Our attitudes to war change drastically when it becomes personal. When it is distant, it involves people whose nationality and culture we do not share, and wrongs of whose cause are disputed. But it does not affect us at gut level. When it is someone who has walked our streets, swum on our beaches, speaks Read more
Cardinal Pietro Parolin denounced the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel and all forms of antisemitism while raising concerns about Israel’s assertion of self-defence amidst the “carnage” inflicted on Gaza. Questioning the proportionality of Israel’s military operation, Parolin highlighted the significant death toll. “Israel’s right of self-defence which has been invoked to justify this operation Read more
Recently, we have been hearing Israeli and diaspora Jewish voices expressing disappointment at the Catholic Church’s reaction to the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7. The claim is that the pope has not sufficiently condemned the crimes of Hamas and, furthermore, that he has created a symmetry between Hamas and Israel in his comments. If that Read more
Over the last weeks the war between Israel and Hamas has come to Australia. In our local park each junction of the path is marked by a stenciled message demanding a ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Large, mainly peaceful, demonstrations in favour of the people of Gaza and of Israel have been Read more
Nothing will ever be the same in the Holy Land after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel – and after Israel’s apocalyptic response. So said Francesca Albanese to a Catholic audience in Wellington recently. Albanese is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But the Israel-Palestine issue has a simple solution, she Read more
Antisemitic incidents in the United States have skyrocketed by more than 300% year over year in the weeks since the Israel-Hamas war began, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said this week. More than two dozen incidents occur every day on average, according to the group’s calculations. The ADL said in a press release on Monday that Read more