Holy See and the Arab-Israeli peace process

Holy See attitude towards the Arab-Israeli peace process has been influenced by several factors, including:

• 1. The general criticism VOICED on this issue by foreign governments.
• 2. Tensions in Holy See – Israel relations in general, which result from the antagonism displayed towards the Catholic Church in Israel by sections of the Jewish public opinion.
• 3. Relations between the Holy See and the Catholic communities within Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
• 4. Concern for the effects of the peace process on holy places in Israel and the Palestinian authority.
• 5. Holy See interests of displaying humanitarian positions on world affairs, including a just solution to issues on the Israeli-Palestinian track.

The Middle East peace process is centered at present around the Palestinian issue, which can be divided as follows:

• 1. Borders.
• 2. Palestinian refugees of 1948.
• 3. Security for both societies, with special emphasis on protesting Israeli military actions against Palestinian combatant organizations or civilians.

Pius XII

Pius XII was Pope from 2 March 1939 to 9 October 1958. His papacy covered the Second World War period, which saw the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust, and saw the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. He is noted for his rejection of any plan for the establishment of a State of Israel in the British Palestine territory, on religious, theological and racial grounds.

On 1 May 1948, two weeks before the end of the British Mandate, Pius XII issued encyclical Auspicia Quaedam, expressing concern over the survival of the holy places in case of war. During that war, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land Alberto Gori in his reports to the Vatican was most critical of the Jewish and later Israeli forces, whom he accused of destruction of holy places.

Despite Israeli assurances that Israel will guarantee freedom of religion and safeguard the Holy Places of all religions, on 24 October 1948, Pius XII issued encyclical In Multiplicibus Curis which focused on the war then raging in Palestine and called for respect and protection of the holy places. On 15 April 1949, he issued encyclical Redemptoris Nostri Cruciatus, in which he expressed concern over the future of freedom of access to the holy places and called for a "settlement of the dispute on principles of justice, which would fully safeguard the freedom of Catholics and at the same time provide guarantees for the safety of those most Holy Places".

“…tranquillity or order in Palestine is still very far from having been restored. For We are still receiving complaints from those who have every right to deplore the profanation of sacred buildings, images, charitable institutions, as well as the destruction of peaceful homes of religious communities. Piteous appeals still reach us from numerous refugees, of every age and condition, who have been forced by the disastrous war to emigrate and even live in exile in concentration camps, the prey to destitution, contagious disease and perils of every sort.”

In 1949 Pius appointed Gori as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, which led to a policy of estrangement towards the Israeli government. Jerusalem being divided between Israel and Jordan, Gori began a policy of removing Catholic religious houses and institutions that were located in West Jerusalem to East Jerusalem, away from Israel. In 1950 Gori made an official visit to Israel and met Prime Minister Ben Gurion. During the meeting, Gori attempted to convince the Israeli leader to make an international commitment to uphold the rights of Christians in Israel, but his offer was rejected. Gori was also active with Catholics of Jewish origin, and on February 11, 1955, granted official approval to the Apostolate of Saint James the Apostle, which was aimed at addressing the needs of Hebrew speaking Catholics in Israel.

On May 26, 1955, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performed Beethoven's Seventh Symphony at the Vatican as an act of respect for Pius XII.

On 1 November 1956, Pius XII issued encyclical Laetamur Admodum, which expressed concern over the Suez Crisis, but without endorsing any particular solution.

Paul VI

Paul VI was Pope from 21 June 1963 to 6 August 1978. He strongly defended inter-religious dialogue in the spirit of Nostra Aetate. He was also the first Pope to mention the Palestinian people by name.

Because the majority of Christians in Arab countries were Arabs, he voiced mild criticism of the Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, while refraining from expressing any actual positions on the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In January 1964, he was the first Pope in modern times to visit Jordan and Israel. He expressed his wish to visit Israel already in November 1962, when he served as Archbishop of Milan, and in December 1963 he announced such an intention as Pope. The visit took place in January 1964. During that visit, the Pope met the Israeli President near Meggido, but Vatican official statements regarding the visit refrained from mentioning the State of Israel by name, but only as "the Holy Land".

