the temptation of the earth

While the world scrutinizes the evolution of the war waged by Israel and the United States against Iran, Israel continues its colonization of the West Bank, coupled with ethnic cleansing. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been expelled from their land since October 7, 2023, according to the NGO B’Tselem. In one week, at the beginning of March, five Palestinians died under the bullets of extremist settlers.

On the morning of March 19, Father Bashar Basiel, priest of the Catholic parish of Taybeh (Christian village north of Jerusalem), informed me of new intimidations: “More than 30 settlers entered the site of a concrete factory, they performed rituals and Talmudic prayers and raised an Israeli flag. » Through these rites, these extremists, often recent immigrants to Israel, claim to be heirs of the Land promised by God to biblical Israel.

The anger of a Christian from Taybeh, met during a report in 2023, still rings in my ears: “My ancestors were born here millennia ago, some were Jewish, then Christian, perhaps Muslim; no matter, they passed their property on to me. This is my land! »

Let us remember that the earth belongs to God, according to the Bible (Lv 25, 23); the man is only the manager. Step by step, the annexation of the West Bank, Gaza, and even more land, is looming. In defiance of all justice, this justice whose practice conditioned God’s gift of the land to biblical Israel.