\u201cToday we hear threats that the war will continue \u2018until victory.\u2019 We ask, what kind of victory - death, destruction, desolation? To those who promote war as the only way, we say: war is not the way. We reiterate our call for an end to bloodshed and destruction.\u201d A group of religious leaders from different Christian Churches in the Holy Land have issued a letter demanding an end to the war affecting Israel, the United States, Lebanon, Iran and Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter was released on the occasion of the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (the end of the British Mandate in 1948) on May 15, and is signed by a prominent group of Christian leaders, including Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, Greek Orthodox Archbishop, and Lutheran Bishop Emeritus, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The text recalls that \u201cif we truly seek an end to the war in the Middle East, we must focus on the central problem: the plight of the Palestinian people, who have been suffering since 1948. After October 2023, the catastrophe they face has intensified amid an ongoing war in Gaza, waged to erase Palestine and the Palestinians. And the war has spread to the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur Holy Land yearns for equality, justice and peace. The peace we speak of is a peace that guarantees the freedom and dignity of every human being,\u201d the Christian leaders stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The text coincides with some of the considerations expressed a few weeks ago, on April 25, by the current Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, in a long and clear pastoral letter in which he also insisted on the need for peace: \u201cWe reject any complicity with the culture of violence. Wherever it comes from, violence is never an evangelical path\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cardinal's lengthy letter, entitled \u201cThey returned to Jerusalem with great joy<\/a>\u201dThe Cardinal, who has had an impact among Catholics in the Holy Land, is a review of the current state of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. Without political analysis, the Cardinal is firm in condemning the war, which forces us to \u201crethink the forms and times of our ministry\u201d and asks, beyond \u201cnecessary analyses and denunciations\u201d, \u201cwhat is the Lord asking of us at this moment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text points out that October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza <\/a>have closed an epoch. According to the patriarch, for the Palestinians this period represents \u201cthe last and dramatic phase of a long history of humiliation and exodus\u00bb, while for the Israelis it has meant \u201csomething unprecedented: a violence that has revived the horrors that occurred in Europe eighty years ago\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Patriarch denounces that the use of force has been consolidated as the main method of dispute resolution: \u00abWe are witnessing the resurgence of the use of force as an instrument considered decisive for the resolution of conflicts... War has become the object of an idolatrous cult\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFactors of the current crisis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n