Jerusalem’s Christian leaders denounce international silence after visiting Gaza
“We are neither against Israel nor against the Jews, but what Gaza lives is not morally acceptable,” the Latin Patriarch, Piebattista Pizzaballa, has lamented on Tuesday, after his visit to Gaza with the head of the Orthodox Church, the Patriarch Teófilo III, after an Israeli bombing killed last week to three people in the only Catholic church of the strip. At the same time, he wanted to emphasize that this attack or those suffered by the Christian community of Taybeh (occupied Bank) must hide the reality: that it is that “all the Palestinian people” is the one who is being beaten. Teófilo III has lamented the “silence” of the international community. The Italian religious, meanwhile, has highlighted some difficulties such as finding food in the black market, where a kilo of tomatoes can reach $ 100 (about 85 euros).
The top people responsible for the Christian Church have renewed their call for the international community to end the war, which has already left more than 59,000 dead in the Palestinian enclave. In turn, Pizzaballa, who recognizes not having direct contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu, asks that, under his influence as president of the United States, Donald Trump is more “proactive”.
Despite Israeli military pressure they have insisted that they will not leave their communities in Gaza, who will continue to host people who seek protection regardless of their creed. “It is important to emphasize and reiterate that our mission is not for a specific group, but for all. Our hospitals, shelters, schools, parishes-San Porfirio, La Sagrada Familia, the Arab Hospital Al-Ahli, Cáritas-are places of encounter and coexistence for all: Christians, Muslims, believers, unbeliers, refugees, children, children have stressed. Together with Teófilo III, he visited Ciudad de Gaza on Friday, the day after the attack with an Israeli tank projectile on the Church of the Sagrada Familia.
The patriarchs have not wanted to point directly to the authorities of Israel, who maintain a close blockade of food and other basic needs of the Gazati population. But they have been clear when detailing what they have witnessed: “Men resist the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal. That is a difficult humiliation to bear when you see it with your own eyes. It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable,” Pizzaballa regretted. In this sense, they defend the role of all humanitarian actors on the ground, local and international, Christians or Muslims, religious or not. This support comes at a time when Israel maintains a fence on different United Nations agencies, the main pillar of help to the Palestinians in the strip.
“The dignity of the human spirit that refuses to extinguish,” says the Italian cardinal to highlight the strength of the Palestinians after more than 21 months of war. In the midst of that devastation, what has caught the attention of Cardinal Italian, head of Catholics in the Holy Land, has been the innocence of children who continue to play and survive with some normality in the middle of a war landscape, as well as the mutilated minors he has been able to visit in a hospital in Ciudad de Gaza.
“We have entered a devastated place, but also of a wonderful humanity. We walk between the dust of the ruins, passing next to demolished buildings and tents everywhere: in courtyards, alleys, streets and beaches; stores that have become households for those who have lost everything. We find each other among families that have lost account of the days of exile because they do not see a return horizon. Fighting;
