The most tragic thing I have seen

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- While Israel has a right to protect Security barrier citizens, the security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian territories and checkpoints along the barrier raise human rights concerns, said a U.S. cardinal.

"The most tragic thing I have seen is the miles-long wall that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem and separates families and keeps farmers from the land that has been in their families for generations. It is humiliating and distressing," Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, told participants at the 11th international conference of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation Oct. 24.

"I appreciate the Israeli government's concern for security" and respect it, he said. "But many of these measures raise serious human rights issues that Security barrier to acknowledge Traffic barricades and address."