• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Displaced Palestinian children who fled from home due to Israeli strikes sit at a tent camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Jan. 8, 2024. (OSV News photo/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Reuters)

Relocation of Palestinians cannot be a solution to Gaza crisis, U.S. officials say

January 9, 2024
By Michael Kelly
OSV News
Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that Palestinians must not be pressured into leaving Gaza and must be allowed to return to their homes once conditions allow, Christians in the Holy Land worry the Israeli statements may threaten other small communities in the Holy Land, including theirs.

Blinken condemned statements by some Israeli ministers who called for the resettlement of Palestinians elsewhere.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, is seen Jan. 9, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel, during a weeklong trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East. Blinken condemned statements by some Israeli ministers who called for the resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip elsewhere. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, another far-right politician, issued a call Jan. 1 “to encourage the migration of Gaza residents” as a “solution” to the crisis.

The comments have shone a light on what many observers have described as the most extremist government in the 75-year history of the modern state of Israel. It also will heighten concern in the Holy Land’s dwindling Christian community that — at least certain elements within the government — are pursuing a radical agenda to diminish the Christian presence in Jerusalem’s Old City, site of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The official line from the Israeli government is that Palestinians in Gaza will eventually be able to return to their homes, though it has yet to outline how or when this will be possible.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have a long history of rhetoric hostile toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — known in international law as the occupied territories — as well as Arab citizens of Israel, who make up around 20 percent of the population. However, both men were fringe figures in Israeli politics until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited them to join his Cabinet in return for supporting him after an inconclusive election in 2022.

Ben-Gvir, who is the minister with responsibility for policing, attracted criticism last year after a number of Jewish extremists were arrested for spitting at Christian pilgrims and he questioned whether the arrests were justified. Spitting at Christians, he had said before being appointed a minister, is “an ancient Jewish custom.”

Earlier this year, the most influential Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, warned that the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is coming under increased pressure, a phenomenon he linked directly to this government.

“The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” Cardinal Pizzaballa told The Associated Press.

A displaced Palestinian man who fled his home due to Israeli airstrikes reacts Jan. 5, 2024, as he takes shelter in a tent camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. (OSV News photo/Saleh Salem, Reuters)

“These people (extremists) feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians,” he said.

Israel has said it maintains the status quo of holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, where some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims sit virtually side by side, the patriarch and other church leaders have voiced growing alarm.

“What we are seeing is that what we call the status quo, the balance between the different communities — Jews, Muslims, Christians — is not respected anymore,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.

“That aspect is problematic for me, that they consider Christians as guests. We are not guests. We are part of the identity of the city,” the patriarch added.

The cardinal’s high profile gives him the freedom to criticize the current government, and his offer of himself in return for the Israeli hostages seized in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks has won him admiration among ordinary Israelis, many of whom know little or nothing about the 2 percent of citizens who are Christians.

Others do not feel that freedom, and one elderly Christian resident of Jerusalem told OSV News recently, under condition of anonymity, that he was “surprised by nothing from this new government.”

“They are the worst in Israel’s history, and they do not want us (Arabs) here in Jerusalem or in any part of the Holy Land,” he said.

The same man, a Palestinian with an Israeli ID, said he was concerned that any move to stop the people of Gaza returning home “would inevitably lead to another intifada” or uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The last such uprising between 2000-2005 saw more than 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians killed in a wave of violence.

Meanwhile, the Congo has denied reports that it is in talks with Israel about resettling residents of the Gaza Strip in the Central African nation.

There has “never been any form of negotiation, discussion or initiative” between Kinshasa and Israel about the reception of Palestinian migrants on Congolese soil, Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.

A senior Israeli official briefing reporters also denied the report that appeared in the Zman news website.

“It’s a baseless illusion in my opinion. No country will absorb 2 million people, or 1 million, or 100,000, or 5,000. I don’t know where that idea came from,” he said.

“It could be between Congo and Gazans, but Israel is not conducting any talks with any country on this issue,” the unnamed official quoted in The Times of Israel continued.

There are currently fewer than a thousand Christians in Gaza, mostly Catholics and Greek Orthodox.

Crisis in Israel

IDF says Gaza Holy Family Parish hit was errant mortar round that veered off course

Peace by force is a ‘troubling’ idea, Iran cardinal says

U.S. to withdraw, again, from UNESCO over Palestine and UN development goals

Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit

Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze

Patriarch’s visit hailed ‘a miracle,’ while parishioners in Gaza feel horror, desperation

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Michael Kelly

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

  • Conference of Major Superiors of Men Men’s religious leaders confront change with fraternity and faith

| Latest Local News |

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Men’s religious leaders confront change with fraternity and faith

Sister Rose Sylvia Lindner, S.S.N.D., dies at 91

Radio Interview: The true story of ‘Xavier Rynne’

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

| Latest World News |

Catholic leaders ICE

Report on alleged conditions at ICE’s Florida detention sites prompts Catholic leaders’ call for change

RUSSIAN-ORTHODOX-meeting

Pope Leo meets with top Russian Orthodox cleric amid war, strained relations

new york city shooting

‘Never get used to violence,’ says NY cardinal after mass shooting in building near St. Patrick’s

Massacre ‘of faithful in the house of God’ in Congolese Catholic church leaves 43 dead

Pope welcomes young people to Rome for jubilee, thanks media for promoting truth

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Report on alleged conditions at ICE’s Florida detention sites prompts Catholic leaders’ call for change
  • Pope Leo meets with top Russian Orthodox cleric amid war, strained relations
  • ‘Never get used to violence,’ says NY cardinal after mass shooting in building near St. Patrick’s
  • Men’s religious leaders confront change with fraternity and faith
  • Sister Rose Sylvia Lindner, S.S.N.D., dies at 91
  • Radio Interview: The true story of ‘Xavier Rynne’
  • Massacre ‘of faithful in the house of God’ in Congolese Catholic church leaves 43 dead
  • Pope welcomes young people to Rome for jubilee, thanks media for promoting truth
  • Cardinal Tomasi: Religious communities can play key roles in nuclear disarmament

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en