Vatican City, Oct 30, 2005 / 22:00 pm
On Saturday, Pope Benedict expressed his personal condemnation of recent anti-Israeli statements, and called on the international community to show its solidarity against increased violence in the Holy Land.
The Holy Father’s declaration was made public over the weekend by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls.
In it, the Pope said that "The serious events in the Holy Land over the last few days are a cause of grave concern to the Holy See which, uniting itself with the entire international community, expresses its own firm condemnation of acts of violence - the terrorist attack on Hadera and the subsequent retaliation - from whichever side they come, and of certain particularly serious and unacceptable declarations denying the right of existence to the State of Israel.”
Last week, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed to speak for his entire nation when he commented that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”