Palestinian bishop will plead for Irish not to forget Gaza and Holy Land

A senior Palestinian bishop will travel to Ireland this week to thank Irish people for their support of Gaza, but also warn that the situation is being forgotten with attention focused on the Strait of Hormuz and US-Iran tensions.

Bishop William Shomali – who hails from a small village near Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – will lead a special pilgrimage of peace in Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo on Saturday May 16.

“Gaza is forgotten. Today all attention is on Iran and southern Lebanon, but in the Strip, two million people are still suffering: the issue is unresolved,” he said, ahead of his visit as a guest of the humanitarian agency Aid to the Church in Need Ireland.

His visit comes amidst an upsurge in attacks on Palestinian villages and land grabs in the occupied West Bank by militant Israeli settlers. According to the United Nations (UN), 1,090 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the October 7 war in Gaza, in addition to the tens of thousands killed in Gaza.

“The international community really needs to focus attention on what is happening in Palestine,” Bishop Shomali said ahead of his visit.

In his work as an auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Bishop Shomali has been able to visit Gaza twice since the war began and also supports under-fire Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

“The economy there is collapsing, and many basic necessities remain scarce: medicines, antibiotics, medical equipment.

“Every day Palestinians in Gaza are killed, while the Rafah crossing does not function as it should.”

The bishop lamented that in regards to reconstruction, “no one talks about it anymore.” Yet “80% of the infrastructure is still destroyed.” 

Tensions are also high in the West Bank, he warned. “Israel’s idea is to limit the presence of Palestinians to just three areas, build settlements around cities to occupy the land, and thereby move toward annexation of the West Bank under the name of Judea and Samaria,” he said.

“They want people to forget that there is a Palestinian population that will gradually become a minority. The whole purpose of this is to prevent the birth of a Palestinian state,” he warned.

Bishop Shomali will speak at the St John Centre in Knock Co. Mayo at 11am on Saturday May 16, and then celebrate Mass in Knock Basilica at 3pm.