Responding to the statement made by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem accusing the IDF of “murdering” two unarmed Catholic women on church property “in cold blood,” the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Raphael Schutz, accused the Latin Patriarchate of perpetuating “blood libel” against the Jewish state. The remarks were made to Crux’s Elise Ann Allen:
“In this context, I find it very annoying that the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem very fast, a few hours after the incident, without an inquiry, lashed into publishing a text naming Israel as a country of murder, the IDF as murderers in ‘cold blood,’ which is basically a blood libel. Nobody in Israel does that intentionally,” he said.
To call this language provocative is an understatement. The Israeli regime is pulling out all the stops to justify its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and will broach no contradiction from uppity Catholics!
Yet, the ambassador admitted that the accusation against the IDF of killing Mrs. Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter, Miss Samar Kamal Anton, “might be true”:
Speaking to Crux, Raphael Schutz, Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See said, “it might be true that the women were shot by IDF forces, although this has not been 100 percent established, but even if this is true, this has not been done by malice, or intentionally, it was a mistake like others during the war.”
The problem with this statement is that the two women were killed while walking across the campus of Holy Family Parish, a location designated since the beginning of the conflict as a place of worship. This was not a makeshift shelter ambiguously located near some militant enclave, but half-century old, clearly marked Patriarchate property with a parish Church and convent on site — the latter of which had earlier been demolished by rocket fire (as can be seen below).
If the IDF killing of the women — and others who later died trying to recover their bodies — “has not been 100 percent established,” has it been 99 percent established, or only 50 percent established? Exactly how “established” is it, Mr. Ambassador?
The convent belonging to the Missionaries of Charity, on the Patriarchal property of Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, as seen after being hit with Israeli rocket fire on Dec. 16, 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.)
To put a human face on the incident, here are the victims:
Mrs. Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter, Miss Samar Kamal Anton.
