Church Leaders Condemn the Killing of a Palestinian Christian in Gaza As leaders of the Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical (Lutheran and Anglican) Churches, we condemn with deep sorrow the deliberate murder of Mr. Rami Ayyad. Mr. Ayyad, a Christian, used to work at the Palestinian Bible Society bookshop which was burned six weeks ago by unidentified gunmen. This tragic incident is the first of its kind. We appreciate the Islamic, and National leaderships that joined us in condemning this terrible crime. At the same time, we remind all to continue to pay serious attention to the overwhelming daily escalation of human rights' abuses that hurts the whole Palestinian Society, both Muslims and Christians. We call on all to unite as one and resist this and all kinds of extremism and to commit to learn together as faithful Christians and Muslims to respect one another. We also request the relevant authorities to take all necessary measures in bringing the attackers to justice and end such atrocities. Finally, we ask God to strengthen the efforts to build peace and stability so that we can achieve security, justice and independence for all in this troubled region. To this end, we pray for the protection of our people and an end to the embargo and isolation of Gaza that is threatening the well-being of the entire area.
Text copied from resource: Mr Yusef Daher, Executive Secretary of Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre (JIC): yusf66jrs@yahoo.com
Middle East Council of Churches Office of International Ecumenical Relations P.O. Box 5376, Beirut, Lebanon
Guirgis Ibrahim Saleh, General Secretary
mecc@cyberia.net.lb or guirgissaleh@cyberia.net.lb
+961-1-353-938 http://www.mec-churches.org/