Dr Rowan Williams and other UK church leaders passed through the barrier on their way to Bethlehem while on a Christmas pilgrimage to the town.

There was a "fear of the other and the stranger which keeps all of us in one or another kind of prison", he said.

"We are here to say that security for one is security for all. For one to live under threat, whether of occupation, or of terror, is a problem for all, and a pain for all."