Dhaka (AsiaNews) - " Israel's Gaza strikes are serious humanitarian and moral issue. The Catholic Church never and nowhere wants war or conflict. Church stands and works for peace for all men and women everywhere on earth", says Mgr. Gervas Rozario, Bishop of Rajshahi in Bangladesh and President of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace. At the same time, he says, "no one can argue in favor of what Hamas is doing. Their attacks on Israel are pure acts of terrorism."
"Israele condanna da sempre Hitler per l'olocausto e la pulizia etnica degli ebrei in Germania durante la seconda guerra mondiale - afferma ad AsiaNews mons. Rozario - ma quello che sta facendo adesso contro i palestinesi è molto più serio e grave dal punto di vista umano. Il popolo palestinese ha il diritto di esistere con la dignità che merita ogni essere umano, e non può essere preso di mira per i misfatti di un piccolo gruppo di terroristi. Le comunità internazionali, in particolare le più potenti, devono impedire a Israele di compiere atti barbarici contro l'umanità".
Every day in Bangladesh students, professionals, human rights
activists and leaders of all religions organize human chains against the
Israeli attacks. The death toll in clashes in Gaza continues to climb, with
over 800 Palestinians and 33 Israelis dead.
"Israel has always condemned Hitler for the Holocaust and the ethnic
cleansing of Jews in Germany during the Second World War - says Msgr. Rozario -
but what they are doing now against the Palestinians is much more serious and
gravely inhuman. Palestinian people have the right to exist with human dignity
and can never be targeted against for the misdeeds done by a small group of
terrorists. International communities, especially the powerful ones, must
restrain Israel from barbarism and acts against humanity".
"At the same time - he adds - we also call on Hamas
to stop inciting Israel for such heinous and inhuman acts".
"Terrorism generates terrorism - says the prelate - we call upon them to
come to the path of dialogue and reconciliation. Otherwise, we fear that, they
are risking the existence of the whole of Palestinian people in that part of
the earth. If anything such happens, that will be one of the biggest disaster
in the human civilization".
Bishop Rozario concludes by recalling the invocation
for peace organized by Pope Francis on June 8th with Israeli President
Shimon Peres, Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew I: "All of us joined them in that prayer from the
places where we were. The Church of Bangladesh continues to do so. "