In October 1969, the Pope met at the Vatican Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. On January 15, 1973, the Pope met Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir at the Vatican, which was the first meeting between a Pope and an Israeli Prime Minister. At the meeting, the Pope brought up the issues of peace in the Middle East, refugees and the status of the holy places, but no agreement was reached. According to Meir's own account of the meeting, the Pope criticized the Israeli government for its treatment of the Palestinians, and she said in reply:

Your Holiness, do you know what my earliest memory is? A pogrom in Kiev. When we were merciful and when we had no homeland and when we were weak, we were led to the gas chambers.

Following the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the Vatican attempted to mediate between the Israeli and Syrian governments on prisoners exchange.

On July 16, 1974, the Pope sent a letter to the President of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, Monsignor John G. Nolan, where he referred for the first time to the Palestinians, stating:

The work of the Mission for Palestine has been one of the clearest signs of the Holy See’s concern for the welfare of the Palestinians, who are particularly dear to us because they are people of the Holy Land, because they include followers of Christ and because they have been and still are being so tragically tried.

We express again our heartfelt sharing in their sufferings and our support for their legitimate aspirations. May our paternal solicitude bring comfort and encouragement, especially to the refugees, who for years have been living under inhuman conditions.

Unfortunately such a state of affairs has produced in many Palestinians a sense of frustration and, in some, such anguish and desperation as to move them to acts of violent protest which with sorrow we have been constrained strenuously to deplore.

It seems to us, nevertheless, that this is the moment for all Palestinians to look to the future with a constructive, like-minded and responsible attitude, as the hope becomes ever stronger that their particular problems will be them will be found during the peace in the Middle East.

On issues relating to peace between Israel and its neighbors, the Pope supported a solution that would take the Palestinian problem into consideration. This concern he voiced in his meeting with Egyptian President Sadat held on April 8, 1976. He again raised the issue in his meeting with the Syrian Ambassador to the Vatican on December 15, 1977, a statement probably made in response to Syrian frustration with Egyptian President's Anwar Sadat visit to Israel the month before.

Following the start of Israeli-Egyptian peace talks in late 1977, he held a reception to Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Dayan on January 12, 1978, in which he referred to Holy See interests in the peace-process in the following words:

"As Your Excellency well knows, in the complex problem of the Middle East we have particularly at heart the question of Jerusalem and the Holy Places; and we fervently hope for a solution that will not only satisfy the legitimate aspirations of those concerned, but also take into account the preeminently religious character of the Holy City. We therefore trust that the proposal several times put forward by the Holy See, in view of the spiritual greatness of Jerusalem, will be seen as a positive contribution to such a solution".

On February 13, 1978 he held a reception for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the Vatican. At his meeting with Sadat, the Pope expressed concern for the Palestinian problem, the people of Lebanon and the status of Jerusalem.

On April 29, 1978 the Pope met King Hussein of Jordan at the Vatican. At the meeting, the Pope referred to the problems of the peace process:

"we once again express the hope that a just end may be put to the sad situation of the Palestinians, and that Jerusalem, the Holy City for the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, may really become the “high place” of peace and encounter for peoples from every part of the world".

John Paul I

The Pontificate of John Paul I, brief as it was, took place at a time when the Israeli and the Egyptian governments were conducting exploratory peace talks. In the general audience he gave on September 6, 1978, he supported the Camp David negotiations, and repeated that support in his Sunday sermon of September 10, 1978.

John Paul II

The Pontificate of John Paul II began at a time when the Israeli and the Egyptian governments were engaged in peace negotiations, leading to the conclusion of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. He placed the issue of achieving peace in the Middle East a high priority on his international agenda, as he mentioned it in his Sunday sermon of March 11, 1979. However, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty did not receive Papal endorsement, owing probably to the unpopularity of that treaty within parts of the international community, and the Pope remained silent about that treaty, and even refrained from mentioning it at all during a reception he held for a delegation of the Coptic church on June 23, 1979, as well as in his message of congratulation to US President Jimmy Carter, during his visit to the US in October 1979. He expressed a more conciliatory tone towards the Israeli-Egyptian treaty in his speech before the UN General Assembly on October 2, 1979, but conditioned his support on that treaty being the "first stone" to a comprehensive peace in the region.

