Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, issued a pastoral letter April 27 warning that conditions in the occupied West Bank are "deteriorating day by day" and that expanding Israeli settlements are creating the risk of a "permanent occupation" with no rule of law. The statement came as Palestinian children in one West Bank village entered a second week of outdoor protests after a barbed-wire fence erected by Israeli settlers blocked their route to school.
It is in Palestine that “the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being quietly and structurally decided,” Cardinal Pizzaballa wrote in his statement, noting the increasing aggression with which Israeli settlements “continue to expand."
“If this trend is not stopped,” he warned, “the risk is the crystallization of a permanent occupation, which undermines any possibility of a just, mutually agreed-upon solution. I fear that this will become a major concern, destined to define the forms of our engagement for a long time to come."
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The protests
The scene Cardinal Pizzaballa described played out in recent weeks near the village of Umm al-Khair in the southern West Bank, where Israeli settlers erected a barbed-wire fence April 13-14 across a footpath that roughly 55 Palestinian children had used for years to reach their school, according to Al Jazeera.
The children, some as young as 5, have since been unable to reach the building.
Since April 20, the children have gathered at the fence with their backpacks, holding outdoor lessons at what they have called the "Umm al-Khair Freedom School" and chanting "Open the road!"
“Open the road.”
— PM of Palestine (@PalestinePMO) April 23, 2026
Palestinian children protest at barbed wire erected by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank village of Um al-Khair—calling for their basic right to access their school, move freely, & live without occupation.
Imagine your child facing this on the way to class pic.twitter.com/UEYzUWQUbU
Israeli soldiers have been present at the site, and residents and witnesses report that tear gas and stun grenades were used on some days to disperse those attempting to approach or bypass the fence – causing respiratory distress among some of the children.
The Church’s response
The cardinal acknowledged that he and the Church have already spoken repeatedly on the subject.
"Analyses and condemnations such as these have been regularly published, and we have said much about all of this," Pizzaballa wrote. "Although these remain necessary, and we cannot cease publishing them, they do not establish horizons of trust."
The cardinal’s letter, a sweeping theological and pastoral document built around the biblical image of Jerusalem, addressed the West Bank specifically as the place where Israel’s conflicts with Palestine will come to a head.
"Many are looking abroad and dreaming of a future far from their homeland," he wrote. He also lamented the suffering of Palestinians from Gaza, where he said Christians have lived "for years under bombs, without water, without food, without medicine" and now live "in the rubble."
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