Reporting of Federici Studies Center
In the indifference of international public opinion (also Vatican?) Jewish acts of vandalism against Catholic buildings continue in the Holy Land: the hatred of Caiaphas' descendants does not even stop in front of cemeteries. And the Israeli authorities do not intervene to put an end to this chain of sacrilegious acts.
Anti-Christian vandalism continues in Beit Gemal in Israel
The cemetery attached to the Salesian religious house of Beit Gemal was once again desecrated overnight
Overturned steles and broken crosses, the images speak for themselves. The cemetery of the Salesian convent of Beit Gemal, vicino a Beit Shemesh, 30 kilometers west of Jerusalem, it was once again damaged in the last few hours. The cemetery is located approximately 500 meters from the Salesian religious house. This latest crime concerns around thirty tombs, according to the Haaretz newspaper. Apparently, the events would have occurred in the night between 16 and the 17 October, according to a statement from the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, widespread following the discovery. It was the religious people who were responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery, and who go there several times a month, the first to realize what happened.
“It is with regret and anger that we must condemn such criminal acts, which have been repeated many times in recent years", regrets the Assembly, which brings together all the Catholic bishops and episcopal vicars of the Latin and Eastern rites in the Holy Land (“bishops” in communion with Bergoglio and who accept the C.V.II, ndr).
Effectively, in mid-December 2015 the cemetery itself had already been desecrated. Dozens of crosses (of wood or concrete) they had been overturned and destroyed. Last year, in September, the church of Santo Stefano was targeted, which is part of the Salesian complex. Vandals destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, they damaged the furniture and broke a number of windows. Altar cloths, pyxes and chalices were thrown onto the floor.
In the last two cases, to limit ourselves to them, "the security systems failed to bring any of those responsible for those acts to justice", ordinary Catholics deplore. Since the identity of the nocturnal vandals is not known and there has been no claim, the leaders of the Catholic communities of the Holy Land wonder "if today's accident will meet the same fate".
The ecclesiastics' statement notes that there has been "almost no intervention by state authorities in terms of safety and/or education in the face of this dangerous phenomenon, especially while high representatives of the country say that Christians are doing very well here!». A not too veiled reference to Benjamin Netanyahu's statements on the situation of Christians in Israel, delivered last weekend at the second annual Christian Media Summit, which he collected in Jerusalem from abroad approximately 150 journalists, predominantly evangelicals. In Israel, the prime minister had said 14 October «we don't just protect Christian sites, but also the Christians themselves". «Israel – he then added – is the only country that protects human rights for everyone. We protect the religious rights of all".
In light of these statements, the ordinary Catholics of the Holy Land openly invite the Jewish State and "all its competent bodies" to "strive to punish the aggressors and educate the population not to commit such crimes". In the end, a prayer that the inhabitants of the Holy Land learn to "coexist with each other in love and mutual respect, regardless of the differences".
The Israeli police told Haaretz that the case is under investigation to "add to the persons of interest".
A beit painting, the Salesian convent and that of the nuns of the monastic family of Bethlehem are regularly the target of abuse allegedly committed by extremist Jews. Already the 27 September 1981 more than 30 cemetery crosses, at that time in wood, they had been burned and destroyed by unknown persons. Eight years ago a bomb was placed under a tractor.
In the 2013 Molotov cocktails were thrown at the religious building and graffiti in Hebrew was spray-painted on the walls saying: «The price to pay», «Death to non-Jews» and «Vengeance». Two years ago, the walls of the building inhabited by the nuns had been defaced with blasphemous graffiti in Hebrew. In March 2014, an act of vandalism also hit the Deir Rafat monastery, where the sanctuary of Our Lady of Palestine is located, very dear to the Palestinian faithful, also located near Beit Shemesh.
http://www.terrasanta.net/tsx/lang/it/p11139/In-Israele-ancora-vandalismi-anticristiani-a-Beit-Gemal
