A group of French prominent Catholic laymen today issued a joint statement disassociating themselves from the recent “Christian Conference for Palestine.” The conference, which was attended by some 350 representatives, met in Beirut last week and severely condemned Israel while calling “for the total liberation of Palestine.” President Charles Helou of Lebanon condemned Israel for allegedly Hitlerite policies toward the Palestinian Arabs and for “driving them from their homes.” He declared also that “Every state supporting Israel shares in Israel’s responsibility.” while “Lebanon, which has always respected the UN Charter, bears no responsibility.” The joint statement accuses the conference of having been grossly “one sided” and that it’s outcome “can only be increased violence and passion.”
The statement, signed by such leading Catholic laymen as Jacques Madaule and Andre Latreille, also stressed that “large sectors of the Christian world does not agree with either the conference or its aims and methods.” The French National Council for Jewish-Christian Friendship also warned that such conferences can easily fall from systematic anti-Zionism to a no less systematic anti-Semitism. (In New York. Rabbi Solomon J. Sharfman, President of the Synagogue Council of America, condemned as presumptuous a declaration at the conference that “the Zionist political interpretation” of Biblical texts is “as unacceptable for Christians as it is for Jews faithful to the spiritual message of the Old Testament.” He asserted that “the attempt to dictate to an independent state a change of its internal political structures and institutions is nothing short of outrageous.”)
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