AUSTRALIAN Church leaders say the violence in the Holy Land must stop.
A statement released yesterday by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said the violence had shaken many people around the world.
“We, too, have been shaken,” they said.
“We care deeply for the people of the Holy Land – Jews, Christians and Muslims.
“They are our brothers and sisters.
“We care for the Holy Land because it was the home of Jesus Christ and its story , is unimaginable without Christianity.”
The fighting between Israel and Palestine has entered its seventh month.
The conflict escalated on Tuesday when Israel seized the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Palestine, which was the only corridor for humanitarian aid.
Israeli forces shut down all humanitarian aid flowing over the border.
Current estimates say more than 36,000 people – 34,844 Palestinians and 1410 Israelis – have been reported killed in the conflict since the October 7 terrorist attack, including 97 journalists and 224 humanitarian aid workers.
About 70 per cent of the 34,844 Palestinians killed were reportedly women and children.
The Australian bishops said, with Pope Francis, they put their faith in the possibility of a “just resolution to the worsening crisis”.
“With him (Pope Francis) we say: ‘Enough, please! Let us all say: Stop! Please stop!’.
“The people of the Holy Land are suffering in a way that cries out to the world to pray for peace, to call for peace, to work for peace,” the bishops said.
“The historical persecutions of the Jewish people, climaxing in the Shoah, remain on the conscience of the world.
“For many centuries they have been scapegoated, and anti-Semitism has surged again recently, even in this country.
“To that too we say: Stop.”
The bishops said since 1948 the Palestinian people have “suffered dispossession and discrimination of many kinds and have been victims of frequent violence, climaxing in the atrocities now unfolding”.
“This too has to stop,” they said.
“The background to the present conflict is longstanding and complex.
“Palestinians and Israelis have suffered greatly, and on both sides there are those committed to violence, believing that Israel and Palestine can never be at peace, that it must be one or the other.
“But there are others who believe that peace is possible, and we join them in this belief, conscious that there have been times when Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived in peace together.
“We believe that a just ceasefire with the release of all hostages and unhindered access for desperately needed aid are essential at this time.
“We support global efforts to negotiate a lasting peace.”
