July 21,2014 

Dear Jesuits and Collaborators,

 As we all watch in horror and heartbreak the horrendous violence in Palestine and Israel, I wanted to share with you the following statements:

Justice and Peace Commission of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land. (see link below)

See also the statement of Kairos Canada. (see link below)

 Please consider signing a petition of solidarity with the people of Gaza, being circulated by Canadian Friends of Sabeel (Sabeel is an ecumenical liberation theology centre in Jerusalem) (see link below) 

At the invocation for peace in Israel and Palestine, held in the Vatican last month Pope Francis said:

"Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare.  It calls for the courage to say yes to encounter and not to conflict; yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity. All of this takes courage, it takes strength and tenacity."

Let us pray for this peacemaking. Let us pray for all the victims of the violence today. Let us pray for a new tomorrow for the people of this land.

Thank you.

Peace be with you,

Anne-Marie Jackson

A Statement from Jennifer Henry, Executive Director,    KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives 15 July 2014 In response to the violence and military activity in Israel and Palestine, KAIROS: Canadian

Ecumenical Justice Initiatives continues to seek a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The escalation of violence will not achieve either peace or security for Israel and Palestine.  Such a peace requires an end to Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories and related actions such as the blockade of Gaza.

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July 18, 2014

Most of you share in our sense of revulsion and horror at Israel's manipulation and propaganda disingenuously justifying its vicious assault on Gaza as "defence".   This criticism is also subtly reflected in the statement of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land.  They observed that  "Israel and Palestine are echoing with the cry of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, loved ones of the young people who have fallen victim to the latest round in the cycle of violence that plagues this land. Some of their faces are well known because the media have covered in detail their lives, interviewing their parents, bringing them alive in our imaginations, whereas others - by far more numerous - are mere statistics, nameless and faceless. The selective coverage, mourning and memory are themselves part of the cycle of violence."  They expose the the moral bankruptcy behind their violence.  These acts of cruelty by the State of Israel may be War Crimes under articles 146 and 147 of the IV Geneva Convention, and a manifestation of evil.

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