Why did he offer himself as a hostage to Hamas in exchange for one of the kidnapped Jewish children?
I made that offer in the context of a conversation in which I was asked last November if I was willing to be exchanged for a child kidnapped by Hamas…
Are you still willing?
I would do anything to stop this conflict and stop the absurdity we live in and I believe that is part of my mission as a pastor…
What happened after your offer?
That the situation has deteriorated, despite the windows of opportunity of the ceasefire. I’m afraid we’re going to get worse.
Because?
What we experience is unpredictable, but our mission is always the same: Israelis feel threatened in their existence and some now see the opportunity to expel the Palestinians. Which is unrealizable.
Are we missing something here in the way war is reported?
I fear that focusing on Gaza is hiding the fact that many Jewish settlers are now doing what they want and are aggressively advancing into the West Bank.
Could the Vatican mediate?
We are in continuous contact with Pope Francis and with all parties in conflict following the situation day by day. And we also have our own Arab Catholic community in Gaza that we must and do help. It is an everyday endeavor.
How many? How do they help them?
There are around a thousand Gazan Catholic Arabs subjected to the Israeli invasion and fire every day in the Gaza Strip.
Have they been offered help to leave?
We talk to them daily. And we offered them that possibility when the invasion began; They responded that if the Israelis had named their invasion of Gaza “The Flood,” they would be “Noah’s Ark.”
And how do they survive now?
They are crammed into a church without water, electricity or food, so they depend on what we can get them with difficulty, and sometimes there is no choice but to pay fortunes on the black market for them.
Can’t they evacuate them?
The Vatican cannot order them to leave their land…
How many casualties have they had?
We have already lost 25 Catholics in Gaza due to bombings and shootings, with dozens injured; but besides the Catholics…
We are with them: tell them.
We are with all the victims: the Jews, too.
We also stand with the Jewish victims.
It is important that we do not surrender to any of the conflicting narratives.
What does it mean?
That in this war we do not accept that there are only victims on one side. We are together with everyone: no one has a monopoly on suffering, but Catholics are together helping all victims even if our attitude is rejected by others.
Are you participating in diplomatic efforts to stop the escalation?
Of course, we are very active in them, but if I revealed them they would no longer be effective. I can only tell you now that all parties are listening to us, but also that they are increasingly distant.
How did you get to Jerusalem?
Through Franciscan obedience 35 years ago, during the Gulf War and the first intifada.
Did you ever glimpse peace?
The Oslo agreements were an opportunity, but conceived from power: they lacked territorial implementation and leadership among the Arabs and Jews to make it possible. Afterwards, it always got worse.
Because?
Because the agreements did not consider the religious, identity dimension of the conflict and its connection to the territory: they were not defended in schools, temples, the streets, homes…
Weren’t there secular Israelis and Arabs?
Here even atheistic Jews or Muslims, which there are, are before Jewish or Muslim atheists. This identity dimension is prior to geopolitics and we must work on it. That is the great pending task.
And now increasingly radical religiosity is taking over anti-peace politics?
On both sides, the religious parties impose their intransigence on the State and make coexistence impossible.
Have you found your ministry there difficult?
I lived in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem while studying at the Hebrew University and at times I felt schizophrenic, but I learned Hebrew, Arabic and how to live in contradiction after being educated in the faith of a truth. The Jews do not believe, but rather interpret their faith. And understanding other faiths helped me improve mine.
