Aug. 4 inquiry, Gaza war: Metropolitan Audi slams leaders’ silence

BEIRUT — Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audi on Sunday criticized leaders for staying silent about the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion, as a judge nears issuing an indictment after recent hearings.

Among those summoned, two refused to appear before Judge Tarek Bitar: former minister Ghazi Zeaiter, cited over the unloading and storage of the ammonium nitrate that caused the blast while he was Public Works and Transport minister — which oversees the port — and former prosecutor-general Ghassan Oueidat.

Recalling that Lebanon will mark in a few days the fifth anniversary of the Aug. 4 disaster, which left more than 220 dead and 6,500 wounded, Archbishop Audi criticized the fact that “many are those who close their eyes to truth and justice and remain silent out of fear, cowardice, complicity or personal interest.”

Bitar’s investigation has been stymied, since its launch in 2021, by numerous lawsuits and objections filed against him by various officials he has prosecuted.

'Is it permissible to starve people' in Gaza?

From St. George’s Cathedral in downtown Beirut, the metropolitan also condemned the silence of leaders in the face of the region being “submerged in blood and tears.” “The world is blind; it does not see the deaths of children or the suffering of innocents because it is steeped in evil and sin, and far from God,” he said.

“Is it permissible to starve people, to displace them from their land or to kill them? What has blinded the eyes of the world’s leaders and silenced their conscience to the point that they remain silent about what is happening on the land of Christ?” he added, alluding to the ongoing bloody Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has left tens of thousands dead, and to the enclave’s blockade amid cries of famine. Numerous organizations have in recent days warned of a rise in cases of malnutrition, mainly among children, while the international community has pressured Israel to allow in aid, which finally took place to a limited extent Sunday with air drops and permission for trucks to enter the besieged territory from the Egyptian side of the border.