Prepared and followed up by: Ruba Yousef Shaheen

His Excellency bishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebastia for the Greek Orthodox from occupied Jerusalem, spoke and said:

Yesterday, a number of social media outlets published a film documenting the actions of a number of Jewish clerics (rabbis) in insulting the Christian faith and doctrine and in a humiliating and offensive manner towards Jesus Christ and his Virgin Mother (we apologize for publishing this film on our pages due to the obscene expressions it contained).

His Excellency said: This racism, hatred and insult towards religious symbols is something we reject in its entirety

It seems that those who cursed and spat on Jesus Christ while he was hanging on the cross more than two thousand years ago have not changed their mentality and they are the same ones who curse and spit on him today.

And it is the same racist school that we feel its presence, especially in Jerusalem, where they curse and spit on us in the streets of Jerusalem, and they also insult Christian religious symbols on a permanent and continuous basis.

His Excellency Bishop Atallah Hanna explained: We do not want to generalize here, as not all Jews do such acts, but rather it is a hateful racist school that includes settlers and rabbis who adopt this racist, exclusionary ideology, and there is a segment of Jews who reject these actions and these uncivilized and inhumane positions.

In light of these ongoing and continuous insults, what is required of the heads of all Christian churches in Jerusalem and all churches is:

To issue a statement and a clear position rejecting this attack on the Christian faith and Christian religious symbols.

His Excellency Bishop stressed: We must also seriously consider the issue of going to court to question and hold these racists accountable for their actions, as it is not permissible to remain silent in the face of such acts.

In Christianity, we always call for love and forgiveness, but the values ​​of love and forgiveness in Christianity do not mean at all surrendering to evil and accepting racism. Rather, these evils must be resisted and rejected by all peaceful and civilized means that are consistent with our spiritual, human, and faith-based values ​​that we call for.

His Archbishop Theodosios "Atallah Hanna continued, explaining: We know very well that there are fundamental doctrinal and faith differences between the religions in this world, whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or others.

Doctrinal and faith differences must not turn into hatred, racism, incitement, and attacks on religious symbols.

Every believer, from any religion, has the right to defend his faith and belief as he wishes.

But it is not permissible to fall into the forbidden and for religious discourse to turn into a discourse of hatred and racism because we believe that God is love and whoever calls for God and believes in Him must not call for hatred, animosity, racism, and sectarianism.

We reject manifestations of racism in all its forms and colors, regardless of the party that promotes it.

There are some in our world today who wear the garb of religion, but religion is innocent of them, and instead of being spreaders and preachers of the values ​​of love, goodness, peace, and human brotherhood, we see their discourse full of hatred, animosity, and racism.

It is a stage in which we need more awareness, wisdom, sobriety and sound faith in order to confront these evils in our world and to resist the manifestations of racism and hatred that are not in harmony with our principles and human and spiritual values.

We live in a period of war and we must all pray for the war to stop and for a peace based on justice.

We pray for the war in Gaza and in Lebanon to stop this bleeding that pains every believer who has moral or human values ​​in this world.