He referred to the Middle East peace process at a reception he held at the Vatican to US President Carter on June 21, 1980:

Mr President, I wish to assure you of my deep interest in every effort aimed at the betterment of humanity and devoted to world peace. In a particular way the Middle East and the neighbouring regions occupy our common attention because of the immense importance they hold for international well-being. (- - -)

The question of Jerusalem, which during these very days attracts the attention of the world in a special way, is pivotal to a just peace in those parts of the world, since this Holy City embodies interests and aspirations that are shared by different peoples in different ways.

The Pope's veiled criticism of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is seen in the statement he made to the Egyptian Ambassador to the Holy See on November 10, 1980:

I have followed closely the efforts to build a lasting peace which have been made by President Sadat and the Egyptian Government. And I am happy to receive from you the confirmation that these efforts will continue, despite all difficulties. In fact, precisely because the tensions and dangers have increased in recent times, the work of peace, as you have said, must go on. Indeed it must be intensified until a comprehensive peace is achieved, a peace which provides for an equitable solution to all aspects of the Middle East crisis, including the Palestinian problem and the question of Jerusalem. Any so-called peace which would not take into account all the elements of divergency and which would not ultimately include all the parties who are directly concerned would risk being ineffective and could spark an ever more bitter conflict.

Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, John Paul II expressed his concern about the future of the peace process in a message to US President Ronald Reagan on June 7, 1982, one day after the start of the war:

This grave crisis in Lebanon likewise merits the attention of the world because of the danger it contains of further provocation in the Middle East, with immense consequences for world peace.

On June 29, the Pope made a public appeal for peace in Lebanon. Throughout the Lebanese war, John Paul II continued viewing the war as a major crisis to be resolved, as can be seen in his statement to the Egyptian Ambassador on October 10, 1984.

On February 19, 1985 the Pope gave an audience to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the first one since the meeting between Paul VI and Golda Meir in 1973. At the meeting, Peres rejected any territorial concessions in Jerusalem, stating it will always remain Israel's capital.

Following the outbreak of the first Intifada in December 1987, the Pope showed his sympathy with the Palestinian cause as he held a meeting at the Vatican with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah on January 7, 1988. Even though the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were not explicitly mentioned, it is possible the Pope referred to it in a veiled manner when he mentioned Sabbah's

heavy ministerial responsibilities which you are now assuming.

Following the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the launch of the multilateral talks that followed, John Paul II supported the conduct of the talks, as he said to the Egyptian Ambassador to the Holy See on November 14, 1992:

the Holy See trusts that the opening of channels of dialogue will lead to a just and fair solution of the many complex questions which need to be dealt with, especially with regard to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and the rightful desire of the other peoples of the region to live in peace and security.

One major result of the Madrid talks was the Holy See agreement to enter into talks with the Israeli government, and on July 29, 1992, a permanent bilateral commission was established to resolve legal and diplomatic issues.

John Paul II also met PLO chairman Yasser Arafat at a time this was not acceptable for the Israeli government (i.e. prior to the Oslo agreement). Their first official meeting took place in 1982, and they met again in 1988 and 1990. By the time of Arafat's death in 2004, they met a total of 12 times.

John Paul II continued to support the peace process after diplomatic relations were established, and he supported the Oslo Accords and the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, but his attitude was of cautious optimism, as he stated to the Jordanian Ambassador to the Holy See on November 19, 1994:

The peace process still has a long and arduous path to follow, and it is not simplistic to say that its success depends, more than on anything else, on an increase of trust between the peoples of the Middle East themselves.

Following Netanyahu's election as Israeli Prime Minister in 1996, John Paul expressed his concern over the future of the peace process in a letter to Netanyahu, in which he stated:

The Israeli and Palestinian Peoples are already shouldering a burden of suffering which is too heavy: this burden must not be increased; instead it deserves the utmost commitment to finding the paths of necessary and courageous compromises. Efforts in this regard will certainly earn you the gratitude of coming generations and of all humanity.

