
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240013
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Medium

HOLY SHRINES TO CLOSE TO PROTEST SETTLEMENT

Christian shrines in the Holy Land will close Friday and ring a funeral toll from their bell towers to protest a government-funded Jewish settlement in the Old City's Christian quarter, church leaders said.

The announcement came one day after the Israeli government confirmed that it put up $1.8 million to help finance the settlement of 150 Jews in a 72-room complex near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The settlement, set up on April 11, has provoked angry demonstrations by Christian clerics and Palestinians, both Christian and Moslem.

In announcing Friday's daylong protest, the leaders of 10 religions in the Holy Land said government support for the settlement "endangers the survival of all Christian communities in the Holy City."

"We demand respect of the privileges and rights the Christians have in the Holy Land," Greek Orthodox Patriarch Diodorus I said on Monday.

The settlement, called Neot David, is the only Jewish presence in the Old City's Christian sector. Its spokesmen have consistently said that no government money was involved in the settlement.

Palestinian Christians have complained the settlement, in a compound owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, threatened the traditional separation of the Christian, Moslem and Jewish quarters of the Old City.

The Greek church, which says a former tenant illegally leased the compound, got a court order to have the Jews evicted. The Supreme Court will consider an appeal of the order on Thursday.

Friday's protest will mark the first time all Christian holy places close, said the Rt. Rev. Samir Kafiti, Anglican bishop of Jerusalem. The church leaders included Roman Catholic, Coptic and Lutheran officials.

Among the Christian sites to be closed are Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

A 1967 Israeli Parliament statute obliges the government to maintain free access to holy places. But a government official ruled out any use of force to keep open the shrines, saying:

The government's acknowledgement Sunday that it helped finance the settlement was the first confirmation of official involvement in buying Arab property in Jerusalem's walled Old City, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

by CNB