Bishop Abdallah Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon and Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson, Mississippi, joined an international delegation of bishops to the West Bank earlier this month, after which the delegation released a communiqué calling for peace, security, and a two-state solution.
The group included bishops from England and Wales, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Scotland, Spain, and Canada, according to the communique released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The visit comes nearly four months after the ceasefire in Gaza on Oct. 10, 2025, officially ending the war between Israel and Hamas.
“Our pilgrimage was to a land where people are suffering trauma,” the communiqué said, recounting hardships endured by Bedouin communities living in the margins of the occupied West Bank, including continued “violence and intimidation, theft of livestock, and demolition of property” by Israeli settlers.
In Taybeh, the only Christian town in Palestine, the group said in the communiqué it heard similar stories of attacks from “extremist settlers” who carry out continuous attacks.
“Gaza remains a catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” the communiqué said.
The group also paid a visit to Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Gaza’s only Catholic church, according to Christian Daily.
Neither Zaidan, the USCCB’s chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, nor Kopacz could not be immediately reached for comment.
While emphasizing belief in Israel’s right to exist and its people to live in peace and security, the bishops called for “these same rights to be upheld for all those rooted in this land.”
The bishops praised “the courage” of both Israeli and Palestinians who have, “despite immense challenges and their own trauma,” continued to call for “justice, dialogue, and reconciliation.”
“We hope that efforts for peace will prevail over violence and that there will be no more acts of terrorism and war,” the bishops said. “We also urge our governments to exert pressure on Israel to uphold the rules-based international order and to revive meaningful negotiations toward a two-state solution for the benefit and security of all.”
