Roman Catholic officials in Israel appeal against violence

Friday, September 21st, 2012

Roman Catholic officials in Israel appealed to authorities this week to take a stronger stand against violence aimed at Catholic churches.

An Associated Press report quoted Rev. Pierbattista Pizzaballa expressing worry over relations between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land.

“I think the main atmosphere is ignorance,” Pizzaballa said in an interview with the Associated Press.

He said because the local Christian population is small, the majority Israeli Jews think that Christians “do not exist.”

“On the other side, we as a minority maybe didn’t invest enough energy and initiatives” to reach out to Israeli Jews, said Pizzaballa.

The priest’s statement came in the wake of an attack on a well-known Trappist Monastery in Latrun, outside Jerusalem.

Vandals burned a door and spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti on the century-old building with the words “Jesus is a monkey.”

The AP report said suspicion has fallen on extremist Jewish West Bank settlers or their supporters, who are believed to be behind a series of attacks in recent years on mosques, Christian sites and even Israeli army property to protest moves against settlements.

The monastery was targeted shortly after Israel evacuated an illegally built West Bank settler outpost.

Church officials urged the government to take action.

There are about 155,000 Christian citizens of Israel, less than 2 percent of its 7.9 million people. About three-quarters are Arabs, and the others arrived during waves of Russian immigration over the past 20 years. They are split between Catholicism and Orthodox steams of Christianity.

Tens of thousands of Christian foreign workers and African migrants also reside in Israel.

Pizzaballa said he recognizes the attacks do not reflect the views of most Israelis, and he welcomed the condemnations by Israeli police, politicians and mainstream rabbinical authorities.

But he said Israel must do more.

Sources