Palestinian Christians hope new pope will help in battle against Israel's barrier route

Palestinians in this Christian village are hoping the new pope can succeed where others have failed — pressing Israel to drop plans to build a stretch of its West Bank separation barrier through their picturesque valley.

Since Vatican properties are affected, residents have appealed to the Roman Catholic Church to use more of its significant influence in the Holy Land to reroute the barrier, even as local Catholic leaders hold a special protest Mass in threatened orchards each week.

The Vatican has called on Israel not to seize the lands, but local Palestinian Catholics want the new pontiff to lean more heavily on Israel.

"We have hope in the new pope, as he is close to the poor and the oppressed," said the Rev. Ibrahim Shomali, the Palestinian priest who has been leading the protests.

Israel has been building the barrier since 2002 in response to a wave of suicide bombings early last decade that killed hundreds of people. Israel says the barrier is needed to keep out Palestinian attackers.

Palestinians say the barrier is a land grab because it zigzags through the West Bank. When complete, nearly 10 per cent of the West Bank, including many Israeli settlements, would lie on Israel's side, according to the United Nations. Roughly two-thirds of the 700 kilometre (450-mile) structure has been built.

Beit Jala is a postcard-pretty Christian town of 16,000 in the overwhelmingly Muslim West Bank. The likeness of the Palestinian patron, Saint George, is carved into building facades. Groceries sell beer and butchers sell pork, items banned under Islamic law. A bowling alley faces an Israeli military base.

Yet the village feels hemmed in. It abuts the biblical town of Bethlehem on one side. On another, barbed wire separates Beit Jala from the Jewish settlement of Har Gilo. Part of the separation barrier seals in another side, protecting a nearby road used by Jewish settlers. Residents say the planned stretch of construction will close off one of the village's last remaining open spaces.

"They are crowding us inside a ghetto," sighed Issa Khalilieh, whose family lost 12 acres (five hectares) in years of Israeli confiscations, and is poised to lose another three acres (one hectare) to the barrier.

An Israeli defence official said Jerusalem would remain "open and vulnerable" if the section isn't built. He noted that during the height of violence a decade ago, militants fired at nearby Gilo from Beit Jala. Although the fighting has quieted, he said Palestinians now use the valley to sneak into Israel to work. The official spoke anonymously under ministry policy.

In the Beit Jala area, Israel's Defence Ministry plans to seize some 790 acres (320 hectares) of the Cremisan Valley, said lawyer Ghaith Nasser. Israel's Defence Ministry would not confirm how much land they intend to seize.

Some one-third of the land is Vatican-owned, with a monastery surrounded by pines, playground and vineyard that monks have used to make wine since 1882. Nearby is a convent where nuns run a school for 600 Palestinian students. Some 60 families own the rest, a series of terraced olive and apricot orchards plunging into the valley. Residents go there to relax, barbecue and pray.

If the route goes as planned, the monastery and orchards will be on Israel's side of the barrier. The convent and school will be on the Palestinian side, surrounded by high concrete walls, lawyers said.

Since January 2012, about two dozen people have gathered in the groves every Friday to pray to save their lands. George Abu Eid, whose family's five acres (two hectares) of olive and lemon orchards are threatened, said activists hope to build international support.

On a recent windy Friday, some two dozen worshippers gathered in a circle around Rev. Shomali, who used a cloth-covered table as a makeshift altar, held down with a crucifix. Palestinians and European Christian volunteers sang hymns. One woman read part of a Bible passage. Rev. Shomali reminded the congregation that Christians are obligated to help the oppressed.

Rev. Shomali's protest Mass isn't sanctioned by the church. Instead, he said he was making an honest Christian act of standing with people defending their land. He said the village plans to send a delegation to the Vatican to plead their case.

Residents have been challenging the project in court for years, and construction remains on hold pending a ruling. A Catholic legal aid group is assisting the court battle, and the Latin Patriarchate, which oversees local Catholic affairs, said it sympathizes with the residents. The Vatican signed an October letter that condemned the barrier's route and called on Israel to keep the Cremisan valley attached to Beit Jala.

