A8


EZ SU


KLMNO THE WORLD


Pope urges self-reflection on flaws that led to abuse


In talk to church hierarchy, Benedict also blames sexual scandal on culture of the ’70s


BY JASON HOROWITZ In a remarkable demonstration of


public soul-searching, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday used a high-profile Christmas speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops to urge reflection on the flaws in the church’s very message and culture that permitted a global sexual- abuse scandal. “We must ask ourselves what we can


SAID KHATIB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


International humanitarian organizations say they are struggling to build much-needed housing, schools and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip because of Israel’s severe restrictions on the import of constructionmaterials. Israeli officials fear thatHamas could use the construction goods to build bunkers to hide weapons and fire rockets.


Aid groups decry Israel’s Gaza constraints


BUILDING GOODS HARD TO COME BY


Critics say restrictions hurt relief work, not Hamas BY JANINE ZACHARIA


gaza city — Despite recent moves by Israel to ease construction in the Gaza Strip, restrictions on building materials are hampering international humanitari- an effortswhile doing little to impede the Hamas-ledgovernment they aredesigned to weaken, aid and nongovernmental groups say. Israel says the limits on cement and


other imports are intended to prevent misuse by Hamas. But the Islamist mili- tant group has ready access to construc- tionmaterials throughsmugglingtunnels along the borderwithEgypt. Instead, aid groups say, Israeli bureau-


cracy and bottlenecks at border crossings are snarling the delivery of materials to international relief organizations strug- gling to build much-needed housing, schools andinfrastructureprojects. “The United Nations, who have a re-


sponsibilitytohelp,we’retheonesthatare held up,” John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency’s Gaza opera- tions, said in an interview. “We’re held up frombuilding schools.We’reheldupfrom our other infrastructure projects, from the housing people need.And, yet, for the otherpartsof societyhere—bethateither thosewithulterioragendasorpeoplewho justhavemoney—theycangetonwithit.” After Israeli naval commandos killed


nine activists aboard a Turkish-flagged aid ship trying to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip in May, Israel faced pres- sure to ease its grip on the territory. Israel pledged to increase the flow of construc- tionmaterials for projects under interna- tional supervision and lifted a ban on the import ofmost consumer goods. This month, Israel — which recently


approved the export of strawberries and flowers from Gaza to Europe — said it would soon allow Gazans to exportmore


JANINE ZACHARIA/THE WASHINGTON POST


Aconcrete smuggler in the southern city of Rafah takes stock of his earnings. Israeli limits on cement imports are intended to prevent misuse byHamas, but buildingmaterials are easily smuggled in through tunnels along Egypt’s border.


produce and some manufactured goods, which could increase the standard of liv- ing inthe stripandcreate jobs.


Humanitarian needs persist But even as Gaza’s economy shows


signs of improvement, its humanitarian needs remain widespread. Thousands of homes damaged in a punishing three- weekwarwithIsrael in2008-2009 are yet to be rebuilt. Millions of liters of raw sewage are spilling into the Mediterra- nean Sea because treatment plants re- main in disrepair. And experts say Gaza’s rapidly growing population of 1.5million could run out of fresh drinking water by 2015 if the infrastructure is not over- hauled. The number of internationally funded


aid projects authorized by Israel in- creased from14 before theMay naval raid to 78 by June. But Ging says that’s only a fractionofwhatGaza’sheavily aid-depen- dent population needs. The 27 U.N. proj- ects thathavebeenapprovedmakeupjust 7 percent of the relief agency’s construc- tion plans.Many of the projects that have been approved cannot be completed on time because of the problems gettingma- terials,he added. Israel evacuated theGaza Strip in 2005


but still controls what enters and leaves the territory. Tensions have escalated along Israel’s border with Gaza in recent weeks as rockets and mortar shells fired from the territory have landed in Israeli townswithincreasing frequency. Suchperiodicattacksareat theheartof