The Vatican also expressed concern over the socio-economic situation within the Palestinian Authority and Israeli policies in that regard. On November 3, 1999, Archbishop Renato Martino, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, stated before the UN General Assembly:

While the renewed peace process initiated by the Wye Memorandum deserves commendation, the ongoing expansion of settlements and confiscation of land could pose a real threat to a stable and definitive solution to the crisis in the land which is the Holy Land, especially to believers of the three monotheistic religions.

On February 15, 2000, the Holy See concluded a basic agreement with the PLO as representing the Palestinians.

John Paul II visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority in March 2000. This was the first Papal visit to the Palestinian Authority. On March 22, at a reception held in Bethlehem, he referred to the Palestinian issue:

The Holy See has always recognized that the Palestinian people have the natural right to a homeland, and the right to be able to live in peace and tranquility with the other peoples of this area. In the international forum, my predecessors and I have repeatedly proclaimed that there would be no end to the sad conflict in the Holy Land without stable guarantees for the rights of all the peoples involved, on the basis of international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions and declarations.

The Pope explicitly referred to the Palestinian Authority and the peace process, when talking to the incoming Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See on September 18, 2000:

A continuing source of sadness is the elusive character of a definitive peace in the Middle East. We all rejoice every time a step forward is announced in the complex negotiations which have become an essential feature of relations between Israel and its neighbours, especially the Palestinian Authority. The continuation of dialogue and negotiation is itself a significant development. And it is important to acknowledge just how substantial is the progress made so far, lest those involved be discouraged at the size of the task still ahead. Sometimes the obstacles to peace appear so great and so many that to face them seems humanly impossible. But what seemed unthinkable even a few short years ago is now a reality or at least a matter of open discussion, and this must convince all concerned that a solution is possible. It must encourage everyone to press forward with hope and perseverance.

The outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000 was a cause of concern for the Holy See, and in a message to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on November 6, the Pope referred to the fighting in the Palestinian territories:

the violent change from negotiation to confrontation represents a setback for peace

and he called upon both sides to return to the negotiating table. As for the desirable solution for the conflict, he stated:

both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples have the right to live in their own homes in dignity and security.

John Paul II remained critical for the lack of progress in the peace process and the part played by the US government, as he said to the US Ambassador to the Holy See on September 13, 2001:

I cannot but mention, among so many disturbing situations throughout the world, the tragic violence which continues to affect the Middle East and which seriously jeopardizes the peace process begun in Madrid.

In October 2001, the Pope met Arafat for the last time, and expressed concern over the fighting in the Palestinian territories. In his Sunday sermon of October 21, the Pope expressed concern over the situation in the Bethlehem area due to Israeli military incursions and the shell damage caused to Bethlehem University, and the issue was also raised at the UN by the Vatican delegation. The escalation in fighting in April-May 2002 caused the Pope to call upon the international community to pressure the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to implement a cease-fire and restart negotiations, as seen from his message to the Jordanian Ambassador to the Holy See on May 17, 2002. On May 1, 2002, the Pope appointed Cardinal Roger Etchegaray as his personal envoy to mediate between the Israeli government and the Palestinian forces in and around Bethlehem to prevent damage to the Church of the Nativity. These efforts led to ending the siege on the Nativity Church on May 10.

The Pope's statements during the Second Intifada became more and more in favor of a Palestinian state, and on June 2, 2003, he said to the Israeli Ambassador:

the Holy See is convinced that the present conflict will be resolved only when there are two independent and sovereign States.

The Pope also showed support for the building of government institution within the Palestinian Authority, and on November 10, 2003, he accepted at the Vatican a delegation from the Palestinian Authority, which he commended for drafting a new Palestinian constitution, and on February 12, 2004, he received the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei at the Vatican.

Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI's policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was put to the test in the very first months of his papacy. Following a [...] attack in the Israeli city of Netanya in July 2005, many Jewish and Zionist organizations blamed the Vatican for not expressing concern over the loss of Israeli lives. The Holy See spokesperson responded to the accusation by condemning both Palestinian attacks, as well as Israeli military operations:

Not every attack against Israel could be followed by an immediate public condemnation. There are various reasons for this, among them the fact that attacks against Israel were sometimes followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the norms of international law. It would, consequently, have been impossible to condemn the former and remain silent on the latter.

This caused some tension between the Vatican and the Israeli government. In August 2005, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in order to defuse tensions with the Vatican, wrote a letter to the Pope, where he stated:

Israel has been devastated and victimized by [...] and we are very sensitive to any attempt to distinguish between Islamic [...] which systematically targets innocent Israeli civilians and that which is aimed at citizens of other countries.

The letter was delivered to Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano by the Israeli Ambassador Oded Ben-Hur on August 23, and in that meeting Sodano made a conciliatory statement to the effect that both parties made minor errors of judgment in respect to one another, and both diplomats then announced the crisis was resolved.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, the Holy See called for an immediate cease-fire, and for humanitarian efforts for the reconstruction of Lebanon.

The Holy See under Benedict XVI was supportive of the efforts of the Quartet on the Middle East, as stated by Monsignor Celestino Migliore before the UN General Assembly on November 2, 2006:

The centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the persistent instability in the Middle East cannot be ignored. This is why my delegation remains convinced of the two state solution as the basis for the resolution of the crisis, which would permit Israelis to live in security in their own land and Palestinians to live safely in a viable state of their own. This can only be achieved if the international community, and in particular the Quartet, shoulders the burden of reactivating genuine negotiations with all dispatch.

It is a sad fact that the international community has failed to engage the Israelis and Palestinians in significant and substantive dialogue along with dispute resolution in order to bring stability and peace to both. It falls squarely upon the international community to use its good offices to facilitate with all speed a rapprochement between the two sides. Evidently, those brokering the negotiations will have to maintain a balanced approach, avoiding the imposition of preconditions on either side.

Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the key to a series of questions affecting the whole Middle East, without going into the consequences for the wider world.

This time the portion of the speech dedicated to the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was longer than usual, and a similar sense of urgency for a solution was seen in Migliore's statement during the 10th Emergency Session (concerned with Israeli policies in East Jerusalem) on November 17:

While regretting a new toll of deaths and condemning the spiral of violence caused by both military operations and [...] attacks, we cannot but note that these horrendous occurrences form part of a much larger issue which, as we all know, has festered far too long in the region. Each time we hold an emergency meeting such as this, we recite the seemingly endless list of difficulties and differences separating Israelis and Palestinians, which make it all the more urgent for states to address the problem of the fundamental injustice at the heart of this question. To make a litany of symptoms without addressing the root cause is hardly helpful to either party. Each is forced to live under the horrible tensions of potential explosive acts of terror or military incursions that result in death, casualties and the destruction of infrastructures.

The Holy See endorsed the formation in March 2007 of a unity government between Fatah and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority.

During his meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See held on May 12, 2008, Benedict XVI voiced his concern over the peace process, as well as over resolving issues related to the fundamental agreement. Regarding the peace process, the Pope said:

The Holy See recognizes Israel’s legitimate need for security and self-defence and strongly condemns all forms of anti-Semitism. It also maintains that all peoples have a right to be given equal opportunities to flourish. Accordingly, I would urge your Government to make every effort to alleviate the hardship suffered by the Palestinian community, allowing them the freedom necessary to go about their legitimate business, including travel to places of worship, so that they too can enjoy greater peace and security. Clearly, these matters can only be addressed within the wider context of the Middle East peace process. The Holy See welcomes the commitment expressed by your Government to carry forward the momentum rekindled at Annapolis and prays that the hopes and expectations raised there will not be disappointed. As I observed in my recent address to the United Nations in New York, it is necessary to explore every possible diplomatic avenue and to remain attentive to "even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation" if long-standing conflicts are to be resolved. When all the people of the Holy Land live in peace and harmony, in two independent sovereign states side by side, the benefit for world peace will be inestimable.