Rev. Shomali and residents said the letter wasn't enough. They want the Vatican to either join their legal case or publically condemn Israel.

"If the church stands with us, we would have our land. Israel is scared of the church and her voice," said Rev. Shomali.

Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the government is in "direct dialogue" with the Vatican and affected monks and nuns in the area to try come to an amicable decision.

"We have been trying to make our case and reach an agreement on what would be possible," he said.

A senior church official confirmed discussions were underway with Israel. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future state.

For years, they have staged marches in villages affected by the barrier, sometimes succeeding in altering the route of the barrier. An Israeli-Palestinian documentary on the fight of residents in the village of Bilin to reroute the barrier was nominated for an Oscar this year.

The route of the barrier has drawn accusations that Israel is using the structure to incorporate some Jewish settlements, how home to more than 500,000 Israelis, into its future borders.

"The barrier has a route that ... is clearly not defined by what Israel calls security reasons," said Aviv Tatarsky of Ir Amim, an advocacy group that monitors the route of the barrier around Jerusalem. "The planned route goes way into the West Bank to put the settlement blocs within its area."

Israeli governments have said that they intend to keep the main settlement blocs close to the old 1949 cease-fire line along the West Bank under a peace treaty, offering the Palestinians Israeli land in exchange, but negotiations have failed to produce an agreement.

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As Supreme Court reviews gay marriage, Illinois battle heats up

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Like many gay couples in the United States, Theresa Volpe and Mercedes Santos of Chicago will be keeping a close eye on the U.S. Supreme Court this week as it hears arguments on two same-sex marriage cases.

The high court review coincides with a crucial moment at home in the couple's fight to make Illinois the tenth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Volpe and Santos, who have personally lobbied Illinois lawmakers on this issue, worry about delays in drumming up enough votes for passage of a bill in their state and a growing campaign from opponents.

Supporters had hoped the bill would sail through the Democratic-majority legislature in President Barack Obama's home state in January. But it took until Valentine's Day to go through the Senate and was still several votes short in the House by late March.

"What's going on in Illinois is a little disturbing - we're worried and anxious, but I know they're working hard to make things happen," said Santos, who is bringing up two children with Volpe.

The delay underscores the difficulty of securing approval for gay marriage, even in a state with strong Democratic majorities in the legislature and a Democratic governor who supports it.

During a two-week legislative spring break that began on Monday, both sides were intensifying their efforts.

Opponents of the bill are focusing mainly on the more conservative and rural areas of the state south of Chicago, and some African-American districts in Chicago.

More than 425,000 robo-calls have been placed to constituents in more than 20 districts, according to Paul Caprio, director of Family-Pac, an Illinois-based family values political action group opposed to gay marriage.

Calls to six African-American districts have featured the voice of former state Senator James Meeks, a prominent Chicago black minister opposed to same-sex nuptials.

"We've had tremendous response from the minority community on this issue," Caprio said.

In one call to people in southwestern Illinois, Caprio's voice asks voters whether their state lawmaker stands for "the Chicago homosexuals, or your family?"

'LIKE ANY OTHER FAMILY'

Bernard Cherkasov, executive director of Equality Illinois, a Chicago-based gay rights organization, said proponents were focusing more on personal appeals to legislators from constituents, including ministers and rabbis and gay couples themselves.

"I do feel really optimistic. We're really close, we're in striking distance to passing the bill," he said.

Volpe, 42, and Santos, 47, are among the gay couples who taken their appeal to lawmakers in the Illinois state capital of Springfield.

They have been together for 21 years and have two children, Ava, 8, and Jaidon, 4, conceived through an anonymous donor. The couple became outspoken advocates for gay marriage after Jaidon suffered kidney failure two years ago and was in danger of dying.

While Theresa filled out the paperwork at the hospital, Mercedes sat with him in his room. But then Theresa was told she could not see Jaidon, as there was no hospital policy for two mothers.

