Bishops and church leaders met in Jerusalem with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in a meeting held periodically every year before Christmas and New Year, which sparked denunciation and denunciation of the “Pastoral Council of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church” in Ramallah.
Herzog revealed the meeting in a tweet on Thursday evening through his official account on the “X” platform.
Herzog said, “As is the case every year, today (Thursday) I hosted the leaders of the Christian communities in Israel at the president’s residence in Jerusalem, before the holiday season and the New Year, with hope and common prayer for a year of peace and brotherhood, and I wished them all a Merry Christmas.”
The Israeli president accompanied the tweet with a picture of himself with the Christian bishops.
For its part, the Pastoral Council of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Ramallah issued a statement yesterday, Friday, denouncing and denouncing the meeting of the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem with the Israeli president.
The statement published by Palestine TV on its website said: “In light of the massacres committed against our Palestinian people in Gaza and the shameful global silence, the heads of the Christian churches in Jerusalem are visiting the Israeli president in his office under false pretexts and disgraceful excuses.”
The council added, “This visit comes after they collectively issued a statement calling on all their subjects to limit Christmas to prayers and ritual church celebrations.”
He continued, “We, as the pastoral council of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Ramallah, and as part of the authentic Palestinian people, who fought and are struggling to liberate their country and its capital, Jerusalem, denounce and denounce such meetings that do not express us and have nothing to do with us.”
He added: “As Melkite Catholics in Ramallah, we call on our bishop and patriarchate to issue a statement clarifying the official position on the massacres and the policy of ethnic cleansing and displacement that the occupation is pursuing towards our people in Gaza.”
Last October, a number of churches in Palestine and Jerusalem, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, denounced the Israeli bombing that targeted the Church of St. Porphyrius, in Gaza City.
Last November, churches in Jerusalem announced the cancellation of Christmas celebrations, due to Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Since the seventh of last October, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Friday morning left 20,57 martyrs and 53,320 wounded, most of them children and women, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the authorities in the Strip and the United Nations.