President josef Aoun made a phone call earlier today to the Latin Patriarch in Lebanon, Archbishop César Essayan, conveying Lebanon’s condemnation, on behalf of the President and the people, of the Israeli authorities’ decision to prevent the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass. He described this measure as a blatant violation of freedom of worship and a flagrant breach of international law and humanitarian law.
President Aoun also stated that the action contradicts the existing legal and historical status in Jerusalem, calling on the international community to intervene to put an end to practices that infringe upon religious sites and the rights of believers.
