The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem tells AsiaNews: "We are all responsible." More than a billion dollars will be required for reconstruction, but the real problem is that of healing "the wounds that the war has opened in the hearts of the people." In the face of death and destruction, it is not possible to think of "advancing from one process to another, never leading to peace."

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - "We are all responsible, those who have remained silent are not innocent, and I include myself among the first: we are all responsible." Archbishop Fouad Twal, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, does not conceal his suffering before the continuation of the war, and the more than one thousand deaths in the Gaza Strip. Interviewed by AsiaNews, he says: "There is a question on my conscience. We do nothing but talk, but we are capable of intervening. Does this help reconciliation or not? Does it generate a context for peace, or for provocation?"

Archbishop Twal reiterates that the pope has been saying since the beginning of the conflict: "Stop the war immediately. But there is no intention of making peace. Without this desire, any means or decision will be contrary to peace. Talk will continue about ceasefires, the peace process, but we are tired of 'progress', of 'processes' that never lead to peace."

The fragile six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which expired on December 19, has been revealed to be the ground of preparation for today's war. "Who respected the truce?" the patriarch asks. "Is it a real truce if one side continues its siege of the Strip via land, sea, and sky, and the other launches rockets against Israel? This was a comedy, and continuing that truce was not normal: both sides knew this. I don't want to return to the previous situation. Either there is freedom of movement, without blockades and without the launching of rockets, or there is no truce. In order for this to be true, we must have the courage of peace."

Archbishop Twal has hope for the ceasefire, but he is looking beyond this: "There is a moral question that concerns everyone. After the war, there must be reconstruction of homes, hospitals, schools. They have calculated that at least one billion dollars will be needed to put the city back in order. But who will reconstruct the souls of the people? Who will heal the wounds in the hearts of the young people? The war has done nothing other than open even more wounds in the hearts of people who are afraid and are living in fear. After every war, it is almost worse than it was before, because it is necessary to reconstruct the souls of people who have seen their friends and relatives die, have lost their homes, have suffered beyond all measure. The longer the war continues, the more victims there are, the more wounds are opened. Without discussing politics, we cannot remain silent about the fate of all of these people. We cannot condemn thousands of people to death because their politicians do not agree."

There are about 3,000 Christians among the population of the Strip, most of them Greek Orthodox. "Our Christians of Gaza," the patriarch says, "are part of the city. They are not an exception, nor are they privileged: they are suffering like everyone else, and aspiring to peace like everyone else. Our community has been 'lucky' because only three Christians have died in these massacres. The three schools and the hospital have been damaged like so many other buildings. And for them as well, there is above all the problem of reconstructing hearts. With the bishops for coordination in the Holy Land [editor's note: European and North American bishops who visit the region annually], we have had the possibility of celebrating Mass in Ramallah. There we met with 70 families that came from Gaza to celebrate Christmas with their relatives. There were beautiful celebrations, deeply shared and intense. Then, two days later, came the attack, and the war suffocated our joy. The families were unable to return to the Strip. Some of them are alone, others with their entire families. But they have left relatives and friends in Gaza. One young man in Ramallah tried to talk to us, but he couldn't stop weeping, because his wife and two young daughters, one of them six months old, are in the Strip. He and the other Christians of Gaza have found hospitality with families in Ramallah, but often these are unable to host them for more than two or three days. For these brothers of ours, in addition to the suffering on account of being far from their loved ones, there is also the weariness of feeling that they are a burden to those who seek to help them: it is a vicious circle."

For Archbishop Twal, the continuation of the conflict is a cause of constant suffering for everyone, those living in Gaza and those living in the rest of the Holy Land: "We suffer because we are not with them to help them, because we are powerless, we can do nothing to stop the war."

"We have begun the new year in the worst way possible," the patriarch says, "we can do nothing other than hope that the situation will improve, that the war will come to an end soon. We continue to pray, of course, and we ask all Christians to do this so that we may feel that they are close to us. We ask them also to continue coming to the Holy Land on pilgrimage, because this is a concrete way to bear witness to their sharing and compassion for our lives. They must help us feel that we are not alone in suffering, in hoping for more justice and peace."

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