Calls for Peace Amid Latest Days of Violence
JERUSALEM, OCT. 3, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- As a sixth day of violence gripped the West Bank and Gaza, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem urged the establishment of a Palestinian state to ensure stability in the region.
Patriarch Michel Sabbah told the Italian newspaper «Avvenire,» «The painful and bloody events we are living through, as a consequence of the provocation of religious feelings in the Haram As-Sharif (noble area of the mosques), tell us one thing: the Palestinian people demand life and liberty.»
«They want life and liberty sooner or later,» he said. «We hope that it will be sooner rather than later, because violence cannot direct life in the Holy Land. Justice is the only guide and the only symbol.»
Patriarch Sabbah spoke amid mounting concern over new tensions arising in the Palestinian territories and Galilee. CNN reported the death toll at 51 in the latest days of violence.
--Avvenire: How do you see this new explosion of violence in which the situation seems to have suddenly degenerated?
--Patriarch Sabbah: All this will not be in vain. The youths and elderly men who are offering their lives do not do this to attack someone. They are defending their holy places, their liberty and their life. Today's blood is crying to God for justice and human dignity.
--Avvenire: What are you saying to the region's political leaders at this difficult time?
--Patriarch Sabbah: This is the most crucial time for every leader of this land to understand what is happening. The only path that will lead again to times of peace is to go back to peace negotiations, and try to return to the situation as it was before 1967 (the Six-Day War during which Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank).
The path to normalize the situation is to understand that the holy places cannot be touched, and much less be the object of deals. To deploy soldiers, armored trucks, and even missiles does not lead to tranquility and order. Only justice can do this. And the path to justice was opened by the peace negotiations and had almost reached its objective. Therefore, it must be renewed.
--Avvenire: You have just returned from visiting wounded Palestinians in the Mokassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. What reactions did you see, what are your impressions?
--Patriarch Sabbah: Enough blood has been spilled. The people would like to have their right to life and self-determination. The Palestinian state must come into being and be stable, enabling it to organize its own internal and external affairs. Jerusalem must be the city of reconciliation, after justice is established.
Palestinian Jerusalem must be the capital of Palestine, and West Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Above all, it must remain as the «Holy City,» and its holiness must be protected and respected by its own governors.
--Avvenire: Do you have something to say to the international community on the subject?
--Patriarch Sabbah: While we invite our political leaders, Palestinians and Israelis, to continue to seek a just peace, we ask the international community to help both sides to find what is just and right, in keeping with international traditions.
--Avvenire: And to Christians who look at the Holy Land these days with apprehension?
--Patriarch Sabbah: We ask for prayers that peaceful times will come for the glory of God and man in that land that God has blessed. We ask the Most High, and we ask Christians to join us in this invocation, that he give us light and strength and that he give all leaders of this land light and strength to do what is right and just.
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