Thread by @AmichaiChikli

An Open Letter to Pope Francis.
(a thread 🧵)

Shalom,
It is a well-known fact that Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem, as described in Chapter 2 of the Gospel
according to Matthew:
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king”…

Bethlehem is the same city where Rachel, our matriarch, died giving birth to Benjamin.”

It is also the same city in the northern part of the territory of the Tribe of Judah, where David, son of Jesse from Bethlehem, was born.

David became the King of Israel, making Jerusalem its capital and building the altar on Mount Moriah, upon which Solomon, his son, later built the Temple.

It is a well-known fact that Jesus was born to a Jewish mother, lived as a Jew, and died as a Jew.

It is also a well-known fact that the term “Jew” originates from Judah, the fourth son of Leah, from whom the Tribe of Judah descended.

It is a well-known fact that there were those who sought to eradicate the connection between the Jews and
Judah; one of the most prominent of these was Emperor Hadrian .

Seventy years after the Great Revolt, in which Titus destroyed the Second Temple, an intense revolt broke out in Judea between 132–135 CE – known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

This was a rebellion of the small Jewish nation against a world-spanning empire, a deeply committed nation that refused to bow to idols, refused to give up the study of Torah, and refused to forgo its religious and national identity.

The consequences of the revolt were severe.
The Roman historian Dio Cassius wrote:
“…985 of their most
important villages were destroyed. 580,000 men were killed in battles and attacks, and the number of deaths from famine, plague, and fire is beyond measure, but few survived …"

Hadrian was not satisfied with the physical destruction of the Jewish settlement; he anticipated the future, to the day when the Jews would seek to return to Judea. Therefore, he renamed the province of Judea to “Syria Palaestina,” after the Philistines, the arch-enemy of Israel. The name of Jerusalem was also changed to “Aelia Capitolina,” removing the ancient, historical name of the Jewish people. And, Jews were prohibited from visiting or settling in their holiest city.

In just 13 minutes by car from St. Peter’s Basilica, engraved in stone on the Arch of Titus, is the procession of the Roman legions, carrying sacred items from the Temple in Jerusalem, including the Menorah – the same Menorah that is now the symbol of the State of Israel.

Titus also minted a humiliating coin depicting “Judea Captiva” (Judea the Captive), showing Judea as a woman in captivity .

Two weeks ago, you took part in a display that echoes the Palestinian narrative, portraying Jesus as a Palestinian Arab.

There is no other way to understand the decision to present his image in a cradle, wrapped in a keffiyeh.

Had this been a one-time matter, I would not have written. However, just a few weeks before this strange and false homage, in a more severe expression, you echoed the new blood libel, insinuating that the State of Israel "might be" committing genocide in Gaza.

You mentioned that allegations of a genocide in Gaza should be “carefully investigated.” You wrote “According to some experts… what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide”.

As a nation that lost six million of its sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are especially sensitive to the trivialization of the term “genocide” – a trivialization that is dangerously close to Holocaust denial.

One of the main proponents of this new blood libel against Israel is the human rights organization Amnesty, which opened its report with the distressing claim that Israel launched an unprovoked attack on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

This is a desperate and disgusting attempt to rewrite history. As you and citizens around the world know, that on that horrific day of October 7, Israel did not launch any attack on Gaza; quite the opposite. The Hamas terror organization, along with thousands of Gazans, launched a savage attack on the southern region of Israel. These terrorists committed horrific war crimes against humanity including the massacre of dozens of Israeli families in their homes and on the roads, the rape and sadistic torture, the murder of dozens of foreign workers in the settlements, the mass slaughter of hundreds at the Nova festival, the cruel kidnapping of children, women, elderly, and men, 100 of whom are still being held in Hamas tunnels. Many of the hostages are already dead, and those who remain alive are still enduring extreme suffering in the viscous hands of Hamas .

is a right and a moral duty to fight evil, to fight the jihadist monsters of Hamas. It is astonishing that
this even needs to be explained to the world.
Let us recall what genocide is, and particularly, the genocide experience that the small Jewish nation endured.

Let us recall that between the Jews, who made up less than 1% of the population of Germany in the 1930s, and the Germans, there had been no prior violent, territorial, religious, or political conflict .For the first time in the history of nations, a government set as its ultimate goal the complete annihilation of an
unarmed people with whom it had no conflict, and most of whom were not even living in its territory.

This is not the platform to recall the full Final Solution sickening strategy; but let us remember one death camp – Treblinka. On July 23, 1942 a train of 58 cars arrived at the camp gates, packed with 7,350 people. Many were already dead from the intense heat, lack of water, and inhumane overcrowded conditions. From the platform, the victims were sent to the gas chambers. Children and elderly people who walked slowly were directed to a building marked with a Red Cross flag; behind it were execution pits.
In September-October 1942, an average of two to three trainloads of Jews arrived at the camp each day, and the number of those killed on such a day could reach 10,000–13,000. Sometimes the gas chambers operated at night, killing up to 20,000 people in a single day.
In Treblinka alone, 845,000 Jews from Poland were murdered. This is what genocide looks like .
The Vatican's silence during those dark days of the Shoah is still deafening .

Next year, we will celebrate a significant milestone in the relationship between the Jewish people and
Christianity: the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate Declaration from the Second Vatican Council. We know you are a close friend of the Jewish people; Just this past year, you met with families of hostages, injured soldiers, rabbis, and Jewish leaders from around the world. We appreciate these efforts and seek to deepen the relationship between the Vatican and the State of Israel as well as between the Christian and Jewish People .
Your guidance, actions, and leadership have tremendous influence across the world. This is why I kindly ask
you to clarify your stand regarding the genocide blood libel against the Jewish state.
Truth and God are one.

Sincerely,
Amichai Chikli
Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism
State of Israel