JERUSALEM, August 14, 2017 (WAFA) – Palestinians Monday decried an Israeli hate campaign against Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna for standing up to Palestinian rights.

They accused in a statement Israeli media of waging “an unprecedented incitement campaign” against the 52-year old Palestinian-born Archbishop of Sebastia because of a recent solidarity visit to a church in Syria and his activity on behalf of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as well as his support of Palestinian national rights.

They accused Israel Hayoum newspaper, the mouthpiece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of leading the incitement campaign when it called in its Sunday issue to prosecute Hanna and ban him from entering Jerusalem.

“The threats to ban (the archbishop) from the Holy City is a dangerous indicator intended to silence the nationalist voices in the Holy City,” said the statement.

“The archbishop has never advocated violence, which he totally rejects, but he stands firm in his position from the Palestinian cause and his call for justice in the Holy Land.”

The statement called on churches and nationalist institutions to stand by the archbishop in facing the Israeli hate campaign being waged against him, expressing fear that extremist Jewish groups could use the incitement against Hanna to harm him.

M.K.