Pretoria, 17 May, 2021 / 7:30 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) are calling on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to engage in dialogue and put an end to the ongoing violence.
In a statement issued Monday, May 17, the members of the three-nation conference of Catholic Bishops say they “cannot remain silent on the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the subsequent injuries and loss of life.”
“While understanding the decades of pain and suffering among Palestinians, we still pray and encourage dialogue as a path to peace,” the Catholic Bishops in Botswana, South Africa, and Swaziland say in the statement issued by SACBC’s Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) and shared with ACI Africa.
They caution against violence saying, “Disproportionate response to violence will not bring about sustainable solution to the current impasse.”
Highlighting Israel’s plan to evict Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and the annexation of the West Bank as some of the causes of the violence, the members of SACBC say that the evictions “must cease.”