A British-Israeli mother and her two daughters were killed in a drive-by-shooting terrorist attack in the Jordan valley on April 7, during a week that, instead of seeing the holidays of Passover, Easter and Ramadan celebrated in parallel peacefully, spiraled the region into violence.
Just as early Christians were sustained by the words of St. Peter describing Jesus’ resurrection as offering a “new birth into a living hope,” so too should the Christians of the Holy Land today be encouraged and empowered by this knowledge as they face tumultuous times, when their own faith continues to be tested, said the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in their March 31 Easter message.
With rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians reaching new heights over the past week amid a spate of fresh killings, Church leaders in the West Bank have condemned the violence and called for a lasting resolution that respects international law.
After 10 years of systematic work, the Old City of Jerusalem is more accessible to the disabled and the elderly.
For nine years, Randa Aweis battled kidney disease, urgently in need of a transplant. In mid-May, a donor was found for the 58-year-old mother of six, a Catholic Palestinian who lives in Jerusalem.
Pope Francis has called on the world’s Catholics to pray May 22 for dialogue, forgiveness and peaceful coexistence in the Holy Land.
The injury and death of so many innocent people, especially children, caused by escalating violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip is “terrible and unacceptable,” putting the area at risk of sinking into “a spiral of death and destruction,” Pope Francis said.
On Sept. 15 at the White House, Israel signed diplomatic pacts to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. While specific details of the pacts are not yet public, the three countries will open embassies and establish economic ties including tourism, technology, and energy.
Among other aspects of the plan announced Jan. 28, Trump proposed the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements, creating Israeli enclave communities in the heart of the West Bank while promising the possibility of a future independent Palestinian state under certain conditions.
Staten Island state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who was the GOP’s mayoral candidate in 2017, spoke out against persecution against Christians in the Middle East after she returned from a trip to the Holy Land and learned about the situation there firsthand.
