We can not keep silent in front of the state of war in the Middle East and we unite our voices for a return to the negotiations in an optic of a just and durable peace.
We can not keep silent in front of the state of war in the Middle East and we unite our voices for a return to the negotiations in an optic of a just and durable peace.
The military action of the Israeli government will not obviously allow the return of peace, but it is also unable to accomplish the objective which it claims to pursue: diminishing the threat of terrorist attacks which strike civilians, acts which no cause can justify. Bringing the Palestinians to give up all hope to assure the security of Israel is not only unacceptable, but is considered as a dangerous strategy for the peace in all the region. When fear, humiliation and terror bruise more and more the Palestinian population and when the closure imposed by the army starves the population, how can one think that the number of volunteers for suicide attacks is going to diminish ?
It is necessary to repeat: there is no military solution to this conflict. The escalation of violence leads to a total impasse: each party speaks only about the violence of the other, justifying hence its own violence in an unending spiral. And the true causes of the confrontation – those that are necessary to handle in order to reach a just and durable peace respecting the rights of the other – are forgotten. The right of the Palestinians to have a viable State remains the indispensable perspective for any durable arrangement. This situation increases only the hatred between both communities and hinders any peace initiative for the future. The resolutions of the Security Council – the former as well as the recent ones – the implementation of which is the only way to ensure justice to the Palestinians and security to Israelis – remain unimplemented.
Because we are strongly concerned by the future of these two people, because we have there friends and long-time partners, because we are scandalized to see force and hatred prevailing on the very land from where was proclaimed to the world the Gospel of reconciliation, we, presidents of signing organisations ask the President of the Republic, the French government and the presidency of the European Commission:
* To use all their power to support the initiatives of the United Nations, especially with the perspective of sending international observers in large numbers and a force of interposition,
* To act with the aim of initiating as soon as possible the negotiations under the aegis of the international community,
* To intervene with the leaders of Israel to obtain from them very fast the following:
* The retreat of the army from all the Palestinian Territories,
* The end of the closure of the Palestinian Territories,
* The access to victims by the humanitarian staffs,
* The commitment to end the occupation and the colonization of the Palestinian Territories, according to the resolutions of United Nations
Bishop Lucien DALOZ, president of Justice and Peace-France
Jean Marc DUPEUX, general secretary of CIMADE
P. Bruno DUPUIS, ofm, Head Officer of Holy Land Custody
Michel FREYCHET, President of Acat France
Xavier LAMBLIN, president of the Catholic committee against Hunger and for Development
Bishop Marc STENGER, president of Pax Christi France
Joël THORAVAL, president of Secours Catholique / Caritas France
Philippe BLANC, president of the Association nationale des directeurs diocésains de pèlerinages
