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An important contribution coming from our Bethlehem office by the signature of Councilor Father Ibrahim Faltas:

"From the window of my office at the Terra Sancta School in Jerusalem, I can see the Damascus Gate. In the last month, life and activity in the area has resumed its usual vibrancy, as the people of Jerusalem , thanks to the vaccination campaign have come out of the covid crisis, and in the last few days we have taken off the mask.

In this month of April, thousands and thousands of Jews came to Jerusalem, from all over Israel, to celebrate Passover, we Christians, too, did all our celebrations in tranquility, although this is the second year the pilgrims are missing, this year at least we had the joy of the participation of the local Catholic community.

We are now in the time of the Orthodox Easter week, because according to the Julian calendar, it will be celebrated on May 2, 2021. But meanwhile, Ramadan, the most important month for Muslims, a month of purification and prayer, has already begun. And it is in conjunction with these last two celebrations that unrest has broken out, going to undermine the need and the right for everyone to pray. All this chaos, this disarray spread throughout the West Bank, like a domino effect, creating protests everywhere.

These latest events of violence make one understand the fragility of Jerusalem, and after a year of pandemic, the unresolved issue of Jerusalem has come to the surface violently: the indifference of finding a solution by the international community, on the recognition of Jerusalem, as the Holy City, a city that belongs to all peoples.

I remember with emotion the words of St. John Paul, who had emphasized in one of his apostolic letters about the city of Jerusalem that: "The holy city of Jerusalem, so dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, stands as a symbol of coming together, of union of peace for the entire human family" and "With good will and breadth of vision let a just way be found in which the different interests and aspirations can be brought together in a harmonious and firm form and be defended in an adequate and effective way," and he often repeated: "if there is no peace in Jerusalem, there will be no peace in the world."

Jerusalem is the key to closing any conflict and opening the door to peace.

The protests of these days, in which many young people, of all religions, participated, invite us to write a new page for a new history, to rethink Jerusalem as the icon, the model of Human Brotherhood.

I call on the international community to resume dialogues on the issue of Jerusalem, for the sake of humanity, for a future of peace and justice.

The city of Jerusalem, is not a city like any other, but is a message of coexistence and peace for the world, has a great opportunity, in this post covid century, to start again in a new light, as an exemplary model, because its nature and characteristics are the founding pillars of a new society, where the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam can be the protagonists of a model of a society that is based on coexistence and cooperation, enriching the Jerusalem of today, respecting that indissoluble link between the historic Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem -- the one draws the other -- and with it, attracts the whole human history of every single man since we are all born in Jerusalem, we all belong to the City of God. We cannot forget you, Jerusalem!

Demand peace for Jerusalem:

Peace be to those who love you,

Be peace on your walls,

Security in your bulwarks.

For my brothers and my friends

I will say, 'On you be peace!'"

Br. Ibrahim Faltas ofm