VATICAN (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has dismissed complaints by the government of Israel that a new accord between the Holy See and the Palestinian Authority was an attempt by the Church to "interfere in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians."
The purpose of the new Vatican-Palestinian pact, the Holy See pointed out, is to guarantee the juridical status of the Catholic Church on Palestinian territory. The Vatican press office continued-- in an unusual statement, issued late on the night of February 15-- by observing that the new pact "has nothing to say about what has been established by the pertinent UN agencies and recent accords between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities." And in its treatment of Jerusalem, the Vatican statement said, the new accord "does not enter into question of territoriality or sovereignty."
The Israeli government had indicated its "great disappointment" with the announcement of the new agreement between the Holy See and the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli statement stressed in particular that the status of Jerusalem is not open to discussion. "Jerusalem is, and will remain, the capital of the state of Israel," the Israeli statement insisted, and no statement by the Holy See or the Palestinian Authority "can change that fact."
The Vatican-Palestinian pact had implicitly rejected the Israeli position, saying that "unilateral decisions" regarding the status of Jerusalem are "morally and legally unacceptable." Israeli officials confirmed that Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio in the Holy Land, was summoned by the Israeli foreign ministry on February 16. Archbishop Sambi reportedly spoke for roughly a half-hour with Eytan Bentsure, the director general of that ministry, on the "delicate problem" of the new pact.
Catholic World News Service - Vatican Update