Lebanese bishops call for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war

The Maronite Bishops of Lebanon last week called for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas so that a “two-state solution” could move forward.

The bishops also denounced a group aligned with the country’s Islamist militant terror organization Hezbollah for calling for an investigation into two Catholic bishops for allegedly committing treason by meeting with the president of Israel.

In a Jan. 3 statement the bishops said they “condemn the sporadic prolonged reckless and shameful behavior attacking the Christian clergy serving in the Holy Land.”

The statement said that there is no need for any of the Lebanese clergy “to justify any of those clergies’ spiritual, national, or human behaviors that are always inspired by the teachings of the Savior, not by the human emotions.”

The Maronite bishops released the statement following their Jan. 3 meeting in Bkerke, the See of the Maronite Patriarchate.

Bishops criticize Israel for part in war

Shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began in October, Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging missile strikes across the Lebanese-Israeli border. The fighting on the border has caused the displacement of almost all of southern Lebanon’s Christians and tens of thousands of Israelis living in the northern part of their country.

The fighting in Gaza has resulted in more than 2 million displaced people and more than 20,000 innocents killed, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

In the bishops’ statement, they expressed deep regret “at the killings, destruction, and violence” that has taken place, particularly against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank by “the Israeli army and the Israeli settlers,” the Vatican’s Fides News Agency reported.

The bishops called for a “final cease-fire” to pave the way for a “two-state solution.”

The bishops also called on the “friends of Lebanon in the world” to “contribute effectively to the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which is the only way forward, to put an end to Israel’s aggression and to define a clear and effective framework for peace in southern Lebanon,” the outlet reported.

That resolution, adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 2006, calls for peace between Israel and Lebanon and certain “security arrangements” to avoid the resumption of fighting.

In 2006, Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist terror group, was engaged in a 34-day military conflict with Israel, which was set off by the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.

Part of the resolution’s security arrangements include a demilitarized area between the two countries, with an exception for official forces of the Lebanese government and the United Nations.

Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim political party with ties to Iran. Despite a 2004 U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the disarmament of all Lebanese militias to restore sovereignty to the government, Hezbollah has refused to disarm. The 2006 U.N. resolution reiterated its call for all Lebanese militias to disarm.

Hezbollah-aligned group accuses bishops of treason

The statement from the Maronite bishops comes amid heightened tensions and a rising death toll on the Lebanese-Israeli border and follows calls from a Hezbollah-aligned group for an investigation into two Lebanese prelates for allegedly committing treason by meeting with the president of Israel.

The two bishops, who oversee dioceses in Israel, were said to have attended a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog that is held annually by the president for Christian leaders in the Holy Land just before Christmas.

It is a crime in Lebanon for any Lebanese citizen to have contact with Israel, under the country’s 1955 anti-normalization laws. There is, however, an exception for religious leaders to minister to congregations living in Israel. Those freedoms, however, have been challenged in past years

The crime of treason carries severe penalties ranging from a fine and up to life in prison, and death in cases involving armed conflict, Walid Phares, a Lebanese-American author and expert on the Middle East, told CNA earlier this month.

One of the prelates, Maronite Archbishop Moussa El-Hage of Haifa and the Holy Land, denied taking part in the meeting, denouncing “fabricated information involving him,” according to the news website This Is Beirut.

He said in an interview with Nidaa al-Watan that the Christian leaders who met with the Israeli president “denounced the military actions in Palestine,” according to the outlet.

In that interview, he emphasized “the need not [to] give in to the campaigns of betrayal and intimidation of which he is the target, and to proceed instead with initiatives that serve the Church, the diocese, and the Christians in the Holy Land.”

He also said that the Vatican and his local See “express opinions on what he is or is not allowed to undertake” and said that he has “absolute freedom of action as long as he acts by the teachings and instructions of Pope Francis and Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai.”

By Joe Bukuras