The Israeli-Gaza war of 2008-2009 also raised Holy See concerns for the region. On January 4, 2009, the Pope ended his regular Sunday sermon with an Appeal for an end to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where a war was in progress between the Israeli military and Hamas forces:

The tragic news reaching us from Gaza shows how the rejection of dialogue leads to situations that bear unspeakably heavily upon the peoples who are once again victims of hatred and war. War and hatred do not resolve problems. Very recent history also confirms this. Let us pray, therefore, that "the Child in the manger... may inspire the authorities and those responsible on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, to take immediate action to put an end to the current tragic situation".

Concern for a quick end to fighting was also reiterated in the Pope's speech before the diplomatic corps on January 8, and in an official statement at the UH Human Rights Council the following day. The Gaza war saw another crisis in Vatican-Israeli relations, as the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Renato Martino in a press interview referred to the Gaza Strip as a "big concentration camp", a statement that evoked angry reactions from Israeli government spokesmen.

In May 2009, Benedict XVI visited Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, although this trip had at first been put in doubt because of persistent political fighting in Gaza. During the reception that was held for him in Bethlehem on May 13, the Pope said:

the Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders.

On the same day, the Pope also visited Aida refugee camp, where he proclaimed his support for a Palestinian state and sounded veiled criticism of the wall being built by the Israeli government in the Palestinian territories. Benedict XVI reiterated his support for a Palestinian state in his address to the diplomatic corps in January 2010.

In June 2010 as part of the preparations for the Special Assembly of Bishops for the Middle East, the Synod of Bishops issued a working document. The document contained some criticism of the tendency of religious settlers and their supporters from among the Evangelical Christians, as it stated:

the temptation to look at the Bible as a prescription book in finding solutions to every problem needs to be avoided.

A clearer allusion to Evangelical practices was made later in the document:

certain Christian fundamentalist theologies use Sacred Scripture to justify the political injustice imposed on the Palestinians, making the position of Christian Arabs an even more sensitive issue.

The same document also referred to the Israeli control of the Palestinian territories as "occupation".

On 24 October 2010, the final statement by the Synod of Bishops chaired by Benedict XVI stated that "the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories", going on to say "Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable". It was well received by Palestinian diplomats, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat stating, "we was we join the synod in their call to the international community to uphold the universal values of freedom, dignity and justice." Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that "The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority". Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri welcomed the Synod's statements. The Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, answered Ayalon's allegations in a press interview, claiming that the Synod resolutions were balanced and the criticism of Israeli policies was rooted in the reality of the conflict.

Following the Synod, the Holy See continued in its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, and on November 2, the Holy See Representative to the United Nations, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, renewed the appeal to that effect at a session dedicated to UNRWA activities.

Initiatives to move the peace process foreward were also taken by Catholic Bishops. In April 2011 a group of US Catholic Bishops - among them Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard - along with Reform Rabbies and Muslim religious leaders sent a collective letter to US President Obama to work for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of 1967 borders. Following President Obama's speech of May 19, the same Bishops issued a letter on May 20, calling Obama to continue his efforts for a Palestinian state and to support the Fatah-Hamas unity government established.

Following Obama's and Netanyahu's May speeches regarding the future of the peace-process, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa expressed some cautious optimism by congratulating the change of policy he found in the speeches by the two leaders, but stated that a real change was still far off.

As the peace talks broke down in 2011 and the Palestinian Authority decided to act unilaterally to declare an independent state at the United Nations, Benedict XVI implied his displeasure of this projected move, as well as from Israeli military operations against the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states. In his reception to the Syrian Ambassador to the Holy See on June 9, 2011, he stated:

A global solution must be found, if peace is to make headway in the region. It must not be harmful to the interests of any of the parties involved and must be the result of a compromise and not of unilateral decisions imposed by force. Force resolves nothing, it merely provides partial or unilateral solutions which are inadequate. Aware of the suffering of all the populations, it is necessary to proceed with a deliberately global approach that excludes no one from the quest for a negotiated solution which takes into account the aspiration and legitimate interests of the various people involved.

See also

• Holy See – Israel relations
• Holy See – Palestinian relations
• Palestinian Christians