Catholic Church in Israel blames Jewish state for current Palestinian

violence
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Deputy Defense Minister Ben-Dahan: Latin Patriarchate shouldnt repeat
Palestinian propaganda.

A Palestinian stone-thrower looks on as he stands in front of a fire during

clashes with IDF troops in the West Bank village of Duma. (photo
credit:REUTERS)
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A group of the most senior Catholic clerics in Israel, headed by the Latin
Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, accused Israel on Thursday of responsibility
for the recent wave of Palestinian violence, saying Israeli policy has created

despair and frustration among Palestinians, leading them to carry out acts of
terrorism.
The Catholic clergy spelled out their position in a statement of the Commission
for Justice and Peace of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries, a panel of
archbishops and other senior clerics of the various Catholic rites in Israel, the
Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Cyprus.
Twal is the president of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries and is the most
senior Catholic cleric in Israel.
Thursdays statement asserted that the current situation for Palestinians was
inhuman, and said that settlements, the siege of Gaza, the siege of the rest
of Palestine, military checkpoints, house demolitions and the arbitrary
behavior of Israeli soldiers humiliating the Palestinians have led to the last five
months of Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians and security
personnel.
The declaration from the Latin Patriarchate also said that the Judaization of
Jerusalem was a factor in spurring Palestinian violence.
The Catholic clerics failed, however, to make mention of incitement to violence
within Palestinian society, on social media or from PA officials, although the
document did say that Israelis need security and tranquility.
It is the siege of Jerusalem and the Judaization of the city, the sending away
of its Palestinian inhabitants. It is the all-inclusive accusation of terrorism
against all Palestinians and the collective punishment that results from it,
observed the Commission for Justice and Peace.
Today the situation has become a new intifada in which Palestinians plunge to
their death out of despair caused by a life full of frustration, humiliation and
insecurity, with no hope at all.
The commissions statement called on Israeli leaders to enlarge your vision and
your hearts, and to change the current political reality, and said Palestinian
leaders should let Israel and the world hear... a voice of peace and justice for
two peoples, and stop every self-interested vision and all corruption.

Addressing Israeli leaders again, the commission said, There is enough space in
the land for us all. Let all have the same dignity and equality. No occupation and
no discrimination. Two peoples living together and loving each other according to
the way they choose. They are able to love each other and to make peace
together.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry strongly criticized the statement of the
Catholic clergy, saying that the correct address for the violence was the
Palestinians.
It is a great shame that senior [clergy] in the church are accusing the victim
instead of the aggressor, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emanuel Nachshon in
a statement to The Jerusalem Post.
Israel is dealing with an unprecedented wave of incitement and violence from
the Palestinians, a wave that reflects the Palestinian refusal to conduct
negotiations. It would have been better for the senior clergy in the church to
turn to the Palestinians and implore them to return to the negotiation table.
Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan said in response that the claims made by
the Latin patriarch regarding the causes of Palestinian violence were not
founded in reality.
During the history of the last 150 years it has been proved that the Arabs
dont need excuses to commit violence against the Jews, Ben-Dahan told
the Post. Every few years there is a new wave of violence and terror committed
by them because they cannot stand that Jews have come back to their land.
With all due respect to the Latin Patriarchate, it should not simply repeat
Palestinian propaganda, he added.
Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox cleric who has been active in promoting
Arab integration into Israeli society, also criticized the Latin Patriarchate for
its comments, saying his comments encourage terrorism and harm JewishChristian relations in Israel and around the world.
It seems that the Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal has forgotten that only last

Christmas the IDF rescued him from a Palestinian attack in Bethlehem, Nadaf
told the Post in reference to an incident when Twals car was bombarded with
stones and rocks by protesting Palestinians.
This incident characterizes the terrible situation of Christians under the
control of the Palestinian Authority. It is known that since the Israeli
withdrawal from Bethlehem in 1995 and its transfer to the PA that Christians
there suffer and are persecuted and their number has dropped drastically. The
Latin patriarch decided apparently to reward the aggressors and to those who
are the true causes of the decline in the population of [Christian] believers. In
no Arab country do Christians have as good a life as they have in the State of
Israel.