The head of the German Bishops Conference conceded that some statements made by members on a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank were "inappropriate."

Cardinal Karl Lehmann responded a few days ago to a letter sent to him by Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority, protesting a statement made a short time after the group visited Yad Vashem earlier this month, and then traveled to Ramallah. "In the morning we saw the Warsaw Ghetto and now it's the Ramallah Ghetto," one of the bishops said.

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"In light of the painful reality of the separation fence," Lehman wrote in his letter to Shalev, "some of the members of the delegation said harsh things, some of which were not appropriate." In his letter Lehmann reiterated the heavy responsibility the German people bear due to the Holocaust, and that even those who expressed themselves harshly recognized Israel's right to defend itself. He said the bishop who made the statement had no intention to compare the past and the present and wrote, "It is impossible to compare current problems with the murder of the Jewish people."