ASIA/LEBANON - Maronite Patriarch: Palestinian refugees have the "natural right" to return to their homeland

Thursday, 29 September 2016 international politics  

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Bkerkè (Agenzia Fides) - The international recognition of the Palestinian State is an act which cannot be delayed if one really wants to favor the re-establishment of peace in the Middle East. And one must also support and ensure the return of all Palestinian refugees, still scattered in the Middle East, to their homeland, which is one of their "natural rights". This is how Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai defined the prerogative claimed by the descendants of the Palestinian Arab populations who fled from Palestine after the birth of the State of Israel.
On September 26, a broad representation of the Presidential Committee for Affairs of the Church in Palestine, led by Hanna Amira - Executive Committee Member of the PLO - and including, among others, presidential Counsellor Ramzi Khoury, ambassador Issa Kassissieh - Representative of the State of Palestine to the Holy See - and Professor Vera Baboun, mayor of Bethlehem gathered at the Patriarchal headquarters.
The Primate of the Maronite Church reiterated that the Palestinian issue continues to be "a serious violation of truth and justice", and that the lack of recognition of the oppression suffered by the Palestinian people continues to be an objective factor for the perpetuation of hotbeds of war in the region, weakening all attempts to firmly establish a genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 29/09/2016)


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