ROME — The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) has written an open letter to Pope Francis criticizing his “one-sided perspective” in the Gaza conflict.
In the letter, the IJCIC takes issue with the pontiff’s “troubling and deeply concerning” remarks regarding the conflict in Gaza, which “have been repeated on several occasions.”
Portraying Israel’s war efforts against Hamas simply as “cruelty” is mistaken, and “risks presenting a one-sided perspective that overlooks the broader context and complexities of the current crisis,” the letter states.
The respectfully worded letter, signed by IJCIC chairman Rabbi Mark Dratch, asserts that Israel is engaged in a “defensive war against jihadist terrorism” provoked by “the brutal and unprecedented massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7.”
In its attack, Hamas murdered more than 1,400 innocent Israelis and others “in cold blood,” the letter declares, and of the 251 hostages abducted that day, “101 remain held hostage under unspeakable conditions.”
Therefore, to frame Israel’s actions solely in terms of cruelty without acknowledging the necessity aim of dismantling a terrorist infrastructure that has repeatedly targeted civilians “diminishes the suffering experienced by Israeli families and communities,” the letter states, and further fuels the “rampant antisemitism” raging throughout the world.
Along with the damage done to the Jewish community, such ambiguous statements also “risk undermining the moral clarity needed to confront the global threat of terrorism,” the text continues.
Hamas not only imperils Israeli lives, but also “callously uses its own civilian population as human shields, storing weapons in hospitals, schools, and residential areas,” it adds, which makes it “agonizingly difficult” to prevent the deaths of innocents while fighting combatants.
Israel’s actions are motivated “not by cruelty but by the imperative to safeguard its population against existential threats,” the letter insists.
We urge the Holy See “to condemn regularly and forcefully the atrocities committed by Hamas with equal fervor,” it declares, since silence on this matter “risks emboldening those who seek to sow hatred and destruction.”
