It’s Time for Palestine
It’s time for Palestine.
It’s time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace.
It is time to remember also that there are many friendships between Palestinian and Israeli people.
It’s time to respect human lives in the land called holy.
It’s time for healing to begin in wounded souls.
It’s time to end 60 years of conflict, oppression and fear.
It’s time for freedom from occupation.
It’s time for equal rights.
It’s time to stop discrimination, segregation and restrictions on movement.
It’s time for those who put up walls and fences to build them on their own property.
It’s time to stop bulldozing one community’s homes and building homes for the other community on land that is not theirs.
It’s time to do away with double standards.
It’s time for Israeli citizens to have security and secure borders agreed with their neighbours.
It’s time for the international community to implement 60 years of United Nations resolutions.
It’s time for Israel’s government to complete the bargain offered in the Arab Peace Initiative.
It’s time for those who represent the Palestinian people to all be involved in making peace.
It’s time for people who have been refugees for 60 years to regain their rights and a permanent home.
It’s time to assist settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to make their home in Israel.
It’s time for self-determination.
It’s time for foreigners to visit Bethlehem and other towns imprisoned by the wall.
It’s time to see settlements in their comfort and refugee camps in their despair.
It’s time for people living 41 years under occupation to feel new solidarity from a watching world.
It’s time to name the shame of collective punishment and to end it in all its forms.
It’s time to be revolted by violence against civilians and for civilians on both sides to be safe.
It’s time for both sides to release their prisoners and give those justly accused a fair trial.
It’s time to reunite the people of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It’s time for all parties to obey international humanitarian and human rights law.
It’s time to share Jerusalem as the capital of two nations and a city holy to three religions.
It’s time for Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities to be free to visit their holy sites.
It’s time in Palestine as in Israel for olive trees to flourish and grow old.
It’s time to honour all who have suffered, Palestinians and Israelis.
It’s time to learn from past wrongs.
It’s time to understand pent-up anger and begin to set things right.
It’s time for those with blood on their hands to acknowledge what they have done.
It’s time to seek forgiveness between communities and to repair a broken land together.
It’s time to move forward as human beings who are all made in the image of God.
All who are able to speak truth to power must speak it.
All who would break the silence surrounding injustice must break it.
All who have something to give for peace must give it.
For Palestine, for Israel and for a troubled world,
It’s time for peace
Pax Christi Australia
co-sponsored by Pax Christi International
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Personal Diary Report, Pat Gaffney, General Secretary, Pax Christ
Source:
Pax Christi delegation to Palestine and Israel, 12 – 20 February 2009
This was my fifth visit in ten years to Palestine and Israel and probably the most distressing. This was in large part due to the shadow of the war with Gaza which hangs over our partners and others whom we
met. Paradoxically, alongside this shadow I also experienced glimpses of light and hope – in those who refuse to give up and who remain steadfast in their vision that peace and justice will one day return.
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A Catholic Narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
From a Catholic vantage point, the American policy of pretty much one-sided support for the Israeli State is both detrimental to the cause of Holy Land Christians, and is a primary root cause of Middle Eastern anger and terrorism directed at otherwise innocent Israelis and Americans.
Pope John Paul II stated that the question of Jerusalem is fundamental for a just peace in the Middle East that the City should stand out as a symbol of universal peace for the human family. Pope Benedict XVI seems similarly inclined on this issue.
The Vatican-PLO Accord of 2000 directly implied that Israel’s unilateral actions concerning Jerusalem were “morally and legally unacceptable”. Peace and security for all peoples of the region should be settled on the basis of international law, relevant UN and its Security Council resolutions; Justice and equity- realizing the inalienable national legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. I recommend that all Catholics read the Accord and draw your own conclusions….
