Archbishop Atallah Hanna warns against the exploitation of Zionist elections to commit further crimes against Palestinians

Archbishop of Sebastia of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of al-Quds [Jerusalem] Atallah Hanna has warned against the exploitation of Israeli elections [to be held in April] to perpetrate further crimes against Palestinian people.

In a newsletter obtained by the Syria Times e-newspaper, the archbishop said that there is a competition between extremist Israeli parties for anti-Arabism and anti-Palestinians, so we do not rule out the perpetration of brutal crimes against Palestinian people during what is called ‘election campaign’.

“It is not permissible to accept the exploitation of the blood of our youths as a commodity in the Israeli internal elections….We assure everyone concerned that Zionist parties’ election campaign is full of fabrications, misrepresentations and abuses of Palestinian people,” the Archbishop emphasized.

He stressed the need to be aware of what the extremist settlers are planning in this stage.

“We call on our Palestinian people to be united and to shoulder responsibility during the current difficult circumstances we are going through,” the archbishop stated, asserting that no matter how Israeli hostility is escalated with the support of the Zionist lobby in the United states, Palestinian people will never surrender because their cause is a just cause.

Moreover, His Eminence declared that neither the Brazilian President nor any other president in the world has the right to ignore the Palestinian people’s rights in al-Quds.

“Whoever wants to flirt with American administration is free to do so, but this should not be at the expense of our capital [al-Quds], which contains the most important Christian and Muslim shrines,” the archbishop said during his meeting with a Brazilian delegation, who visited al-Quds on Friday to express solidarity with Palestinian people.

In another separate meeting with Canadian academics n Saturday, His Eminence stressed that Palestinian people are struggling for their freedom and dignity and for restoring their usurped rights.

“They want us to forget Palestine, the right of return and al-Quds. They want us to abandon our national belongingness and our just cause. But this will never happen,” the archbishop said, appealing for more solidarity activities by Palestinian people’s friends all over the world.  

Basma Qaddour