German Catholic leaders on a tour of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza compared the situation of Palestinians to that
of Jews in the Holocaust. Yediot Achronot reported that the bishops were visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, when German Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke said, “This morning we saw pictures of the Warsaw ghetto at Yad Vashem, and this evening we are going to the Ramallah ghetto.” Hanke added that he planned to include his impressions of Palestinian suffering in his Easter sermon. According to reporters with the group, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, said Israel’s West Bank security barrier was useless and one day would be torn down, like the former Berlin Wall. Built to impede Palestinian terrorists from infiltrating Israel, the security barrier has led to a dramatic drop in the number of attacks.
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