Cardinal Pizzaballa says violence in Gaza is the result of hateful language

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 9, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said violence in the Gaza Strip is the result of years of dehumanizing rhetoric and called for the replacement of hateful language with speech that opens horizons and new paths.

Pizzaballa issued this call in a video message released during the Venice Film Festival, where the Silver Lion prize was awarded to Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which recounts the last moments of a 5-year-old girl killed in 2024 in Gaza.

“You’ve already heard the news, so there’s no need to delve into the dramatic daily story of what we’re experiencing. The images are also very significant; unfortunately, they speak of destruction, of death, of so much pain. One of the problems we’re experiencing is precisely this: We’re so overwhelmed by pain that there seems to be no room for the pain of others,” he said.

Pizzaballa added that “we are also experiencing a climate of deep hatred, increasingly entrenched within both populations, Israeli and Palestinian, that seems to have no end.”

He said this hatred is demonstrated not only in violence but “also in language … I believe that the violence we are witnessing is also the result of years of violent and dehumanizing language.” 

Pizzaballa explained that if others are dehumanized through language, “creating a culture, a way of thinking, the transition to actual physical violence is only a matter of time, and unfortunately, we are witnessing it.”

“This war must end as soon as possible. We know it makes no sense to continue it. It’s time to stop … But we know that the end of the war we long for, despite what the news reports say, will not be the end of the conflict, it will not mark the end of the hostility, of the pain this hostility will cause,” he noted.

The patriarch therefore encouraged believers and all those involved in culture to “work hard” to create “a different narrative.”

“We have left the narrative to the radicals, to the extremists on both sides,” he said.

“Instead, we must have the courage of a different language, one that opens horizons, that opens new paths,” he encouraged. “This is what I hope for, and I believe it is possible … we need your help.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.