Pax Christi International opposes Israel’s plans for annexation and calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law.
For a PDF version of this statement, please click here.
(Ed. Note: Pax Christi USA supports this statement and asks our members and supporters to contact their Senators and Representatives to share their concerns and oppose the Israeli plan for annexation.)
Pax Christi International vehemently opposes Israel’s plan to annex any area of the West Bank including the Jordan Valley. We recognise East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights as illegally annexed under international law. We continue to condemn Israel’s 53-year occupation of the West Bank and its 13-year blockade of Gaza. We stand in steadfast solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers whose freedom, dignity and human rights are threatened by this current proposal and Israel’s previous actions.
We endorse the statement by the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of the Holy Land Churches which expresses grave concern over any such unilateral action to annex land. We add our voice to the growing denunciation of Israel’s flagrant disregard of international law, the Geneva Convention and resolutions agreed upon by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. We stand with those countries, civil society and human rights organizations, denominations and religious communities and people of conscience who call for Israel to immediately end their plans for annexation.
As the global Catholic movement for peace and nonviolence, Pax Christi International is deeply concerned that actions to annex any portion of the West Bank will extinguish the last glimmers of hope for a just and lasting peace in the land we call holy and has the potential to spark righteous anger and unrest throughout the region.
For 75 years, Pax Christi International has promoted nonviolence as a tool for responding to injustice and has encouraged dialogue to foster reconciliation and negotiated peace agreements. We believe that all parties in a dispute warrant respect and acknowledgement. Annexation undermines these principles placing the rights and very humanity of one group as inconsequential to the expectations of another.
We believe there is another way to secure the rights and safety of Israelis and Palestinians. This unilateral action is counterproductive to creating real security, justice and peace…