Patriarch Michel Sabbah: It is time for Israel to listen

Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah

Pax Christi International President Emeritus, Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah writes on Facebook:

The war on Gaza means that there will be still more wars to come. It means that Israel entered a war more than seventy years ago, and has not been able to get out of it yet. Israel should reconsider its calculations. Israel won and lost. It is still losing. The winner is the one who earns peace, justice and humanity. Nothing of that, so far, was achieved. Israel is facing a Palestinian people who lives on its own land and demands Israel and the world to give it back its freedom, in its own land, not in the land of anyone else.

This reality cannot be ignored. All major world powers cannot ignore this reality. The peace of Israel, the peace of Abraham, the peace of God, begins in Palestine first, and with the Palestinians first, and then extends to the neighbours and to the whole region. Israel and the world must understand this. Otherwise, they will keep the region in the grip of death, and turn themselves into death makers. And they are responsible.

The land and the peoples of the land say: Peace and justice and talk about the rights of the Palestinians. This is a voice that cannot be ignored. It is time for Israel to listen. It is time for Israel to end a war it began more than seventy years ago. It is time to get out of it, not according to the logic of force and weapons, but rather according to the logic of justice and truth."