SHOPPERS in Durham were asked to sign a Christmas card to send to people in the Middle East.

The card is to be given to church leaders Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, to take with them when they visit Bethlehem this Christmas.

It contains signatures and good wishes from the people of Durham to express their sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinians.

Organisers from the County Durham Palestine Solidarity Campaign set up a Christmas stall in Durham's Market Place on Saturday.

The church leaders are visiting Bethlehem as a gesture of solidarity with the people, many of them Christians, who are "imprisoned" by the Israeli security wall and checkpoints.

In his Christmas address last year, Cardinal Connor declared that Jesus Christ would be weeping for the town of his birth as it was "steadily strangled".

Dr Williams has warned of an exodus of Christians from the town as conditions become intolerable.

The group campaigned against the Israeli wall, which has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, since its construction commenced.

Thea Khamis, a Stanley resident and vice-chairwoman of the group, who is from a Palestinian Christian family, said: "The apartheid wall is dividing families, ruining agriculture and commerce, and destroying the tourism business in Bethlehem.

"The Israelis are creating ghettos as part of their strategy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories."

People were asked to sign the Christmas card and buy their own cards designed by Durham artist, Mike Attewell.