On behalf of Dr. Ramzi Khouri, member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Issa Kassissieh attended the Good Friday service at St. James Cathedral in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in the Old City in Jerusalem.
In a letter, President Mahmoud Abbas conveyed warm greetings to His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus III, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, as well as to Palestinian Christians. President Abbas expressed hope for the forthcoming year to mark an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the realization of the Palestinian people’s long-held aspirations for freedom and independence.
Below is the text of President Mahmoud Abbas’ letter:
His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III
Patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine and Jordan
Brothers, Parish Council Members, and priests of St. James Orthodox Cathedral,
Dear members of the Arab Orthodox congregation,
As Easter approaches this year, we anticipate its arrival with the hope that it would coincide with the end of the Israeli occupation’s bloody aggression and genocide against our people. This aggression has inflicted widespread destruction, hunger, and suffering upon our people, leading to the killing and wounding of over 100,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.
We lift our prayers to God, on this sacred occasion, reflecting on the anguish, adversity, and injustice endured by our Lord Jesus Christ. With unwavering faith, we trust in God Almighty, will grant victory for our people, independence and sovereignty within their Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
We yearn for the day when the bells of freedom reverberate from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and echoes of Takbir resonate from Al-Aqsa Mosque. We yearn to pray together in the Mosques of Gaza and the Church of St. Porphyrius, in the heart of wounded Gaza, as we pay homage to the martyrs of the Church, the martyrs of Gaza, and all the martyrs in our homeland.
I wish you a blessed Easter.
