Jerusalem, Israel (CNN) -- A top Israeli official on Sunday criticized a new statement from Catholic bishops on the Middle East and blasted the remarks of a Catholic archbishop who spearheaded the statement as "libel".
On Saturday, Catholic bishops from the Middle East concluded a two-week conference in Rome, Italy, with a call for the international community, especially the United Nations, to work "to put an end to the occupation" of Palestinian territories.
On Sunday, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon criticized that concluding statement of the conference, called a synod.
"We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda," Ayalon said in a statement. "The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority".
Ayalon singled out the remarks of a Catholic archbishop who said at the conference that Israel is not the Jews' promised land.
"We Christians cannot speak of the 'promised land' as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people," Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, who leads the Greek Melkite Church in the U.S., said at the conference's final press conference on Saturday. "This promise was nullified by Christ".
"There is no longer a chosen people -- all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people," Bustros said.
On Sunday, Israel's Ayalon said that "We are especially appalled at the language used by Archbishop Bustros during his press conference".
Bustros led the committee that drafted the synod's concluding statement on Israel and the Palestinians.
CNN
