Archbishop: Attack on Gaza health clinic ‘incomprehensible’
by Jenna Lyle
Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 8:48 (GMT)
The Archbishop of Wales has condemned an Israeli missile attack on a church-run health clinic in Gaza over the weekend.
Shij’ia Clinic, run by the Near East Council of Churches (NECC) and funded by Christian Aid, was given just 15 minutes to evacuate. No one was injured in the attack but the building was completely destroyed by missiles on Saturday, along with hundreds of thousands of pounds of medical equipment.
There are also fears that a mobile dental clinic run by the NECC and funded by the Church in Wales was also destroyed.
Dr Barry Morgan said, “We find it incomprehensible and tragic that any armed forces anywhere in the world would want to destroy such a building, let alone the State of Israel with all its historic memories of oppression and genocide.
“To hear the news that the only health facilities in this part of Gaza have been destroyed, leaving the population of that area without any medical facilities at all, is horrendous.
“It does raise questions about the credibility of Israel’s values and purposes.”
There were 10,836 families registered at the clinic, which provided free primary health care and included a mother and baby clinic. Those families had, he said, “effectively been removed of any hope of medical provision and support.”
“It is hard to understand why Israel would allow, let alone commission, an attack on a facility which provides support mostly to young babies and their mothers,” he said.
“We have no reason to believe that this building was producing or distributing arms or being used as a base or launch pad for rockets sent into Israel. If there is evidence to the contrary we would like to see it.”
Dr Morgan wrote to the Israeli Ambassador to London on Tuesday asking why Israel had attacked the Shij’ia Family Health Care Centre in Gaza City.
“We are perplexed and shocked at this attack and are looking for an explanation for it from the Israeli Ambassador,” he said.
Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Director of the Near East Council of Churches, called on the international community to act.
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Added: Monday, January 19, 2009, 22:15 (GMT)
Will people, especially politicians and self righteous PC religious leaders, not realise (or they completely ignore) the following:
1) Hamas, and other (so-called radical) Islamic groups, are all for wiping out Israel and the Jews in any way possible - it's in the Koran.
2) If any other country in the world had suffered rocket attacks, whether or not they harmed any, or many, citizens, it would be considered an as act of war.
3) Hamas deliderately places rocket launching sites in Gaza's populated areas, thus inviting an Israeli response, especially as modern weaponry is fire-and-forget, so pilots quite often don't fully identify their targets as anything but a weapons platform.
4) Hamas is an illegal government, having ousted Fatah, the officially recognised govt of Gaza, especially by Israel, in a civil war - how many Gazans died because of that war and not (properly) reported, nor propagandized by the opposing sides - and forced Gazans to vote them in, in a travesty of a 'democratic' vote, under threats of who-knows-what.
5) In reference to (3) - the US hospital which was attacked had civilian non-combatants in there, not just because it was a hospital, BUT because Hamas herded them into it, placed a rocket platform on the roof, fired it and buggered off, leaving the civilians to their fate - then used the result as propaganda - in fact, a Hezbollah operative was seen to have hysterically pionted out the SAME DEAD BODY OF A CHILD to no less than FIVE different TV crews, at different times, all of this recorded by independent observers and therefore a matter of record, if the Archbishop of Wales will get his head out of the sand and research the facts before making these fatuous remarks!! The BBC won't report that.
6) And, finally (for now), Mohammed states in the Koran that treaties can be brokered for up to ten (10) years, to allow for the regrouping and rearming of their forces, and resume their attack, for the furtherance of Islam. Therefore, do not hold your breath at the veracity or length of this possible peace treay being currently brokered between Hamas and Israel, via Egypt. It won't last, Hamas will break it, blame Israel, and the West, not wanting to 'upset' Islamic states, will swallow it whole.
We are heaing toward the last of the Times of the Gentiles, and as Ezekiel told us about - in Chapters 38 -39 -, and the situations described in Daniel, in Revelations, and as told us by Jesus Himself, and recorded in the Gospels. We are to pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem - which is rarely heard in C of E churches, if at all - and True Christians are to be aware of the signs of the times. These are even more prevalent than at any time in human history. Then PRAY.
Archbishop of Wales, go back to your Bible and study these things as soon as possible.
Chris Maguire, Ventnor, IOW, UK
Added: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 14:41 (GMT)
The Archbishop, along with many other Bishops and Christian leaders have all been strangely silent concerning the 8,000 rocket attacks on innocent Israelis. If he and the others also condemned attacks by terror groups such groups, his words may carry weight.
If he condemned the fact that the Hamas stored armaments in schools and mosques, then he would have a voice.
If he condemned the racist books used in UN and "Christian" schools, books which say that Jewish people are the offspring of pigs and monkeys, then he would have a voice.
As it is, his views will be seen as supportive of the murders of innocent Jews.
Adrian, Leeds, UK
