Bishop: 'Legalising' illegal Israeli settlements is against God-given justice

Illegal settlements

Bishop William Shomali, Patriachal Vicar of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem for the Holy City and Palestine has strongly condemned the law passed yesterday in the Israeli parliament, which 'legalised' houses and Israeli settlements built illegally on Palestinian territory illegally occupied by the army of Israel.

This law "makes the solution two peoples-two states almost impossible, and "it offends justice, the virtue which comes from God and consists in giving God and neighbour what they are due," the Bishop said.

The Knesset unilaterally 'legalised' four thousand illegal Israeli settlements built on private land belonging to Palestinian owners.

"If the intention is genuine, proclaimed in words, to proceed in the direction that provides for the peaceful existence of two States, Palestine and Israel, for two peoples, then one cannot take measures and implement accomplished facts that go in the opposite direction."

Bishop Shomali joined the US Catholic Bishops Conference to protest at the announced transfer of the Embassy of the United States to Jerusalem.

According to Bishop Shomali: "if the lands where they build illegal settlements belong to Palestinian owners, one must not touch them, as we must not take away the property of the Jews who live in countries with a Muslim majority."

Source: Fides