LONDON - 18 July 2006 - 233 words
Pax Christi statement on Middle East crisis
Pax Christi British Section
1. Calls on Israel to cease immediately its indiscriminate assault on the people of Lebanon, and in the near future, to open talks with Palestinian representatives on the equitable and just resolution of the long-running conflict with Palestine. The continuing Administrative Detention of hundreds of Palestinian citizens and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people is at the root of the ongoing violence against the people of Israel.
2. Calls on Hizbollah and Hamas, or whoever hold them, to release at once the captured Israeli soldiers, held in violation of international law, and to cease immediately their indiscriminate rocket attacks on the people of Israel.
3. We affirm the message of Pope Benedict XVI, "neither terrorist acts nor reprisals, especially when they entail tragic consequences for the civilian population, can be justified, by such paths, as bitter experience shows, positive results are not achieved."
4. Calls on all people of faith to pray
that those everywhere, including those in the government of our
country, who take the path of violence, will come to see that
violence solves no problems. It only generates more violence
and creates deeper divisions between communities.
'Peace is the fruit of anxious daily care to see that everyone
lives in the justice that God intends'. (Pope Paul VI Populorum
Progression 1967)
For more information see: www.paxchristi.org.uk
P Gaffney
© Independent Catholic
News 2006
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