On behalf of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, Member of the PLO Executive Committee, and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Churches Affairs in Palestine, Dr. Ramzi Khouri, received an invitation to attend the Armenian Orthodox Christmas Mass in Bethlehem. The invitation was extended, during a meeting at the presidential headquarters in Bethlehem, by His Eminence Bishop Theodoros Zakarian.
Khouri conveyed the sincere greetings of President Abbas, commending the honorable stance of the Armenian community and praising their resilience and determination in safeguarding their historical connection and heritage in occupied Jerusalem against the backdrop of Israeli occupation authorities and settlement plans.
Highlighting the dire situation, Khouri emphasized that the brutal and ruthless Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, coupled with assaults on Muslim and Christian Holy Sites, requires a firm and serious response to end the genocide in Gaza, ensure the protection of the Palestinian people, and uphold all relevant UN resolutions aimed at ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate, Superior of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Bethlehem, Father Aspid Balian, the Secretary of the Archbishop, Aghan Kurdjian, and the Legal Advisor to the Patriarchate, Mr. Raed Amieh. Also, present were members of the committee, Dr. Khuloud Daibes, Dr. Samir Hazboun, and Jihad Khair, in addition to Raed Hanania, the committee’s director of public relations and media.
