PHRMG denounces the attacks on Palestinian churches

 

Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group denounces the attacks on Christian churches in the West Bank and the Gaza strip which followed Pope Benedict XVI’s statement in which he spoke out against Islam.

The Pope’s statement sparked off fury throughout the Islamic and Arab world including the Palestinian territories where angry protesters took to the streets and attacked churches and tried to torch some of them.

Prime Minister Haniyeh of the Islamic Hamas group has urged Palestinians to forsake violence that would lead to sectarian strife. He was reported to say last Sunday that all ‘Palestinians must prevent all harm to all Christian churches on Palestinian land’. He reminded Palestinians that their Christian brothers were also citizens of Palestine. On the other hand, and in a rare criticism of the Vatican, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said, while addressing a crowd of 250 Moslems and Christians in a damaged catholic church in Nablus where he had traveled to appease tensions, that he wished that the Pope hadn’t made such a statement..

Following the Pope’s remark, and as violence flared in the Palestinians territories, the Christian community which comprises about 2% of the Palestinian population felt worried to see some of its churches attacked. Saturday, firebombs were hurled at churches and 5 more were fired at. Sunday saw 2 churches attacked in the West Bank including one in Tulkarem. In Gaza, few of the Christian congregation attended Sunday services and some parents did not send their children to school fearing for their safety; protesters had come down the street where some Christian families live, bent on attacking them, though they were stopped by their Moslem neighbours. One Christian woman said she was publicly insulted for wearing her golden cross while shopping.

Some members of the Christian community expressed their concern at the eruption of violence against them reasserting that they were Palestinian citizens who belonged to the Christian faith and that they were not willing to hide their identity and that mutual respect should be upheld.

 

We, at PHRMG, strongly condemn these attacks and call upon all Palestinians to exercise reason and to keep in mind that tolerance and interfaith relations should be maintained, regardless of statements made or caricatures drawn outside.