Jerusalem (AP) – Hours after The death of Pope Francis The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel has been announced has published a short message on X: “Rest in peace, Pope Francis. His memory be a blessing.” Several hours later, it was deleted without explanation.
Come at a time of effusive global mourning During the death of Francis, the decision to remove the post seemed to reflect the tensions that emerged between Israel and the Vatican on Frequent criticism of Francis on the conduct of Israel During the war in Gaza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on the abolition.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is generally quick to publish declarations on the adoption of the main international figures. But he remained silent on the death of the Pope, just like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar. The only official condolences came from the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who occupies a largely ceremonial role and who congratulated Francis to be “a man of deep faith and unlimited compassion”.
For most of Francis’ papacy, the links between Israel and the Vatican have regularly improved – highlighted by A visit to the Holy Land in 2014.
But everything changed after the war in Gaza broke out with the fatal attack in Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
While expressing his sympathy for Israeli victims and hostages, Francis suggested that Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon were “Immoral” and disproportionate. He also called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza are a genocide, an accusation that Israel denies during the surveys The best UN courts proceed.
“Pope Francis condemned what happened on October 7, but it was also clear that what had happened on October 7 does not justify what happened since October 7,” said Wadie Abunassar, who leads a group that represents Christians in Israel and Palestinian territories.
Pope Francis was like a friend who tells the truth, even if that’s not exactly what you want to hear, said Abunassar.
Throughout the war, Francis walked a delicate balance between his close ties with Israel and condemning devastating losses in Gaza, according to Amnon Ramon, an expert in Christianity in Israel and principal researcher at the Institute of Jerusalem for political research. Francis was Exceptionally close to the local parish priest of Gazawhich, like the old pontiff, is from Argentina.
A story of tension
Israel has historically had a fragile relationship with the Vatican. This stems from anger at the Vatican’s perceived lack of action during the Second World War, when criticisms argue Pope Pius XII has kept silent During the holocaust despite a possible knowledge of the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. Supporters insist that he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives.
In the 1960s, the Vatican underwent a series of dramatic transformations, in particular, among others, to change the attitude of the Church to the Jews on what had long been as their collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus, explained Ramon. The Holy See officially launched diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993.
Christians represent less than 2% of the population of the Holy Land. There are around 182,000 in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the United States Department of State.
At the beginning of Francis’ papacy, the relationship with Israel warmed considerably. Francis visited the Holy Land in 2014 as one of his first international trips, when he met Netanyahu, who was Prime Minister at the time. The president of the time, Shimon Peres, visited the Vatican on several occasions, notably with the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas To plant a peace tree in the Vatican gardens.
But the right -of -right quarter of the Israeli government and the current war with Gaza tightened the ties.
The Pope expressed his concern for the hostages held in Gaza
“Pope Francis spoke for the first time on October 8, the day after the war, and he followed the same line until the end of his life: war is defeat, there is no victory for war,” said Reverend David Neuhaus, a local priest who was spokesperson during the Pope’s visit in 2014.
“He expressed a great concern for hostagesBut said that violence should stop and that Israel uses strength to something that cannot be achieved by force, “said Neuhaus. Francis also met with hostage families detained in Gaza and the Palestinians affected by the war.
In an interview with the Associated Press in April 2023, the head of the Catholics in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that the far -right government of Netanyahu has aggravated life to Christians in the birthplace of Christianity. He noted an increase in attacks on Christian sites, pilgrims and religious leaders.
Although the world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, will attend Francis funeral, Israel will only send his Vatican ambassador, a lower level diplomat.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oren Marmorstein, said that it was due in part to the planning of conflicts and the funeral which takes place on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, which obliges Israeli politicians to remain at the distance of the funeral. The decision was not revealing a tension with the Vatican, he said.
“Israel will be represented in the most official way of the funeral through our ambassador there,” said Marmorstein. “There were things with which we did not agree, but we participate in the funeral.”
Francis underlined mercy in a polarized world
“Pope Francis was one of Israel’s best friends, but Israeli leaders did not understand it properly,” said Abunassar, the coordinator of the Christian Sacred Land Forum. Abunassar, a Catholic of the Israeli city in northern Haifa, said it was angry that the Israeli government only sent official condolences by the president.
“Man was the most important church in the world. The man was the head of state. Man has followers among people who are Israeli taxpayers. Man deserves a certain respect. “
Netanyahu publicly expressed her condolences for the death of other world leaders, notably Queen Elizabeth II and former president Jimmy Carter, who criticized Israel.
Wednesday, hundreds of people spread in the church of the Holy Sepulcher, built at the top of the site where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, for a special mass of Requiem in honor of Pope Francis.
Many representatives of Orthodox Christianity have also been present, a nod to the strong support of Francis with interconfessional ties and to its revolutionary meeting with the Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I in Jerusalem in 2014, after centuries of tense relations between the two churches.
Neuhaus said he hoped that the next pope will follow the same message as Francis.
“I hope it will be someone who will focus on mercy, someone who could bring us together,” he said. “We live in a world as divided and polarized.”
