Archbishop Theodosios of Sevastia

Long live our brothers in humanity in your fight against hate and racism everywhere in this world.

From the City of Jerusalem, the City of Peace, we stand firm, in solidarity and support, with the peaceful demonstrators who are fighting to end racism, prejudice, and police brutality all over the United States and around the world.

From Palestine, the Homeland of Hope, we send each one of you a message of solidarity and support in your fight for justice and an end to racism and violence in all its forms and colors. We condemn and reject the heinous murder of George Floyd.  We condemn the systemic and institutional anti-black racism in America. Racism is evil and must be rejected, confronted, and resisted by all peaceful means.

We—your brothers and sisters in Palestine, through this message, not only express our solidarity and condemnation of this crime but also affirm that we have a common suffering from the forces of evil and oppression in all its fascist forms whether religious, social, political and economic apartheid.

From Jerusalem, the City of Peace, and from Palestine the Land of Love and Tolerance, we—the Palestinians—fight shoulder to shoulder with our African American brothers and sisters to end racism everywhere starting in America.

The heinous murder of George Floyd reminds us that the only way to sustain racism and hate is to dehumanize the other. The fight against racism is universal. We must coordinate all our anti-racism efforts in order to build an international movement and coalition to end racism and oppression worldwide. We must walk together in the path of salvation and the consecration of the values of love, brotherhood, and mercy in the tradition of our Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples, saints, and all those who defended these values in our world.

From the City of Jerusalem, we will continue to dream of a world of equality, love, and human brotherhood. We will continue to struggle to defeat the doctrine and culture of hatred, racism, and discrimination everywhere.

From the City of Jerusalem, the City of Resistance, We – the Palestinians – share your fight for freedom, equality, and justice. These are universal values and Christian values and whoever reads the Holy Bible discovers that God is love and love has no boundaries and is not conditioned on nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, or skin color.

The martyr George Floyd is a martyr for humanity. We see him as a Palestinian martyr. George Floyd and all other martyrs will remain worldwide symbols of freedom and the struggle to achieve justice here and everywhere.

For all the demonstrators, the Palestinian people salute you. We have one pain, one cause, one dream: the end of racism and hate everywhere.

Finally, from the City of Jerusalem—from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher—We send our sincere condolences to the family of George Floyd. Rest in Peace George Floyd. You sacrificed your life for us to rise and fight against racism and oppression. Your death was not in vain. You are with your Lord in Heaven.

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Archbishop Theodosios’ statement appeared on June 10, 2020 on ADC, the website of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

See the White Supremacy and Racism section in our Archives 2017-19 and Archives 2020.

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