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Jesuit Priest Corresponds With Hamas
Fr. Raymond Helmick is a copious correspondent. For the past three years, the Jesuit priest has written nearly 20 letters to Khalid Mishal, founder and political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas, urging him to abandon militancy, unify with Fatah, Hamas’ political rival, and organize the Palestinians in a disciplined campaign of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“Your military weapons are too puny to stand against Israeli weapons, but that mobilized power of a people denying, without violence, any cooperation with its occupiers is something Israel could not withstand,” wrote Helmick in a Feb 2006 letter sent weeks after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections.
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Racist Catholics
by Thaddeus J. Kozinsi, Ph.D.
A telltale sign of having become the victim of propaganda is the eruption of anger, name-calling, calumny, scapegoating, and insinuations when confronted with facts, ideas, or arguments that pose a threat to the unmasking or refutation of the propaganda. Such a reaction is itself a deliberate product of the propagandist, for it is a built-in defense mechanism effectively precluding awareness of not only the spurious content of the propaganda, but also its very existence in the mind of the victim.
The amount, intensity, and sophistication of the propaganda surrounding, distorting, and cloaking the Israeli attacks on Gaza in December of 2008 is staggering. Nevertheless, some things one just cannot hide. It is now indisputable for all but the most brainwashed that the Israeli attacks on innocent Palestinians in Gaza were gravely immoral. The Vatican condemned Israel’s actions, and so have the vast majority of the countries of the world. What is also indisputable is that the primary cause of the violence in Gaza, as well as virtually all the violence in the Middle East for the past sixty years, is not primitive, home-made “rockets,” pathetic weapons that killed less Israelis in seven years than the state-of-the-art, American-produced “smart bombs” killed in seven days (unconscionable as these rocket attacks were), nor “Islamic terrorists who hate democracy and freedom,” but the unconscionable treatment of Palestinians by the state of Israel, what can be accurately called ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Cardinal Martino called Gaza a “concentration camp,” a quite deliberate description, implying that Israel has treated the Palestinians in Gaza in a manner not unlike the Germans’ treatment of the Jews in Warsaw during World War II.
As many reputable commentators have insisted, if Israel were willing to observe the pre-1967 borders, a lasting peace with the Palestinian Arabs could be arranged, and quite quickly. However, due to its Zionist/Talmudic ideology of racial superiority and political hegemony, the State of Israel is intractable about its “right” to the entire area of land, that is, its prerogative to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians. Any person with even the slightest sense of justice would condemn any regime for deliberately murdering civilians.
Those who criticize Israel are objecting, not to the existence of a state populated by Jews, but only to policies that are immoral and illegal under international law, for Israel has voluntarily agreed to abide by a UN Charter that forbids offensive wars of aggression and interruptions of the peace. America has broken this charter in Iraq, and this fact is also indisputable. Yet, those who make their objections known are automatically accused of anti-Semitism for merely affirming these facts, facts that cannot be objectively disputed by any rational and good-willed person.
Now, one can certainly understand a fanatical, Israeli Zionist defending this kind of unlawful and illegal behavior, for being both bereft of the light of Christ and possessed by a powerful, pernicious ideology that permits acts that no Christian could ever condone, it would make logical sense. However, fact that practicing, otherwise charitable, and otherwise orthodox Catholics are defending the indefensible, and demonizing fellow Catholics for not doing so, demands an explanation.
What are we to conclude regarding the lack of any criticism whatsoever by certain Catholics of the Israeli regime in its recent attacks on Gaza, even when the Pope himself condemned Israel’s violence, and even when the targeting of homes and hospitals was apparent—due to the courageous Internet reporters—for all to see?
It would seem that these Catholics have somehow been led to believe that Israel is exempt from all moral criticism. Now, for an Israeli to defend its nation’s actions “right or wrong” can be chalked up to fanatical nationalism, but why would Americans do so, and American Catholics for that matter! I think that this disturbing phenomenon can be accounted for, as any disorder can, by sin.
In this case, I shall argue, it is the sin of racism.
