Jerusalem, Franciscan of the Holy Land: 'We are on the brink of civil war'

Fr Ibrahim Faltas sounds the alarm for the "violence" and "anger" of young people. The failure of the 1967 resolutions and the indifference of the international community. People "are afraid to leave their house" because they "risk dying". An appeal to the heads of state: "Violence generates violence, we must all stop it!".

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - "We are on the verge of a civil war" while we are witnessing "helpless in the face of unprecedented man against man violence" that explodes "with all the anger on both sides, young Israelis and young Arabs," decries Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, a Franciscan Custody and director of the Christian schools of the Holy Land, in an appeal entitled “The Holy Land burns! Stop this hell" on the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas, extended to the entire population.

In the document, sent to AsiaNews, he underlines that the basis is the "great failure of the resolutions applied in 1967" and "the indifference of the international community" to finding "a solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine" today to a "tragic crossroads ".

Yesterday at the Regina Caeli in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis addressed the belligerents, asking "in the name of God" to "stop the weapons in the Holy Land".

Fr. Ibrahim says that today “is not just a war between Israel and Hamas” as on the occasion of previous Intifada between Israel and the West Bank in which the parties “can decide to cease fire and find an agreement. Here we are faced with an angry population, on both sides, trying to obtain justice, and where there is no interlocutor.”

On the escalation from Temple Mount and from Sheikh Jarrah to Jerusalem extended to Gaza where yesterday the highest number of daily deaths was recorded, the religious highlights the tragedy "of a population that lives in the same territory, but does not have same rights ".

"The protest - he explains - was unleashed among the population, to the point of having more than 200 outbreaks" of violence.

Haifa, Nazareth, Ramle, Lod, Cana, Askelon Tel Aviv, Nablus, Bethlemme, Jenin, Bethany, Hebron are just some of the many Israeli and Palestinian cities where "hell" has broken out with "cars burned, lynching, arson attacks on homes, synagogues, places of worship and stone throwing “.

"It’s a real war - he adds - between Jewish settlers and Israeli Arabs, in Israeli cities, and the same is happening in the occupied areas of the West Bank".

“To understand the Middle East and what is happening - warns Fr. Ibrahim - you need to have a knowledge of local history. In Israel, together with Israeli citizens and settlers, who may be Jews or non-Jewish people, there are also the Israeli Arabs of 1948, who may be Christians or Muslims, but all are Israeli citizens with an Israeli passport. Palestinians live in the West Bank, they can be Christians or Muslims, and they have a Palestinian passport. In Jerusalem, in addition to Israeli citizens, there are Palestinians, who have no passport”.

Tensions and opposing factors have resulted in a "street war of sticks and stones".

The cleric warns of the danger: “While we are being informed in detail of the war strategies between Hamas and Israel, which have already claimed many victims, we are not realizing the danger that the country is running. People are afraid to leave their homes, for fear of being subjected to violence, because if you are Arab, or if you are Jewish, you also risk dying! ".

Finally, Fr Faltas appeals to all the heads of state and government so that a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel can be done and that action is taken "quickly to restore order to the streets and to the population now disheartened by long years of conflict. Violence - he concludes - generates violence, we must all stop it!”.