THE HOLY LAND



THE STANCE OF THE CARDINAL OF ANTHIOCH OF THE MARONITE AND OF ALL THE CHURCH LEADERS IN THE HOLY LAND ABOUT THE PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PEACE TO  PROSPERITY PLAN

Bkerkè (Agenzia Fides) Calling U.S. President Donald Trump’s Peace-to-Prosperity plan a “unilateral initiative,” church leaders in the Holy Land said it did not give “dignity and rights” to the Palestinians. US President Donald Trump called the plan the "deal of the century" and will "create more tensions and probably more violence and bloodshed", which risks "destroying" the Holy Land where Jesus Christ was born. This is what Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites said on January 30, in the reflections with which he accompanied the recitation of the rosary which has been taking place in the church of the Maronite patriarchal see of Berkè since last October, to invoke the gift of peace for Lebanon. The Primate of the Maronite Church invited everyone to pray for the Holy Land, "where the Savior Jesus Christ was born, where the Most Holy Trinity was revealed, where the Church was established, and from where the Holy Gospel was announced to the whole world". It is not possible - the Patriarch remarked - to accept "that this land is destroyed "for the intentions and choices "of a person who has decided to put aside history". Jews, Christians and Muslims coexist in the Holy Land - added the Maronite Cardinal - "as God willed. And this land cannot bear this political decision taken by the Administration or by the President of the United States". The Patriarch concluded his reflection by imploring God to spare the peoples possible sufferings caused "by this plan wanted by the US President", and by remembering that there can be no peace when injustice and arrogance prevails.In recent days, strong criticisms of the US "Peace for Prosperity" plan launched by Trump had already been voiced by various church realities and bodies, including the Patriarchs and heads of the Churches of Jerusalem, the Lutheran World Federation, the Assembly of ordinary Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land, the World Council of Churches and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales.

 (Source: Agenzia Fides, 31/01/2020)

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - The Assembly of the Syrian people, in the session of Thursday 13 February, unanimously approved a resolution that recognizes as "Genocide" the historical tragedy of the massacres of Armenians perpetrated in the Anatolian Peninsula in the years 1915-1916. "Parliament" reports a statement released by official Syrian media "recognizes and condemns the Genocide committed against the Armenians by the Ottoman state at the beginning of the 20th century". With yesterday's vote, Syria becomes the first Arab Country to officially recognize and at the highest institutional levels the genocidal nature of the planned persecutions unleashed 105 years ago against the Armenian populations of the territories of present-day Turkey. The resolution of the Syrian People's Assembly comes after weeks of tensions between Ankara and Damascus, following the clashes between the military forces of its countries that took place in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, where the Syrian government army is besieging the last controlled areas by Islamist militias. Syria's recognition of the Armenian Genocide prompted Turkey's immediate official reaction: Hamy Aksoy, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, published a very harsh declaration, in which the Syrian resolution condemning the Armenian "genocide" is labelled as "the image of hypocrisy of a regime that for years indulged all kinds of carnage towards its own people, including those against children; a regime that caused millions of its compatriots to flee and is renowned for its unscrupulousness in the use of chemical weapons". On March 4, 2015, the Assembly of the Syrian people had already dedicated a "commemorative session" to the Armenian Genocide. The initiative, promoted in particular by Syrian Christian MP Maria Saadeh, had seen the involvement of the members of the Parliamentary Committees for foreign relations and the participation of the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia in Syria, Arshak Poladyan, who in his speech had recalled the reception received a hundred years earlier in Syria by Armenians fleeing the massacres planned by the Young Turks government. Recently (see Fides, 18/5/2019), an appeal to return to Syria and rebuild their homes devastated by the conflict was addressed by President Bashar Assad to the Syrian Armenians who fled the Country in the years of the conflict, finding refuge in Lebanon, in Armenia or other Middle Eastern and Western countries. The explicit return request addressed to Armenian refugees was expressed by the Syrian leader on the occasion of his meeting with Aram I, the Armenian apostolic Catholicos of the Grand House of Cilicia, received in Damascus by President Assad on Tuesday 14 May. On that occasion, the Syrian government media had also reported the praises addressed in that circumstance by Assad to the "patriotic spirit" of the Armenian Syrians, whom he called "exemplary citizens": the Syrian President had praised the contribution they offered to the defense of national unity in the face of the attempt to dismember the Country carried out by what Assad had defined as "terrorist barbarism". Assad had also compared the brutality he attributed to this "terrorist barbarism" with the ferocity of the massacres committed by the Ottomans against the Armenian people.

(Source: Agenzia Fides, 14/02/2020)

SYRIA 


As to the conflict in the Middle East, Western Christians are poorly informed

Latakia (Agenzia Fides) - With regard to the events in the Middle East and in particular the tragedy of Syria "The West is poorly informed including its churches, despite good intentions".
This is what Bishop Elias Sleiman, head of the Maronite Eparchy of Latakia, in an interview just re-launched by the U.S. section of Aid to the Church in Need, said with regard to the processes taking place in the Middle East that in his opinion are likely to weigh negatively on the moves of the international community concerning the Syrian conflict. "The problem of so many media" specified the Syrian Bishop "is that they really do not grasp the real picture of the situation. The Arab Spring has been depicted as this clear push for liberty and democracy, but the actual results in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, for example, proving otherwise".
The region of Latakia in northern Syria, has so far been largely spared from the conflict. In the territory Christians continue to live peacefully with the Alawites. According to Bishop Sleiman, the only way out of the conflict is to increase international pressure in order to establish "a dialogue between the regime and moderate elements of the opposition". The world’s big players must get involved in earnest and put pressure on the various parts "to come to the negotiating table", considering that "the big challenge is religious fanaticism" and that now "the moderate rebels and Islamists have begun fighting each other".

