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.
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.
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.
A retired patriarch of Jerusalem called on both Israel and Palestine to “leave war.” He urged Israel specifically to move towards peace with the Palestinians, saying that the Palestinians wanted peace as well.
Dear Editor: I was very pleased to read the article (Dec. 2), “Scouts Bring Peace Light to Diocese from Bethlehem,” except for one glaring phrase.
