#beshara_al-rai

Maronite Patriarch Rai vows to help displaced Palestinian Christians
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/maronite-patriarch-rai-vows-help-displaced-palestinian-christians

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Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, center, speaks to Maronite Palestinian citizens of #Israel at a church in the ruins of the Palestinian village of Kfur Bir’im on May 28, 2014. (Photo: AFP - Menahem Kahana)

The Lebanese patriarch of the Maronite church, #Beshara_al-Rai, vowed Wednesday to help the displaced Palestinian Christians of a village in northern Occupied #Palestine, as he pushed forward with a controversial trip to the Zionist state. In 1948, six months after Israel was established, the army asked Iqrit and Kufr Bir’im’s residents to leave their homes for two weeks because of military operations in the area. But they were never allowed to go back. The army razed most of Iqrit in 1951 and did the same to Kufr Bir’im two years later. read (...)

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Salam and the Christians in government work to prevent presidential vacuum
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/salam-and-christians-government-work-prevent-presidential-vacuum

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A picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) shows Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister #Tammam_Salam in Jeddah during the latter’s visit to the kingdom on May 20, 2014. (Photo: AFP/HO/SPA) A picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) shows Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam in Jeddah during the latter’s visit to the kingdom on May 20, 2014. (Photo: AFP/HO/SPA)

Since the presidential post will soon be vacant, the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam will take center stage. Salam’s visit to #Saudi_Arabia will be the first step taken by the post-May-25-government. (...)

#Opinion #Articles #Beshara_al-Rai #Free_Patriotic_Movement #King_Abdullah_bin_Abdul_Aziz #Lebanese_presidential_elections #Lebanon #Maronite #Michel_Aoun #Michel_Suleiman

#Hezbollah advises Maronite Patriarch against Jerusalem visit
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hezbollah-advises-maronite-patriarch-against-jerusalem-visit

Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement said Friday it had warned the Maronite patriarch of the “negative repercussions” of his plan to accompany Pope Francis to Israeli-occupied Jerusalem this month. “We presented our perspective and point of view and laid out what we see as the negative repercussions of this visit,” Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of the group’s political council, said after meeting Patriarch #Beshara_al-Rai. Sayed said the group hoped “that this perspective is taken into account.” read more

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Rai to meet South #Lebanon Army collaborators while on pastoral trip to occupied #Palestine
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/rai-meet-south-lebanon-army-collaborators-while-pastoral-trip-occ

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Maronite Patriarch #Beshara_al-Rai. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi) #Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)

Cardinal Beshara al-Rai, the head of the Maronite Church, has insisted on going ahead with his pastoral visit to occupied Palestine. Rai says he wants to meet with his parishioners face to face, although he has used teleconferencing before, to address Maronite youths in #Nazareth, on February 15, 2013.

Qassem Qassem

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#As-Safir: #Maronite head’s visit to #jerusalem a “historic sin”
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/safir-maronite-heads-visit-jerusalem-historic-sin

A visit to Israeli-occupied Jerusalem by the patriarch of the Lebanon-based Maronite church to greet Pope Francis would be a “historic sin,” a leading secular newspaper said Saturday. Patriarch #Beshara_al-Rai, whose church is the largest Christian denomination in Lebanon, told AFP on Friday he would travel to the Holy Land to welcome the pontiff during his brief May 24-26 visit. In doing so, he would be the first patriarch to do so since the 1948 Nakba. In response, the leading Arab nationalist daily As-Safir ran a critical piece headlined “Historic sin: Rai goes to Israel.” read more

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Lebanese Patriarch: Syrian #refugees should remain in #syria
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19361

The head of #Lebanon's Maronite Christian Church suggested on Wednesday that Syrian refugees should be housed in camps inside Syria. The United Nations has registered 1 million refugees in Lebanon since the conflict began three years ago, the highest concentration of refugees worldwide. They are housed in homes and local communities rather than refugee camps. Cardinal #Beshara_al-Rai, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, told a news conference in Geneva that the presence of so many Syrians represented a huge economic, social, political and security burden for Lebanon. read more

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