Leaders of Christian Churches in Jerusalem have issued an urgent call for an end to the violence that has caused the death of more than 50 people in two days and has brought Israelis and Palestinians close to the brink of all-out war.
The Church leaders - Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant - demanded that the Israeli and Palestinian authorities take the "necessary" steps to "alleviate the sufferings of the people in the Palestinian territories" and "reactivate the peace process with new determination". In a statement issued 26 September - after two days of unprecedented fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian policemen and civilians in the West Bank - Church leaders said they shared "with our Muslim brothers their religious fears". They urged the Israeli authorities to "take into consideration these feelings in the light of the present circumstances in the Holy City".
Violence "from any side" could not lead to a solution of the conflict, the Church leaders said in the diplomatically-worded statement which avoided taking the Palestinian view that the deaths were the result of Israeli intransigence.
Israel's controversial decision to open a second entrance into an archaeological tunnel running near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sparked off the violence, is only the latest in a series of actions that has angered Christians and Muslims.
The tunnel, ostensibly to encourage tourists to visit the archaeological evidence of the Second Temple, is seen by Muslims throughout the Middle East as an effort to undermine the third most sacred site in Islam.
Muslim leaders are extremely conscious of the fact that an Israeli sect, the "Temple Mount Faithful", wishes to destroy the historic mosque and the Dome of the Rock and to rebuild what they are calling the Third Temple.
The Dome of the Rock is currently being recovered with mosaic tiles as a gift from Jordan's King Hussein. Earlier he gave a new golden dome.
While most Palestinian Arabs agree that violence must be halted and avoided, many have lost patience with the Israeli authorities. They say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "watering the roots of the Intifada" and trying to wreck the peace process.
Christians and Muslims alike had expressed hope that by the year 2000 peaceful conditions would permit pilgrims to visit holy places in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and that Muslims would again be able to make the "long" haj (or pilgrimage) that used to include Jerusalem as well as Mecca.
In Geneva, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called on Israel to "withdraw immediately" all its armed forces from the Palestinian Autonomous Territory. The WCC said the presence of the armed forces was a "violation of the Oslo accords". The Palestinian National Authority, the WCC said yesterday, 26 September, "must be free" to maintain law and order in the region which it governs, "with a minimum of force".