Israel’s reluctance to ease restrictions on constructionmaterials,which Israeli offi- cials fear Hamas could use to build bun- kers to hide weapons and fire rockets. Construction by Hamas could also boost popular support for the group,which has ruled the Gaza Strip since seizing control of it in2007. Securing Israeli approval of projects


requiresweeksorevenmonthsofnegotia- tions and the sign-off of up to six Israeli agencies, according to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental group that tracks movement and access problems between Israel andtheGaza Strip. “Hundreds of hours of staff time and


millionsofdollarsarespentondocument- ing each nut and bolt — as if we were supervising the transfer of highly special- ized weapons, and despite the fact that steel,concreteandgravelenterGazaquite freely via the tunnels,” said Sari Bashi, Gisha’s executivedirector. Kerem Shalom, the only full-time bor-


der crossing for goods, has increased its capacity and can accommodate 250 trucks daily, most of them carrying com- mercial products. But the problems with construction materials persist. A single conveyerbelt at theKarni crossing isused for animal feed and concrete. It operates two days a week, creating shortages of both goods. Israel says it cannot operate the conveyer belt more often because of securityproblems. Overall,nearly 150trucks carrying con-


struction materials enter Gaza each month. Although that marks an increase


DIGEST EUROPE


Airports try to ease snow-related chaos Night curfews were lifted and ticket


refunds were offered at London’s Heath- rowonMondayasauthoritiestookunusu- al steps to ease the chaos at Europe’s busiest airport in the run-up to the hectic Christmas-NewYear’sholidayperiod. Across thecontinent, therewere scenes


of disruption for a third day as early winter snowhit air, roadandrail travelers struggling to get home for one of the biggestholidays onthe calendar. Some of Europe’s problems stemmed


from woes at Heathrow, where furious passengers, hundreds ofwhomhad spent up to two nights sleeping on the floor, besieged staff workers at the airport, which has struggled to operate since five inches of snowfell inanhour Saturday. Elsewhere in Europe, tensions re-


mained high at Germany’s Frankfurt Air- port, where thousands of travelers’ plans were thrown into disarray. Fraport, the airport operator, provided more than 1,000fieldbedsforpassengers—aswellas clowns to entertain children. A shortage of de-icing liquid forced the Brussels air- port to cancel all flights from Monday eveninguntilTuesdaymorning. —FinancialTimes


BRITAIN


Twelvemen arrested in antiterrorismraid In their biggest antiterrorismsweep in


nearly two years, British police on Mon-


day arrested a dozen men accused of plotting a large-scale terrorist attack on targets inside theUnitedKingdom. The plot was not thought to pose a


threat to other European countries, secu- rity officials said. Police officers swooped in on themen’s


houses unarmed, suggesting that the sus- pectswerenot thought to be armed. Themen were arrested in London, the


WelshcityofCardiffandtheEnglishcities of Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent. The raid was the largest since April 2009, when 12 men were detained over an al- leged al-Qaeda bomb plot in the northern city ofManchester.


—AssociatedPress KENYA


Bombingwounds dozens atNairobi bus station A bomb exploded at a downtown bus


station in Kenya’s capital lateMonday as passengers boarded a bus, killing at least onepersonandwoundingupto 39,police said. Suspicions centered on a Somali militant group. The person who was killed was carry-


ing a piece of luggage that contained the bomb, Police Commissioner Mathew K. Iteere said. Itwasnot clearwhether itwas a suicide attack, Iteere said. Most of the wounded were Ugandans


traveling home for Christmas, Red Cross officialNellyMuluka said. Al-Shabab, Somalia’s most dangerous


militant group, has threatened to carry outmoreattacksonUgandaandBurundi, which contribute troops to the 8,000- member African Union force in Mogadi-


ALEX DOMANSKI/REUTERS


Thousands of airline passengers across Europe found their plans thrown into turmoil as snow continued to cause disruptions. Tensions were high atGermany’s Frankfurt Airport, above, where more than 1,000 field beds were provided for travelers.


shu, the Somali capital.Twinbombings in July in Uganda, for which al-Shabab as- sertedresponsibility, killed76. —AssociatedPress


MIDDLEEAST


’07 cable suggests Israel, Abbas cooperated onGaza A cable released by the anti-secrecy


WebsiteWikiLeaksonMonday suggested closecooperationbetweenIsraelandforc- es loyal toPalestinianAuthorityPresident


Mahmoud Abbas when the rival Hamas movementoverrantheGazaStripin2007. The disclosure could embarrass Abbas


and his Fatah movement, which Hamas has accused of working with the Israelis. Abbas’s standing among Palestinians has been weakened by his failure to make progress in reaching a peace deal with Israel. The June 13, 2007, cable from the U.S.


