By George Swarei
Several bishops, pastors and the Christian community converged in Central Harare Thursday to pray for the peace of the Holy land of Palestine.
The event, hosted by the Apostolic Bishops Network chairman, Apostle Brian Mgabazi, saw hundreds proffering messages of solidarity with Palestine and all its oppressed people at the hands of Israel.
Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Zimbabwe, Dr Tamer Al Massri who attended the church service, took the time to chronicle the struggle of the Palestinian people which he said began in 1948.
He stated that religious intolerance and extremism are the hallmarks of the nation of Israel which is regarding other races and religions as second class citizens.
The Ambassador chronicled how from 1948 to the present day Israel continues to trample on other people’s rights banking on the support of its Western allies.
Palestine and Zimbabwe are facing persecution in various forms and this has strengthened relations between the two countries said Ambassador Almassri.
Ambassador Tamer Al Massri said the most repulsive action was the UN’s acceptance of the Israeli settler-colonial enterprise as a member state in 1948, at the expense of the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian population whose land was and continues to be usurped, and whose legitimate return to their land was a still unfulfilled.
The church service to mark Nakba comes at a time when terrorist attacks, by radical Israeli groups, targeting churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties, in addition to physical and verbal abuse against Christian clergy, have become almost a daily occurrence that evidently increases in intensity during Christian holidays.
This dismal situation hasn’t drawn any appropriate reaction, locally or internationally, despite appeals, requests, and protests made to that effect by international organizations and world bodies.
The solidarity by the Zimbabwean church is in sync with the United Nations who, for the first time, on Monday officially commemorated the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the war surrounding the creation of Israel 75 years ago.
The event — marking the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” by Palestinians — was attended by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas; many member states from Asia, Africa, Central and South America and the Middle East; and representatives of the African Union and the Arab League, who delivered speeches.
