Sick children are victims of Gaza fights

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A sick child in the Gaza Strip died on Sunday after Palestinian infighting and a blockade on the territory prevented his parents from seeking medical treatment abroad for their 10-year-old cancer-stricken son.


Ribhi Jindiyeh is just one child, but his story highlights the price some ordinary Gazans have paid for the conflict between Palestinian rivals, the militant Muslim Hamas and the more secular Fatah.

As bickering has continued, a medical committee halted work, trapping hundreds of Palestinian patients unable to seek lifesaving treatment for cancer and other diseases beyond Gaza’s borders.

The World Health Organization has said eight such patients died by the end of April.

The ninth victim was 10-year-old Ribhi Jindiyeh, a lymphoma patient who spent his last days in a Gaza City hospital, skinny, jaundiced and too weak to move. He underwent chemotherapy last year in an Israeli hospital, and when he returned home in January, he seemed better.

When he relapsed in March, Hassan Jindiyeh applied for his son to be treated at the Augusta Victoria Palestinian hospital in east Jerusalem, but a date for treatment was slow in coming.

A hospital staffer said the request was only seen in mid-May. By that time, a hospital specialist decided the boy should be sent to a more specialized Israeli hospital.

By then, it was too late.


by the associated press

Vatican state's pope is ardent anti-Nazi

JERUSALEM — The Vatican defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday as a man of strong anti-Nazi credentials and a peacemaker in the face of mounting Israeli criticism and Arab anger over the Israeli occupation.

Critics faulted the German-born pope for failing to apologize in a speech at Israel’s Holocaust memorial for what they see as Catholic indifference during the Nazi genocide — a controversy that threatened to overshadow his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Benedict delivered messages of peace Tuesday while visiting the holiest Muslim and Jewish sites in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall.

"On Tuesday, Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein handed the pope a letter complaining about Israeli policies in Jerusalem and appealing for the Vatican’s help in bringing about Palestinian independence.

Despite the controversies, the pope was warmly welcomed at every stop by Israeli dignitaries, Muslim clerics and Christians.


by the associated press

Israel hopes Pope Benedict’s visit may boost tourism, image

JERUSALEM — Israeli officials are hoping that the visit of Pope Benedict XVI will boost tourism, improve Israel’s image and bolster relations between the Jewish state and the Vatican.

Benedict was starting a five-day trip to the Holy Land today, visiting sites in Israel and the West Bank and celebrating Mass in Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem.

He becomes the second pope to make an official visit to Israel, following John Paul II, who made a trip to the Holy Land for the 2000 millennium year.

Israeli tourism officials said Sunday that 15,000 Christian pilgrims are expected to join the pope, in addition to the 35,000 who come to the Holy Land every week.

Tourism officials said they hope the papal visit will attract an additional 200,000 Christian pilgrims to visit the country during the rest of the year. Officials already are expecting about 2.6 million tourists this year.

"I call on every person of faith in the world to visit Jerusalem at least once in their life,” Jerusalem’s Israeli mayor, Nir Barkat, said Sunday.


Second impression?
Israeli Tourism Minister Yuli Edelstein hoped the images of the pope at prayer would push aside some of the impressions of Israel as a focus of war and violence.
"I’m not naive enough to think that it will fill all the screens and that everyone will forget about the conflict,” Edelstein said, hoping the visit would create better understanding abroad "of Israeli democracy, of religious freedom, that of the existing and vital Christian minority in this country,” which "is enjoying all the rights.”



by the associated press