| 4 September 2010 |
| Philippine church leaders call for just peace in Palestine |
MANILA (APEN) – Church leaders have expressed “shock and indignation” at the attack on hundreds of peace activists on board the Turksih aid ship, Marvi Marmara.
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The ship was was leading the six-vessel, Gaza Freedom Flotilla, carrying 10, 000 tonnes of humanitrarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip.
The church leaders in the Philippines condemned the Israeli naval commando action of “disproportionate use of lethal force” that killed at least ten and injured dozens of civilians who were armed only with sticks and metal bars and a tenacious resolve to deliver relief supplies to the besieged people of Gaza.
According to reports, Israeli naval commandos used batons, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition during the storming of aid ships on 31 May.
Archbishop Hilarian Capucci, a Greek Catholic bishop from Jerusalem had said that the marine attack was unwarranted.
The church leaders demanded the immediate release of the more than 480 foreign activists rounded up in the raid and are now being held by Israeli authorities in a prison in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
“This incident is a stark reminder that the Israeli blockade on Gaza—backed by the United States and the European Union—can no longer continue,” the church leaders said in a signed statement.
They also joined the faith-based and civil society groups around the world in calling on the Israeli government to end the isolation of Gaza and the collective punishment of its 1.5 million residents.
According to the statement, “It is now more than 60 years since the partition of Palestine hardened into a permanent nightmare for Palestinians…and “it’s been more than 40 years since Israel’s forcible occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.”
“Just peace in Palestine is long overdue,” the statement noted.
The church leaders said that it was time for Israel to stop bulldozing Palestinian homes and to urgently implement a freeze on all settlement construction as a first step towards the dismantlement of all settlements.
Stating that it was time to end the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the violation of their human rights and dignity, the church leaders noted that “Palestinians who have been refugees for 60 years to have the right of return to their homes.”
The Filipino church leaders wanted Jerusalem to be an open, inclusive and shared city in terms of sovereignty and citizenship and Muslims, Jewish and Christians, Palestinians and Israelis must have the freedom of worship and the freedom to access the holy places there.
“Now is the time for each one of us to speak out and act, fulfilling our Christian vocation as peacemakers.”
Among the signatories of the 3 June statement were Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, co-chairperson, Ecumenical Bishops Forum and chairperson, Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Father Rex R B Reyes Jr, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Bishop Warlito Baldomero of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Ms. Carmencita Karagdag, coordinator, Peace for Life, and many leaders and heads of the Catholic and Protestant churches and related organizations.
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