“Whoever continues to act in the spiral of violence, commits evil against God and against man”. With these words, which also provide the title of the statement issued by the German Episcopal Conference in recent days, Cardinal Karl Lehmann commented on the situation in the Holy Land. “This is not the time to attribute blame to either the one side or the other for the dramatic developments in the conflict”, declared the cardinal on behalf of the German bishops. “The bloody Palestinian terrorist attacks he continued and the curbs on Palestinian autonomy by the Israeli security forces have led to a situation” where “hatred and the urge for revenge by both sides” are the factors that “are determining the course of events”. “A further sign of uncontrolled violence are the attacks on the churches and buildings of the Christian minority”. Solidarity was also expressed by the cardinal with all those who, whether in Israel or in Palestine, “refuse to submit to the logic of violence but keep alive the hope of peace and of an agreement that may safeguard both the justified security interests of Israel and the right of the Palestinians to have an independent and thriving homeland of their own”. From Germany also come expressions of alarm by Caritas: “the children’s hospital run by Caritas in Bethlehem, founded by Father Ernst Schnyfrig in 1952 and currently financed by some 60,000 donors in Germany and Switzerland, is cut off from the rest of the world; the Israeli military offensive is hampering the medical care of Palestinian children”. The hope is that the hospital’s “impartiality” may “make it respected by both sides and help to spare it from the armed conflict”.
