Israeli seizure of Palestinian land offends against justice, bishop says

February 09, 2017

A new Israeli law that retroactively legalizes the seizure of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements is an offense against justice, said Bishop William Shomali, the patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem.

The bishop said that the new Israeli policy makes the “two-state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “almost impossible.” He told the Fides news service:

If the intention is genuine, proclaimed in words, to proceed in the direction that provides for the peaceful existence of two States, Palestine and Israel, for two peoples, then one cannot take measures and implement accomplished facts that go in the opposite direction, such as the announced transfer of the embassy of the United States to Jerusalem—also denounced by the statements of the US Catholic bishops’ conference.

 

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Further information:

• Bishop Shomali: the "legalization" of illegal Israeli settlements is against the virtues of justice, which comes from God (Fides)
• Israel OK seizure of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements (CWN, 2/7)