Racism usually connotes the condemnation of a person’s or groups’ actions merely because of the racial identity of the person or group, while completely prescinding from any evaluation of the moral quality of the actions themselves. However, racism is also revealed in reverse, and in this mode it becomes a sort of racist idolatry….Read the whole article here
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Cardinal Martino calls Gaza a “concentration camp”
Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican’s justice and peace minister, made his comments in an interview with the online Italian news website Il Sussidiario.net.
“Defenceless populations are always the ones who pay. Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp,” said Cardinal Martino….
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Pope Benedict speaks to the Palestinian people during his visit:
I know how much you have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the turmoil that has afflicted this land for decades. My heart goes out to all the families who have been left homeless. This afternoon I will pay a visit to the Aida Refugee Camp, in order to express my solidarity with the people who have lost so much. To those among you who mourn the loss of family members and loved ones in the hostilities, particularly the recent conflict in Gaza, I offer an assurance of deep compassion and frequent remembrance in prayer. Indeed, I keep all of you in my daily prayers, and I earnestly beg the Almighty for peace, a just and lasting peace, in the Palestinian Territories and throughout the region….
In the words of the late Pope John Paul II, there can be “no peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness” (Message for the 2002 World Day of Peace). I plead with all the parties to this long-standing conflict to put aside whatever grievances and divisions still stand in the way of reconciliation, and to reach out with generosity and compassion to all alike, without discrimination. Just and peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the Middle East can only be achieved through a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect, in which the rights and dignity of all are acknowledged and upheld….
Since arriving in Bethlehem this morning, I have had the joy of celebrating Mass together with a great multitude of the faithful in the place where Jesus Christ, light of the nations and hope of the world, was born. I have seen the care taken of today’s infants in the Caritas Baby Hospital. With anguish, I have witnessed the situation of refugees who, like the Holy Family, have had to flee their homes. And I have seen, adjoining the camp and overshadowing much of Bethlehem, the wall that intrudes into your territories, separating neighbors and dividing families.
Although walls can easily be built, we all know that they do not last for ever. They can be taken down. First, though, it is necessary to remove the walls that we build around our hearts, the barriers that we set up against our neighbours. That is why, in my parting words, I want to make renewed plea for openness and generosity of spirit, for an end to intolerance and exclusion. No matter how intractable and deeply entrenched a conflict may appear to be, there are always grounds to hope that it can be resolved, that the patient and persevering efforts of those who work for peace and reconciliation will bear fruit in the end. My earnest wish for you, the people of Palestine, is that this will happen soon, and that you will at last be able to enjoy the peace, freedom and stability that have eluded you for so long….
Source:Radio Vaticana
[...] The Catholic View on Palestine [...]
The Vatican’s support for the Palestinian people, unfortunately, is just window dressing. This is how they operate. By double standards, which are in their laws, both the Zionists and the clericals, were able to infiltrate world governments. The wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing has taken over the people’s democratically elected governments. The people were not only betrayed by the politicians but by their religious leaders as well. Religion is nothing but politics.
Mussolini described Fascism as the marrying of State and corporatism”. In the past it was the Church married to the State.
Every public act of a group of people is indeed political.
By stating your opinion as a member of a group, you are committing a political act. If you are in some official leadership position of this groups your opinion will have more weight.
The Catholic Church in the early Middle Ages was the leading power in European states. The Church wasn´t married to the state it was the state. Sometime later there was a struggle between the aristocracy and the Church for leadership. In the late Middle Ages the aristocracy had won. During the Enlightenment Europe became totally secularized and the struggle became between the old aristocracy and the new one, the money-elite.
The Church never infiltrated anything. Infiltration means you join an organization under false pretense pretending to be or represent something else. The Church never did that.
The Catholic clergy is now forbidden by the Church to run for political office, because the Church has learned from history about the corrupting influence power can have.
Church members however are encouraged to become political active, but a believing Catholic would never deny his or her affiliation to the Church. The Church teaches a certain set of ethics and morals and believing Catholics will most likely agree with those ethics and morals and if they are political they will apply them in their political work.
There is no infiltration there just citizens acting according to their conscience.
