A Palestinian Archbishop has urged Palestinian and Arab
Christians to join forces with Islam and take part in suicide attacks against
Israel, ASSIST News Service monitored Tuesday January 14.
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Attallah Hanna, former spokesman of the Orthodox
Church of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, called for the creation of an
Islamic-Christian union that would foil the "American offensive"
against Iraq and "release Palestine from the river to the sea".
"The Suicide bombers who carry out their activities in the name of
religion are national [Islamic] heroes and we're proud of them," he said
on the internet website of the militant group Hamas, which has claimed responsibility
for several attacks.
"The attackers do not commit suicide as several claim, nor do they carry
out acts of terrorism as others claim, for they are fighters against
occupation," Hanna added in his message, which came after 22 people died
this month in Israel's bloodiest suicide bombing in nearly a year.
ARABS AND PALESTINIANS
The 37-year old Archbishop Hanna also called on Arab and Palestinian Christians
to join the struggle against the occupation by employing "any means at
their disposal."
His controversial appeal, which was likely to fuel religious tensions, followed
warnings from a Russian Orthodox priest that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
was using problems between Jews and Christians to promote himself as the
"protector of the Christian faith."
Father Iosif told the Jerusalem Post newspaper last week that the Jerusalem
Patriarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church were being "a de-facto hostage of
Arafat's and cannot openly criticize his despotic, terrorist, anti-Christian
regime."
However the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Arinous 1st, criticized Hanna and
fired him as an official Orthodox spokesman earlier this year because of
"supporting Palestinian terrorism," Arabic News.com reported.
JEWS AND CHRISTIANS
Father Iosif suggested that the best road to peace is when Jews do embrace real
Christians, including Palestinians, as they are supporters of Israel.
He said that Russian Christians responded "with a great deal of sympathy"
to his testimony that Christians living under the Palestinian Authority
"are the first victims of Arafat's regime and are secretly hoping to be
liberated by Israel."
Several international Christian organizations, such as the International
Christian Embassy Jerusalem, have also condemned suicide attacks and are trying
to bring Jews from around the world to Israel, where they believe God will
fulfil His plan with the Jewish people.