After what has happened and is still happening in Gaza, “it is difficult to see a short-term solution” between Israelis and Palestinians, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said. Source: Vatican News.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was speaking during an event organised by the National Committee for the 800th Anniversary of the Death of St. Francis, at the Church of San Francesco a Ripa in Rome on Friday.
“The wounds are still deep, people are disoriented, with weak leadership. There is no clear vision of the future, of the other being beside you and, in some way, within you,” he continued.
“Neither side wants to hear about the other: the relationship has broken down, and this is the first point to consider and from which to begin.”
October 7 and the war that followed “were unprecedented events,” the Cardinal said. “We ourselves did not immediately grasp the magnitude of what had happened with Hamas’s attack and, subsequently, what was about to unfold with the response of the IDF,” he explained, responding to questions from Italy’s national public broadcasting service, RAI.
“We thought there would be a retaliation, like many others that had occurred before, but instead all the parameters we knew collapsed.”
In response to a question about the Trump Administration’s Board of Peace project, the Patriarch expressed his concern about any initiative that appears to be primarily aimed at protecting the interests of the major powers, without real recognition of the Palestinian people and their rights.
“Peace and reconciliation are beautiful concepts, but they risk remaining mere slogans if they are not accompanied today by concrete actions, gestures, and testimonies that physically demonstrate the possibility of rebuilding trust,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.
It will not be easy or automatic, but “we must be aware that first of all it is necessary to create opportunities for encounter, as well as cultural and social contexts that little by little help people to think differently. Words are not enough,” he insisted.
The Patriarch added that “we need political leadership, but also religious leadership, on both sides, that has some vision and does not base its authority solely on anger and the thirst for revenge.”
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Cardinal Pizzaballa: ‘Concrete actions’ needed to rebuild trust in Holy Land (By Roberto Paglialonga, Vatican News)