Embassy inTelAviv, citing a conversation that took place during the civil war that endedwithHamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip, cites Israel Security Agency chief


Yuval Diskin as saying that Israel had “establishedaverygoodworkingrelation- ship”withtwobranchesof thePalestinian security service. Abbas’s internal security agency, he


said, “shareswith ISAalmost all the intel- ligence that it collects.” Amorerecent secretU.S. cablereleased


byWikiLeaks said a storage facility hous- ing some radioactive material in Yemen, hometooneof themostactivebranchesof al-Qaeda, was left unguarded for up to a week.ThemessagewasdatedJan. 9 —AssociatedPress


fromwhat was permitted before theMay raid, it is a fraction of the roughly 5,000 permonththatenteredtheterritorywhen trade flowedfreely.


A deficit of schools InRafah,at thesoutherntipof theGaza


Strip, there are endless rows of what appear to be greenhouses.But behind the plastic sheetingofone, a steepdirt incline leads to an 800-meter tunnel to Egypt. Bags of aggregate—crushed rock used in the making of cement — are transported by a rudimentary pulley system, bagged andwait to be truckedtomarket. Hamas says thatwithhelpfromIslamic


charities in the Persian Gulf region, it is using materials smuggled through these tunnels to build schools and houses.Yass- er al-Shanti, director of public works in the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said the cash-strapped group renovated 1,000 houseswith the support of such charities. A school has been built in Rafah, and a major street inGazaCity repaired. Over thepast twomonths, abouthalfof


the 925 trucks of supplies scheduled to enter Gaza for U.N. projects actually did, according to theU.N. relief agency,Gaza’s largest outsidedonor. Since Israel’smove in June to facilitate


more international construction, the agency has completed two projects — a sewage pumping station and 151 housing units — a fraction of the 10,000 units it seeks to build. But Ging says his main concern is


schools. Israel has approved six out of 100 theagency says itneeds tobuildtoaccom- modate 40,000 eligible children. “Over- crowded classrooms, tens of thousands of children failing academically, all of these things, they have long-term detrimental consequences,”he said. Maj.Gen.EitanDangot, coordinator of


Israel’s activities in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, said Israel is examining the agency’s requests as quickly as it can and supports its efforts to establishschools. As for when Israel might eliminate


restrictions on constructionmaterials for the private sector, officials say they are considering it. “After a period of quiet fromall theshooting. . .maybeitwillstart happening,” saidGuy Inbar, a spokesman forDangot. “Butnot yet.” zachariaj@washpost.com


do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred,” Benedict said. “We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in ourwhole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen.” In his address, which Benedict has


used to emphasize his priorities to the assembled hierarchy, the pontiff said the past year’s revelations of decades of sexual abuse of children by priests had taken on an “unimaginable dimension” and amounted to a “humiliation” that should be accepted as an “exhortation to truth and a call to renewal.” Benedict has often expressed disgust


for the sins or “filth” in the church that caused the abuse and an uneasy seeking of repentance. In an effort to demon- strate the goodwill of the pope, who was drawn into the scandal when questions arose over his handling of caseswhile he was archbishop of Munich, the Vatican this month published a 1988 letter that appeared to show him calling for quick- er punishment of priests in his capacity as the church’s top doctrinal enforcer. In his remarks Monday, the pope


seemed to go further, suggesting that Christianity and its message had failed to prevent and address the abuse. During the past year, a sexual-abuse


scandal that top cardinals had once insinuated was a problem of the Ameri- can church alone has spread throughout the world. Investigations across Europe have discovered a pattern of bishops and other church hierarchy, including Vati- can officials, ignoring or covering up sexual abuse of children by priests. OnMonday, the pope put the abuse in


the context of the “many good priests” and also placed blame on a favorite villain for conservatives within the church: a sexually derelict culture of the 1970s in which a godless relativity ran wild and “pedophilia was theorized as something thatwas in keepingwithman and even the child.” Some advocates for abuse victims


criticized the pope’s analysis, the Associ- ated Press reported. “It is fundamentally disturbing to


watch a brilliant man so conveniently misdiagnose a horrific scandal,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the main U.S. victims’ group SurvivorsNetwork of those Abused by Priests. She told AP that the scandal wasn’t


caused by the 1970s but rather by the church’s culture of secrecy and fixation with self-preservation inwhich predator priests, and the bishops who moved them around rather than turn them in, were rarely disciplined. horowitzj@washpost.com


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56