in the Middle East would have a larger say in peace negotiations, “perhaps leading to a new path, a new means of dialogue”, she said in a press release, issued after a meeting with Monsignor Manuel Musallam, a member of the Islamic-Christian Commission for Jerusalem and Holy Sites. “What is often forgotten is that the holy sites are common to all three great monotheistic religions. Jerusalem is not Jewish, Christian or Muslim, it belongs to all three”, she said.
Addressing MEPs on the issue of the Arab Spring and relations between the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities, Monsignor Musallam admitted he feared the spread of a violent contagion and a return to the wars of religion. He spoke of the difficulties in having Christian civilisation recognised in the Middle East, for example, in school books, public places and libraries. (CG/transl.rt)