His Holiness Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City
Your Holiness:
On behalf of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization of the American Jewish community, we write in the spirit of this holiday season to express our concern over recent comments Your Holiness has made regarding Israel’s defensive war against Hamas.
We appreciate and share your concern for the suffering of innocent civilians and desire to spread peace and compassion around the world. However, statements you have made including, “Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” only serve to distort Israel’s legitimate military campaign and fuel antisemitism and unjust targeting of the Jewish state.
This narrative does not acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre where Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 innocent civilians and took 251 hostages, 101 of whom still remain captive. Further, it does not acknowledge Hamas’ use of human shields and civilian infrastructure for terror purposes, putting the entire population of Gaza at risk.
With global antisemitism at record highs, the American Jewish community calls on you to refrain from making incendiary comments and to build bridges between our two peoples.
Sincerely yours,
Harriet P. Schleifer
Chair
William C. Daroff
Chief Executive Officer
;
