Note #9172 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06134 Feb. 27, 2006
Palestinians bow to Chinese pressure, won't let Dalai Lama visit Bethlehem
by Michele Green Ecumenical News International
JERUSALEM - The Dalai Lama met with religious leaders during his visit to the Holy Land, carrying a message of non-violence, religious tolerance and hope, but wasn't able to take that message to Palestinians in Bethlehem.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists urged Jewish and Muslim leaders to help make peace Israelis and Palestinians, even if it means talking to their bitterest enemies.
"Any noble work is bound to have obstacles," the Dalai Lama told religious leaders in a Feb. 19 meeting. "We need determination to pursue justice and truth."
The exiled Tibetan leader, whose five-day visit ended on Feb. 20, intended to travel to the West Bank city of Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Muslim and Christian leaders and to see the Church of the Nativity, but the Palestinian Authority cancelled the visit because of pressure from China, Palestinian sources said.
The Chinese consul in Tel Aviv has sent Israeli officials a letter protesting the Dalai Lama's visit, comparing the Tibetan to the head of the Hamas, Israel Radio reported. "If China would let the head of Hamas visit, Israel would be angry," the Chinese said in the letter, according to the radio report.
The present Dalai Lama - the 14th incarnation, by Tibetan tradition - also had advice for Israeli and Palestinian youth during a lecture at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
"Despite all the different philosophies and religions that exist in the world, they all carry the same message of love and compassion," he said. "Compassion is the essence of all religions, the foundation of human society."
Israeli political officials did not meet with the Dalai Lama, but he did visit with the country's leading rabbis and with Muslim clerics who head Islamic courts in Israel. He also was given an honorary doctorate at the Ben Gurion University.
The Dalai Lama has become a symbol of the desire of many Tibetans to be independent of Chinese rule. Chinese Communist troops took control of Tibet in 1951; the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese occupation. He since has renounced independence but seeks autonomy and religious freedom for Tibet within China. China insists that he is really seeking independence.
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