Israel-Palestine Archives - Catholic Herald

Israel-Palestine

War has become ‘a way of life’ in Holy Land

April 17, 2024

War in Gaza has become a “way of life,” says a Franciscan priest in the Holy Land. “The Holy Land has been at war for almost seven months,” said Franciscan Father Ibrahim Faltas, Vicar of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. “It is a way of life, or rather an obligation to live the

‘Something has gone truly, terribly wrong’: the latest outbreak of anti-Semitism in Britain

April 13, 2024

The atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza mark a turning point not just in the fraught relationship between Israel and the Palestinians but between religious communities and ethnic groups in the United Kingdom as well. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza have resulted in an increase

The Temple Mount encapsulates the tragedy of religious conflict today

April 09, 2024

Easter is a good time to reflect on what the Temple Mount means for the three Abrahamic faiths, especially in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel and all that has come to pass since. While holy to so many different religious believers, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has also long

The fiery death of self-immolation: a martyr’s moral clarity or misguided calumny?

March 25, 2024

As we enter Holy Week and commemorate the exemplary martyrdom, it seems that martyrdom in general – or a misplaced understanding of it – is reasserting itself. Last month, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old US airman, doused himself with liquid and set himself on fire outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC. In a livestream of the event, he

Top cardinal addresses difficulties of two-state solution for Israel and Palestine

March 18, 2024

ROME – A top cardinal and leading papal diplomat who served as Pope Francis’ special envoy to Iraqhas addressed the issue of how peace in the Holy Land could require a change of mentality in which both Israel and Palestine recognise and respect each other’s right to exist, regardless of whether that is together as

A Jewish perspective on the Catholic Church’s response to the Gaza conflict

February 19, 2024

Amid the plethora of public utterances on the wrongs and rights of Israel’s military action in Gaza, those of several key Vatican officials and spokesmen, including Pope Francis, along with the comments of their neighbour, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, have featured prominently in the Catholic Herald. Finding myself invited to supplement

Rome’s Chief Rabbi expresses ‘great disappointment’ with Vatican’s stance on Gaza

January 24, 2024

ROME – Having already warned of “many steps backward” in Catholic-Jewish relations as a result of contrasting reactions to Israel’s war with Hamas, the Chief Rabbi of Rome has used a new interview to express “great disappointment” with the way the Vatican has responded to the crisis in Gaza. “The Jewish community, and not only

Bethlehem Dispatch: A muted Christmas ‘bereft its usual festive splendour’

December 27, 2023

Bethlehem’s main square is bereft its usual festive splendour and twinkling red, green and white lights. Usually bustling this time of year with thousands of global visitors and with Christians visiting from across the Holy Land—including Gaza—the square is now desolate. There are no tourists or pilgrims. The abrupt halting of access for Christians from