Melkite Catholic Archbishop issues “SOS” for Christians in Galilee

Jul 20, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Today, in midst of a general conflagration between the resistant movements in Lebanon and the Israeli authorities, Elias Chacour, the Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Akka, Haifa, Nazareth and all of Galilee, urgently appealed to the organization Aid to the Church in Need for help.

“The whole Galilee region is practically paralysed,” the archbishop wrote, “(there are) no jobs, no circulation, and people stay at home waiting for deliverance and sometimes receiving a rocket or a cachucha instead.”

The archbishop pointed especially to the Galilean villages of Jish, Buqaia, Fasuta, Tharsheeha, Miilya and also Haifa and Shefa’amr, where he said, “people were hit directly or indirectly, some are hospitalised.”

Archbishop Chacour further explains, “most of the Jewish brothers and sisters have shelters against bombs which the Arab villages have not.” “Others,” he said, “escape to Tel Aviv, which is not possible for us Arabs.”

Although all of these people need support, especially those directly suffering damage to their homes or personal injuries, Archbishop Chacour specifically requested help for 30 families under his care. These Arab Christians are denied any compensation from the State of Israel. “I never imagined that a day (would) come that I (would) have to make an appeal,” he wrote, “a kind of SOS for us Christians in Galilee. We wish to wipe away the tears of the children and parents in these difficult times.”

The Jerusalem Post reported this morning that while no rockets were fired overnight, several barrages hit Galilee yesterday - several arriving before warning sirens went off.