THE Archbishop of Canterbury turned his sights on a new political target yesterday, accusing Israel of hindering pilgrimages to Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born.

Just hours after rounding on the British government for putting Christian communities in the Middle East at risk by its “short-sighted” and “ignorant” policy in Iraq, Rowan Williams questioned how long Israel would maintain its West Bank security barrier, which has deterred Christians from visiting the scene of Christ’s birth.

The barrier separates the town, one of the largest in the Palestinian territories, from the nearby city of Jerusalem and was erected in a bid to stop suicide bombers. It has reduced the number of tourists at Christmas time from 90,000 a decade ago to less than 3,000 last year. Even fewer are expected this year.

Williams said yesterday: “It is a sensitive time in Israel, of course. Just a couple of week ago they had that notorious conference about Holocaust denial in Tehran. That has made Israel particularly sensitive at this moment on the question of security.

“It is undoubtedly a fact that suicide bombing attacks have gone down since the barrier was erected but the human cost that we have seen has to raise the question: what alternative is there now? How does the long-term security implication of the barrier work out?”

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, who is with Williams on a pilgrimage to the Middle East, said he and his fellow archbishop shared concerns about the barrier.

“Of course we understand the fears of the Israelis of the attacks that have occurred. We have also seen at first hand the way in which that barrier has actually stifled the town of Bethlehem and induced a kind of despair among its people who feel they are under occupation,” he said.

Both men were speaking from Jerusalem to the Today programme on BBC’s Radio 4. Earlier Williams reiterated comments he made in an article for The Times yesterday blaming Tony Blair and George Bush for putting Christians in the Middle East at unprecedented risk because of their policy in Iraq.

“What we have seen in the last year or so in Iraq has been attacks on Christian priests, the murder of some Christian priests, and the massive departure of large numbers of Christians from Iraq,” he said.

“That has something to do with the way in which Christians can now easily get branded as pro-western, as unreliable allies in the region. The situation has got worse since the fall of Saddam.”

Yesterday the Foreign Office rebuked the archbishop for his comments on Iraq. “We disagree with his views,” it said. “We don’t think that it is our policies in Iraq that cause suffering of Christians.

“We think it is intolerant extremism of people who want to cause pain and suffering and chaos in order to promulgate the societies in which they can impose the way of life they want on people who have clearly voted for democracy and democratic government.”

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