The Church doesn´t “operate” on a secret agenda.
The opinions of Church leaders are made public for everyone to read, both Catholics and non-Catholics. You can support the same views or oppose them, it´s up to you.
If you look at the political opinions of believing Catholic and Protestant Christians or Sunni and Shiite Muslims you will see many similarities in their views about social justice and respect for human life and dignity. These opinions will be reflected in their political actions. There is nothing covert about it.
A lot of the negative opinion about the Church comes from rumors spread by people who hate the Church. Some rumors are spread because of historic hostility of Protestants against the Catholic Church they see as a competition, but most rumors nowadays are spread by Zionists, who want to divide Catholic and Protestant Christians from one another with distrust, as well as dividing Christian and secular compassionate Humanists as well as creating bitter hostility between Christians and Muslims.
People who want to overcome war and oppression, need first to see through those divide and conquer tricks, they need to overcome their distrust caused by nothing but rumous and work together instead of wasting energy by fighting one another.
Your ardent defence of the Church is naive to say the least, for let us not forget the atrocities committed during the Inquisition, where nine million people were tortured and sacrificed. Many were accused of being heretics so that the clerics could possess their property, while others were accused of witchcraft, like Joan of Arc, so that they could be violated, and subdued.
In the nineties many adult North American Aboriginals told the story of how they were taken from their families, as young children and put into boarding schools where the priests would be sexually abusing them systematically. They described horrific stories of these priests indulging in sexual “parties” with several children. I believe in their stories for I was also one of their victims.
Jesus never set out to form a religion. The idea of Religion is man’s creation and does not come from higher spiritual knowledge. One does not need intermediaries in order to communicate with our True Creator; one can do it in meditation. Every souled human being has a fragment of the Creator. Every thought is perceived, every thought travels, for every thought has a vibration and frequency. A few Quantum Physics scientists have observed this in experiments. The Catholic religion was originated by the Roman emperor Constantine and the Church leaders in order to centralize power and control in their hands. All Jesus wished for, was for every single individual, to try by themselves, to strive to become a decent human being.
Why is it that the Church is, after government, one of the richest holders of real estate? Wasn’t Jesus against material power? After all wasn’t Lucifer trying to tempt Jesus with the same trap? What does the Church do with this material power to help the less fortunate? Very little, instead they spend it on themselves and their self-importance. Jesus never said build churches in my name. They have desecrated Jesus name for now many people can’t even hear His name. The Church is in the hands of dark forces, and the Pope included. Much that is written in the Bible has been tampered with; meanings were altered and statements by the priests were added to manipulate the masses. This is why in the Middle Ages the mass was given in Latin, to keep the people in the dark. Ignorance has been always a tool used by the powerful, for they know that knowledge is power. Knowledge is LIGHT while ignorance is DARKNESS. Remember this “A lamp is not hidden underneath the table but put above for all to see”. President Kennedy made a speech about secret covenants and soon after his life was taken. It seems that secrecy and murder go hand in hand. Why is the Church supporting Opus Dei? Again the Church is in the business of brainwashing and controlling the naive, and the innocent. This in itself is a form of rape.
I am a delegate on my school’s Model United Nations team doing research regarding the conflicts in Palestine/Israel for an upcoming conference. At the assembly, I will represent Kenya’s views, which are not necessarily representative of my own.
Recently, I wrote to the embassy and mission of Kenya in the United States, but I am not optimistic that I will receive a timely reply. However, while looking at the CIA World Factbook, I realized that Protestantism and Roman Catholicism are two of the most prominent religions in the region.
After numerous searches and research, I came upon your website. I see that you have done a significant amount of work and are very knowledgeable about the Vatican’s views on this topic. Thank you for this resource!
I would like to kindly request a follow-up comment or message with any links about the Vatican’s official views on the topic, rather than secondary sources. For example, an official press release from the Pope or a cardinal on Vatican City’s website would be excellent (or anything similar).
In addition, if anybody knows that Protestant views on this topic and can point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.