Father Joseph G. Konrad and Rabbi Bruce K. Cole of the Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee, sponsored by the Diocese of Brooklyn, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States, and the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, left for Jerusalem today to present to the Israel Foreign Ministry a statement in support of the Israeli prisoners of war in Syria.
The statement, released at a press conference at the ADL headquarters, declared that “the Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee, in the name of God and humanity, appeals to the Syrian Arab Republic to recognize the right of human dignity for all mankind created in the image of God and cease prolonging the agony of the prisoners’ families and the prisoners themselves by releasing the names of the prisoners still alive, and permitting communications between them, their families, the Red Cross, and the United Nations”
COLD-BLOODED MURDER
Rabbi Cole, who is community consultant for the ADL’s New York regional office, said he and Father Konrad hope to meet with Israeli Foreign Office officials, religious leaders in Jerusalem and representatives of the world press in Israel.
The statement issued by the Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee noted that Syria has “flouted the Geneva Convention provisions relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.” It also pointed out that “we feel deep sadness and grave shock at the reports that many Israeli soldiers, after their capture by the Syrians, were murdered systematically and in cold blood….”
“The Israeli prisoners of war in Syria are not just soldiers,” the statement added. “They are sons. They are not just men who fought for their country. They are husbands and fathers. They are missing and only the government of Syria knows where they are, but that government will not tell the Red Cross; it will not tell the United Nations; it will not tell the world.” Rabbi Derby noted that the committee which was formed in 1966 does not represent only ADL members but the Jewish community at large as well as the diocese. (By David Friedman)
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