{"id":491225,"date":"2026-05-18T20:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T20:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:54:18","slug":"west-bank-bishop-believes-israeli-settlers-not-losing-sleep-over-occupied-territories-bill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491225\/","title":{"rendered":"West Bank bishop believes Israeli settlers not losing sleep over Occupied Territories Bill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> is a \u201csymbolic gesture\u201d but will not impact the continuing conflict in Palestine, a Catholic bishop based in the West Bank<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that the settlers themselves are prevented from going to sleep in the evening because of this Bill,\u201d said William Shomali, who has responsibility for the Palestinian territories, after celebrating Sunday Mass at St Mary\u2019s Pro Cathedral in Dublin.<\/p>\n

He said the progress made in Northern Ireland<\/a> served as an \u201cencouragement\u201d for him that peace will come eventually.<\/p>\n

He described the actions of Israeli settlers as \u201creally nasty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are taking the land of others, they are extending the border of the settlements, which were built on Palestinian territory,\u201d Shomali said. <\/p>\n

He estimated that \u201calmost\u201d one million settlers were living in 200 settlements in the Palestinian territories, some of whom \u201chave arms\u201d, \u201care violent\u201d and are \u201cindoctrinated\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said his village of Beit Sahour in the West Bank was recently encroached on by settlers. \u201cWe need a solution and we don\u2019t know how it will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BishopBishop William Shomali during an interview after Mass at St Mary\u2019s Pro Cathedral in Dublin. Photograph: Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Shomali said there is \u201cpolarisation\u201d not only between Palestinians and Israelis, but also between Hamas and Fatah, secular Jews and Orthodox Jews and settlers and others. \u201cThe society at large in the Holy Land is really divided and this doesn\u2019t help peace.\u201d <\/p>\n

He described peace as \u201ca gift from above, not as the fruit of negotiations between politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Palestine is a \u201cunique place in the world where Christians are a minority in the middle of two majorities\u201d \u2013 Islam and Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have many things in common with Jews, we have many things in common with Palestinians, with Muslims and for this reason, we consider that we can be a good bridge with both.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishop ended Sunday\u2019s Mass by praying for peace. <\/p>\n

Speaking afterwards, he said: \u201cMany times we prayed for peace and the following day, there were terrible, terrible incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled two women being killed when his church was attacked after a day of prayer and fasting, called for by the pope. He said praying does not provide an answer immediately, adding that \u201cthe Lord is slow in answering\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be perseverant and to continue and to wait … maybe the fruit of the prayer is that things are not deteriorating more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the conflict in the Middle East should be solved \u201cdiplomatically and by the court\u201d, not with violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany innocent people are suffering … and the majority of people who were killed in both sides were innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BishopBishop of the West Bank William Shomali saying Mass at St Mary\u2019s Pro Cathedral on Sunday. Photograph: Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The bishop called the US \u201cthe superpower\u201d and suggested it was weakening the United Nations (UN). \u201cThe United Nations should be the place where peace is negotiated, concluded, implemented.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said US president Donald Trump was seeking to replace what the UN \u201cshould do\u201d with his Board of Peace.<\/p>\n

Shomali said much attention had been removed from Gaza and the West Bank as \u201cpeople\u2019s eyes\u201d are on events in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. He said it will not remain like that forever \u201cbecause many countries believe in justice and in the necessity of solving the issue, according to the international resolutions\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Surge in Israeli settler violence in West Bank since start of Iran warOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said the current situation is \u201cbetter\u201d in Gaza as the intensity of Israeli strikes has slowed under a ceasefire. However, he said strikes still occur at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a difficult situation still,\u201d he said, adding that many people are hungry and sick. <\/p>\n

\u201cGaza is not a good place to live, with all the bombs … it\u2019s not habitable … It\u2019s a miracle that people still survive there, in the middle of this disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

He visited Knock shrine in Co Mayo on Saturday and will meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee on Monday as part of his trip to Ireland. He said he hoped to see a return of pilgrims to Jerusalem \u201cwhen there is a real ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Occupied Territories Bill is a \u201csymbolic gesture\u201d but will not impact the continuing conflict in Palestine, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,69,6,3857,45036,11,12,15,16,5,7826,7,8,1918,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-491225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-west-bank","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}