The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is currently taking part in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, has criticised the Israeli security wall that surrounds Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.
Speaking to the town's civic representatives shortly after walking through the wall, Dr Williams said the wall symbolised "the terrible fear of the other, of the stranger, which keeps us all in one kind of prison or another", from which God 2,000 years ago came to release people, Open Bethlehem said.
Dr Williams was speaking on behalf of a delegation of UK church leaders to the town of Christ's birth, which includes the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Moderator of the Free Churches, David Coffey, and the Armenian Patriarch of Great Britain, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian.
Accompanied by Christian church leaders from Jerusalem, the delegation made its way through the notorious checkpoint at the entrance to the town. The wall currently prevents the majority of Bethlehem's population from travelling and trading with neighbouring Jerusalem, with the exception of a few who hold special permits.
The delegation walked from the checkpoint down Star St to Manger Square, following the route said to have been made 2,000 years ago by Mary and Joseph.
They were greeted in the square by civic leaders at the International Peace Centre, close to the Basilica of the Nativity.
The Archbishop of Canterbury's remarks were in response to a speech by Bethlehem's Mayor, Dr Victor Batarsheh, in which he described how many families have had to face economic hardship or leave Bethlehem since it was cut off from the outside world by the wall. Bethlehem, he said, had been "transformed into an open prison" by the wall.
He told the church leaders that future peace depended on "dialogue, not separation".
"Your presence is challenging this ugly wall," Mayor Batarseh told them.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said they were "here to say to the people of Bethlehem that they are not forgotten".
