03-May-07
ENI and
news@hcef.org
This is Apartheid
Two (Lutheran) Church of Norway bishops visiting Israel and the Palestinian
territories in mid-April have said they were appalled at the way Israelis
were treating Palestinians who hugely outnumber them in the West Bank city
of Hebron. "This is apartheid," Bishop Ernst Baasland of Stavanger
told the Norwegian daily newspaper VG. Bishop Baasland was part of an official
Church of Norway delegation that included Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien
of Borg and four other church leaders. "I do not believe the majority of
Israelis know how bad the situation is here in Hebron. That's the way it
was also in South Africa. Most whites knew little of the harassment of the
black majority [while living under the apartheid system]", Bishop Baasland
said.