The Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, is the spiritual leader of an embattled Christian community in Israel that lives amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian insurgency. In April 2004, Patriarch Sabbah exhorted Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “come back to reason” in the name of peace. His appeal, though given in his Easter message for the Christian community, directly addressed the leaders of his community's Israeli and Palestinian neighbors, saying, “The leaders should come back to reason and consider that all human beings are equal, whether Palestinian or Israeli.”

The Patriarch leads a community of approximately 100,000 Arab Catholics. His message of reconciliation and peaace follows closely Pope John Paul II's thinking on the conflict in Israel, and has not secured him much popularity on either side. He has spoken out against what he views as Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as against violent resistance by Palestinians. “When violence stops on one side,” Patriarch Sabbah said in April, “it should stop on the other as well.” He continued, “We live in days in which reason is darkened; we are abandoned to ‘human madness' that sees solutions only in bloodshed and in crushing the human being.”

Patriarch Sabbah is the first native Palestinian to hold the office of Jerusalem Patriarch. He also serves as president of Pax Christi International, a global Catholic organization dedicated to nonviolent conflict resolution.

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