They believe marriage will be easier to explain to people at hospitals and other facilities than the civil union they formed after Illinois approved that option in 2011. And they want the federal rights heterosexual couples have, including Social Security benefits and tax exemptions for a surviving spouse's inheritance.

"We want people to realize that we're just like any other family - we love our kids - we don't do anything special but be parents," Santos said.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a challenge against California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage known as Proposition 8. On Wednesday, the justices will hear arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act, which excludes gay couples from federal benefits.

It is difficult to predict how the court might rule on Proposition 8, and how that would affect other states. One option could affect Illinois and other states that are like California in allowing civil unions but forbidding actual marriage. The Obama administration wants the Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8 because it relegates such same-sex civil unions to a lower legal status.

Public opinion nationally has been turning in favor of gay marriage and civil unions. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in mid-March found 63 percent of Americans in favor of gay marriage or civil unions.

(Additional reporting by Joan Biskupic; Editing by Greg McCune, Mary Milliken and David Brunnstrom)

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New York's Bloomberg faces test in Chicago political gun battle

CHICAGO (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push for stricter U.S. gun laws in the wake of the Connecticut school massacre faces a stern test next week in a messy Chicago special election where he has piled in with more than $2 million in political ads.

The outcome of the race is the first big election test since the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting of whether gun control champions such as Bloomberg and former U.S. congresswoman Gabby Giffords can use money, and the same tough tactics as gun rights lobbyists, to influence voters.

Gun control vaulted to the top of the U.S. political agenda after a gunman last December shot and killed 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown including 20 children.

Bloomberg is taking a risk by wading into the nasty and racially charged politics of Chicago, where critics have already complained the brash mayor is trying to buy an election nearly 1,000 miles from New York City.

The February 26 primary is to replace U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to using campaign funds to finance a lavish personal lifestyle.

Jackson was a reliable vote in Congress for gun control measures but polls last month showed the seat could be won by Debbie Halvorson, who has an "A" rating from the powerful gun rights lobby, the National Rifle Association, and opposes an assault weapons ban.

The winner of the Democratic primary is likely to win the seat because the district is heavily Democratic.

Bloomberg's Independence USA political action committee, or PAC, has blanketed Chicago television with more than $2 million in ads attacking Halvorson's stance on guns and endorsing Robin Kelly, a candidate supporting gun control, according to PAC spokesman Stefan Friedman.

"Halvorson would have probably won this district if the gun control issue hadn't intervened," said Dick Simpson, a former Chicago city council member and political scientist at the University of Illinois, Chicago. "Whether she still can win it is unclear."

The district at stake is majority African-American and includes some areas ravaged by gun violence, as Chicago's murder rate reached the highest in five years. The district should be receptive to Bloomberg's message of gun restrictions.

But it also stretches south to the outer suburbs of Chicago where some white voters are in favor of gun ownership.

Halvorson is the only white candidate among the 14 Democrats still vying for the seat. The concern among some in the black community is that the black vote will split, allowing Halvorson to win the primary with only about a third of the vote.

There have been no public polls in weeks and both sides are touting private polls showing they are winning the gun battle.

Halvorson is fighting back, saying Bloomberg misrepresented her position on guns. She said that she supports registration of all firearms and background checks for gun purchases, but opposes a ban on assault weapons.

"(The commercials) are so over the top. They are unbelievable. They also are false, because they say that I am endorsed by the NRA, which I am not," Halvorson said.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, which is aligned with the NRA, said it does endorse Halvorson.

"I think that (Bloomberg) is trying to take advantage of a tragedy," association executive director Richard Pearson said, referring to the Connecticut shooting. "And I think that you hear less talk about victims and it's more about getting his agenda done."

Halvorson and Chicago city council member Anthony Beale, who is also vying for the seat, accused Bloomberg of trying to "buy" an election.

Bloomberg and his allies are unbowed by the criticism.

"The mayor has been clear that when these issues are in play, he believes it's a good use of time and resources to help educate the public about the candidates' position on them," Friedman said.

(Reporting by Renita Young; Editing by Greg McCune and Dale Hudson)

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