Cyril Salim Bustros, head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States, said on Saturday that "recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," AFP reported.
Bustros made the remarks during a closing speech at a meeting of the patriarchs and bishops of Catholic institutions in the Middle East.
"On the contrary, recourse to religion must lead every person to see the face of God in others and to treat them according to their God-given prerogatives and God's commandments, namely, according to God's bountiful goodness, mercy, justice and love for us," he added.
The Catholic gathering also evoked several UN Security Council resolutions, which demanded that Tel Aviv pull out of the three territories and urged UN action to end the Israeli occupation.
Following the Six-Day War in 1948, Israel forced 711,000 Palestinians to leave their homeland. Estimates for 2008 put the number of the refugees at over 4.6 million.
In 1967, Tel Aviv went on to occupy and later annex the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in violation of the international law.
The operations also led to the occupation of the Gaza Strip. Israel later withdrew from the territory, but has been keeping it under recurrent attacks.
End item/ 129
