“A haemorrhage that deprives the Church of Jerusalem of its best elements”: with these words, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, defined the Christians’ leaving the Holy Land, mainly “young people and intellectuals looking for a better life and a better future”. A flight driven by the many challenges that the Christian community has to face because of the “Israel-Palestinian conflict: military occupation and daily humiliations, violence on both sides, the knife Intifada, the rise of religious, Jewish and Muslim fanaticism”. Twal also mentioned “the Israeli partition wall, approximately 8 metres high and over 700 km long”: “The search for security is turning into a sort of obsession, a myth in the name of which any abuse and the immediate use of violence in any circumstance are justified”, pointed out the Patriarch, who complained that “Israel never complied with the many international resolutions on conflict, settlements and borders”. A few days ago, speaking at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, the Patriarch, whose words have been posted on the website of the Latin Patriarchate today, pointed out that “Christians who live between two majorities, Jews and Muslims, are that little flock the Gospel speaks of but are called to be a bridge between the two religions, two cultures, two civilisations as well as between two politics”. Christians of the Holy Land, who “share the same story, language and culture as the Muslims who they have been living with for centuries, play a positive role in Arab society and ease relations between different social components”. The Patriarch emphasised “the important mission of Christian schools in Palestine, one of the Middle Eastern countries with the highest illiteracy rates. Some educational practices are not always understood by Muslims, including the theology of mercy, forgiveness and the purification of memory, which is hard to understand within the context of conflict”. In addition, Twal praised the agreement entered into on 26th June 2015 between the Holy See and the Palestinian State, the impact of which has been “very positive” on the Arab and Muslim worlds. As to the key agreements entered into between Israel and the Holy See in 1993, the Patriarch mentioned articles 1, 3, 4, 10 and 11 as obstacles to an agreement that is still being negotiated: religious freedom for all Palestinian Christians who cannot visit the Holy Places without first getting a “permit from the Israeli military authorities, humiliations at checkpoints, the dramatic reduction in Israeli state subsidies to Christian schools, funded up to 29% versus 100% of Israel’s religious schools, or respect for the status quo in the holy places”.