In a Middle East region that continues to suffer the consequences of violence, the people, of Palestine, Christians, and Moslems, continue to live under occupation and exile, and Israelis as a normal consequence of their own violence imposed on Palestinians, continue to live in insecurity.
Palestinian Christians, the descendants of the first Christians, are an integral part of the Palestinian people, continue to suffer, just like all Palestinians, Christians, Muslims, and Samaritans. We have been denied our national and human rights for a century. From Jerusalem, our occupied capital, we send our urgent message to the whole world and particularly to all the nations of the world: We are yearning for justice and peace. Recognising Palestine is the first step towards that goal.
We have endured dispossession and forced exile since 1948 when the majority of Palestine’s Christians were forcibly expelled from their homes in the Holy Land. We have persevered through 69 years of exile and 50 years of occupation, holding on to the message of peace of our Lord. But now, we are tired of calls for ‘useless and apriori sterile’ negotiations, while we cant reach our churches due to a foreign power and our people continue to be humiliated by an undesirable occupation. We need UN decisions to be applied. We need the recognition of the simple human principle: no people has the right to impose his occupation on another people. We are waiting for the day when our churches will ring their bells celebrating freedom and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis.
Christians have a duty to resist oppression. Israeli military Occupation is oppression. We believe the international community and particularly all the nations of the world has not done enough in order to achieve a just and lasting peace. You cannot continue holding our right to freedom and self-determination as an Israeli prerogative. We have a natural right to be free and all nations of the world has a moral, legal and political duty to hold Israel accountable towards the nonapplication of the decisions of the UN and support Palestinians in their violent resistance to end the Israeli occupation, including the recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital. Until when will you continue accepting Isreal’s violations of your own resolutions? Until when will you allow that the prospects of peace will continue to be destroyed by Israeli colonisation and settlements?
Until when should Israelis be allowed to treat us as foreigners in our own homeland? Ending Israeli occupation is the only way for Israelis and Palestinians, Christians, and Muslims, and all the people of the Holy Land, to enjoy a life of prosperity and progress. It is also the surest way to secure continued Christian presence in this, our Holy Land, and to grant Israel the security that it continues to demand. Without Justice, there can be no peace nor security for anyone, living here.
It’s time for all the nations of the world to understand that the only way to defeat extremism and terrorism in our region is to bring justice for all, starting by ending the historic injustice inflicted against the Palestinian people, an open wound that continues to bleed, as the hopes for an Independent Palestinian state becomes elusive due to the expansion of Israeli settlements and the many restrictions imposed on our people, including forced displacement.
In our Kairos document, we Palestinian Christians, declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives human beings of their basic human rights, bestowed by God.
We believe that recognising the State of Palestine on the 1967 border is the first step towards changing the current status quo. Banning settlement products and divesting from companies and organisations linked directly or indirectly to the Israeli occupation is a must. 69 years after the beginning of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 and 50 years after the occupation in 1967, it’s time for the State of Palestine to be free and become a full member of the United Nations. It’s time for Israel to see where it could find its own security, present, and future. It’s time for Israel to see that for its military power and violence against Palestinians, are futile. The only security for the Palestinians would become security for Israelis.
This why we call upon all nations of the world and governments to endorse the just Palestinian quest for freedom and independence.
The international community and all nations have a historic responsibility towards this conflict and the rights of the Palestinian people. All the nations of the world have long championed the values of peace and human rights. May the nations of the world apply these values to this conflict, which it created years ago, and help reconcile Israelis and Palestinians, security to the Israelis, and independent state, freedom and human dignity to the Palestinians.
From the Holy Land, we call on you to take this principled position to recognise the State of Palestine and to abide by your legal responsibilities towards a nation under occupation, in order to be able to celebrate justice and peace in the land of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
This statement is printed by kind permission of Fr. Firas Aridah.
Fr. Christopher