Major Catholic leader, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem, just declared that the Israeli government has made the West Bank into a land of lawlessness with the unleashing of the settler fanatics. As we read in Middle East Monitor:

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the top Catholic in the holy city, said Thursday that the West Bank has turned into “a lawless land” as the Israeli settlers’ aggression in the region continues, Vatican News quoted the cleric as saying, Anadolu reports.

The West Bank has now become “a lawless land,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa told reporters at a Catholic festival in Rimini, northern Italy, adding that the situation continues “without any effective security or legal restraints.”

Speaking at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini, he urged further diplomatic engagement by the West to stop escalating violence in the Middle East.

“The fact that there is a situation of continuous aggression by settlers is well established,” Pizzaballa stressed.

“The West must help raise its gaze somewhat, create perspectives, and also help calm this continuing downward spiral through ever greater diplomatic efforts.”

He stressed the need for diplomacy as the “only way” to resolve the conflict “while avoiding the use of weapons, violence and military force.”

On the deteriorating situation in Gaza, Pizzaballa called it “very devastated from a human point of view.”