(Source: Agenzia Fides 19/10/2013)

 ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF CARITAS JERUSALEM, GAZA STRIP CONTINUES TO BE
AN OPEN-AIR PRISON

 ENGLISH TRANSLATION
 
Gaza (Fides Agency)

"I was shocked by the level of poverty I saw in Gaza. The Strip continues to be an open-air prison, closed from the sea, from the embargo of Israel and now from Egypt. " So Father Raed Abusahlia, Director General of Caritas Jerusalem, summarizes the impressions registered during the mission just completed by a delegation of the local Caritas among the population of the Gaza Strip, governed by the Islamists of Hamas. The report of the mission, exposed by Fr. Raed to Fides Agency, is a cry of alarm: the embargo imposed by Israel is crushing the population, which for nearly a third live below the poverty line. Now even the underground tunnels connecting the territory to Egypt - where merchandise of all kinds passed, becoming a source of income for the coffers of Hamas - have almost all been blocked with input from the Egyptian Government, which holds in fact closed also the Rafah border crossing point. "The coasts of Gaza," says Fr. Raed "represent already now an ecological disaster from which may be released at any moment infections and epidemics: all discharges out into the sea, the water is black and gives off a nauseating odor, the fish are all dead and the fishermen can not go fishing in the open sea owing to the embargo. Missing gasoline, electricity goes off for hours and hours creating emergency situations in hospitals."

The Gaza Strip - subject to embargo by Israel since 2007 - is long 41 km and wide between 6 and 12 km. In that strip of land are concentrated one million and 700 thousand inhabitants. The Caritas delegation led by Fr. Raed handed over to the local ministry of Health a large amount of rare medicines for distribution in local health facilities. A portion of the stock of medicines was delivered directly to the Anglican Hospital. During the days of their stay in Gaza, the staff members have been in contact with the structures and initiatives directly managed by Caritas: The Medical Centre established in the areas of refugees camps and the mobile clinic - where 18 workers are employed - the Center for artificial prosthesis for people rendered invalid by the recent Israeli military operations (medical treatment that works in partnership with Caritas), groups of psychological relief for children traumatized by the bombing, the work of groups of volunteers in charge of distributing food parcels and small amounts of money ($ 200) to more than 2 thousand families who have had their homes destroyed by military raids. "In that situation of daily suffering" says Fr. Raed, "the initiatives of  Christians, of their parishes and international agencies animated by them represent an eloquent sign of witness and solidarity with all the population". For the rest, the delegation was able to take note also of the action of the autonomous government in the hands of Hamas and of the social control exercised over the population by the Islamist political leadership for 7 years in power. "Turning the streets," notes Fr. Raed Abusahlia - the question arises: is this the state of Palestine or the emirate of Gaza? As a Palestinian I hope that the division will end soon. And above all that all embargoes be removed. This people deserve to live. "

(Source: Fides Agency 17-07-2013)

SOLUTIONS FOR CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND SYRIA AT THE HEART OF THE TALKS BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND THE POPE FRANCESCO

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 

It was also addressed a number of issues concerning relations between the State of Israel and the Holy See and between the State Authorities and the local Catholic communities. They were finally appreciated the significant progress made by the Bilateral Working Commission, working on the preparation of an agreement on issues of common interest, for which there have been calls for a rapid conclusion.

(Source: VIS  April 30, 2013)

 MIDDLE EAST - Christians in front of the conflicts in the Middle East

 ENGLISH TRANSLATION


 Rome (Agenzia Fides, 18 october, 2012)

 The claims of the Arab peoples for obtaining constitutional economic and social reforms are just and legitimate, but it is not at all so the pretence to impose such changes "from the outside and through strength", as the choice to cause "violence and war "in the name of these objectives. This is one of the criteria of discernment that arose during a meeting of the Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops held as a secondary aspect of the works of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization which is held in the Vatican. The meeting - which was attended, among others, by the Cardinals Timothy Dolan, Leonardo Sandri,  Jean-Louis Tauran and Pèter Erd, along with the Greek-Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham - was held Monday, October 15 at the Pontifical Maronite College, on the invitation of the Patriarch of the Maronite Church H.B. Bechara Boutros El Raï . It provided the opportunity for a debate on the role of Christians in Lebanon and in the Middle East, in the current, delicate political and historical situation.

From the summary of the meeting, which was received by Fides, it emerges that compared to the Syrian crisis, the Synod Fathers present at the meeting unanimously called for a solution to the conflict and the implementation of reforms to be achieved "through dialogue and political and diplomatic negotiation." The participants also stressed that, at the base of the tensions and divisions in the Middle East, there is "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict", in relation to which the international community is to foster the implementation of resolutions internationally legitimized.

The Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops gathered at the Pontifical Maronite College have also shared the regret for the policy of some Middle East and Western powers which "exploit the popular protests and their demands to sow chaos and promote internal and sectarian conflicts  "concerned only to increase the traffic of weapons and assert their own strategic interests. All agreed that at this historical stage the road map for the Christians in the Middle East is represented by the words of Benedict XVI which were pronounced during His recent Apostolic visit to Lebanon. The invitation addressed to all the Christians in the Middle East is the one to "persevere in their unique witness of Muslim-Christian coexistence," even resisting to the religious and cultural conflicts that are fomented by short-sighted political interest "by some regional and international powers".

(Source: Agenzia Fides 18 october, 2012)