Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan has urged Jewish communities in Israel and across the world to take a stand against the ongoing violence in Gaza, saying they alone have the moral authority to demand change.
In a reflection posted on his social media account, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines questioned the framing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as inherently complex.
“It only seems so to those who are unwilling to call a spade a spade,” he wrote. “When injustice is cloaked in the language of security, and collective punishment is rationalized as defense, the world must not remain silent under the pretense of complexity.”
Cardinal David, who also serves as vice chairperson of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, said that the responsibility to stop the war lies not with global powers but with the Jewish people themselves.
“The only ones who can stop this are the Jewish people themselves—both in Israel and throughout the diaspora—those who know, from the depth of their historical experience, what it means to suffer violence born of hatred and xenophobia,” he wrote.
“Only they can rise and say, ‘Not in our name.’ Only they can demand that their state no longer build its future on foundations of vengeance, fear, and resentment. A secure and just nation cannot be founded on the ruins of another people’s humanity,” the prelate added.
David reflected on the irony of a people who endured the horrors of the Holocaust now being led by leaders “blind to the irony of their own actions.”
“A people who have known unspeakable suffering throughout history—whose memory of the Holocaust still cries out from the ashes—should now be led by ideologues blind to the irony of their own actions,” he wrote.
“By what moral calculus do they not see that their unrelenting aggression gives fuel to the very anti-Semitism that once threatened to annihilate them?” he said.
He emphasized that no government or international body could bring lasting resolution without internal reckoning. “All these may posture and intervene, but they cannot change the heart of a nation,” he said.
Citing Psalm 95, David quoted a passage in Hebrew and English in which God rebukes a generation whose hearts had turned away.
“These are not the words of a hater,” he wrote. “These are the words of a God whose love is wounded by the rebellion of His own people.”
“May the people of Israel listen—not to their hardline leaders, not to their military strategists, but to the still small voice of conscience,” he said in closing. “May they act—not just for peace, but for mercy and justice, which is the only path that leads to true rest.”
On June 22, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized missile strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, using 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs without seeking congressional approval.
The escalation followed Israel’s unprovoked military assault on Iran, which triggered a wider conflict involving regional powers.
The United States, a long-time ally and arms supplier of Israel, deepened its involvement amid growing international concern over the implications for nuclear diplomacy, regional stability, and global energy markets.
Iran condemned the U.S. attack as a violation of its sovereignty and vowed a proportionate response.
