The Patriarch of Jerusalem: «There is no alternative to the “two states” other than the continuation of the war»
«The aftermath will be very hard. In the meantime, I hope that those who have left Gaza can and want to return. Rebuilding Gaza will take decades. There is nothing left: houses, roads, infrastructure. It will require a huge international effort.” This was underlined by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in an interview with the Vatican media after two hundred days of war. «It is unimaginable that people sleep in a tent for years. But I believe that, more generally,” he observes, “everything will have to be re-founded not only there, but also in Palestine and Israel.”
«We need to put a point in history and start all over again and on new and different bases from the past. Meanwhile – observes the Patriarch of Jerusalem – I think that everything that has happened in these six months has clearly shown the inevitability of the “two-state” solution. There is no alternative to the two states other than the continuation of the war. But the two states must change from within, they must rethink themselves. The two societies, which have changed radically and rapidly in recent years, must have the courage to rethink their society. It won’t be easy because both companies present a high degree of heterogeneity within them, they are multifaceted.”
«Both societies need to equip themselves with a new horizon of values, because it cannot be that the only social glue for both is to defend themselves from the enemy. If they don’t do so they will seriously compromise their future. Of course – he highlights – the atmosphere is not good all over the world, in many countries we see a fragmentation of interests, a growth of social selfishness, a delirium of power and oppression that generates conflicts. This definitely doesn’t help. You can even accuse me of partisanship but in the opposite sense today I only hear the voice of Pope Francis.”
