The Vatican signed its first official treaty on Friday with the “State of Palestine,” while insisting upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make “courageous decisions” to end the conflict between the two sides.
The treaty gave official recognition to the ‘State of Palestine,’ a sign that the Vatican–which is looked to for moral clarity–has continued to take the side of the terror-supporting Palestinian leadership in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Israeli officials said the move has jeopardized future relations between the Holy See and Jerusalem, Reuters reports.
“This hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the PA to return to direct negotiations with Israel,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Israeli government officials added that “the one-sided texts in the agreement” ignore “the historic rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and the places holy to Judaism in Jerusalem.”
In its accord with the Palestinian leadership, the Vatican may, in fact, be harming the peace process by recognizing entities that are led by radical jihadists.
In his blanket recognition approving Palestine as a state, Pope Francis gave the Vatican’s de facto stamp of approval to Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas, while also doing the same for the Palestinian Authority, which compensates the families of suicide terrorists who kill Israeli Jews.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said of the accord:
I regret that the Vatican decided to participate in a step that blatantly ignores the history of the Jewish people in Israel and Jerusalem. Any attempt by the Palestinians, or any other actor to undermine our historic right to Jerusalem and our country will [be] met by staunch opposition by us.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher commented on the latest diplomatic endeavor, saying that he hoped the new treaty would be a “stimulus to bringing a definitive end of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both parties.”
“This certainly requires courageous decisions, but it will also offer a major contribution to peace and stability in the region,” he told Reuters.