Future of City Is Source of Differences between Vatican and Israel
JERUSALEM, MAR 17 (ZENIT.org).- Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem, has warned the Pope that it would be better if during his visit he does not touch upon the question of the Holy City's status, the «eternal capital» of the State of Israel.
This is a particularly thorny problem, which over the last few years has become one of the biggest reasons for differences between the Vatican and Israel. It is a question that, as the international agency «Fides» reports, appears theoretically in the «agenda» of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians on the final status of the city, but which political and religious leaders of Israel constantly avoid, insisting that Jerusalem is indivisible and will be the «eternal capital of Israel.»
Franciscan Fr. David Jaeger, born a Jew in Israel in 1955, and a member of the Vatican-Israeli Bilateral Commission that made possible official relations between the two States, told «Fides» that he believes there are no «eternal capitals.» Capitals «are always historical and political, not eternal. Only God is eternal, and the State of Israel has committed itself to find a just and negotiated solution to the problem. This is also the Holy See's position. The problem of Jerusalem must be solved at the international level and not unilaterally. The territorial future of Jerusalem and the city's political fortune must be sought jointly by Israel and the Palestinians. Moreover, Israel committed itself in Oslo to find a negotiated solution to the question of Jerusalem».
In the plan of Palestine's division, which was approved in 1947 by U.N. Resolution 181, provision was made for the constitution of a «corpus separatum» that embraced Jerusalem and some neighboring cities under the aegis of the Security Council. This resolution was never implemented, and the Holy City remained divided in two sectors: Israeli to the West and Jordanian to the East, until the 1967 War, when Israel conquered the eastern sector, where the Holy Places are located, by force. Without entering into territorial disputes, the Vatican condemned all unilateral or violently imposed measures to effect geographic or demographic changes.
«On behalf of the Church we say that, no matter what the political future of Jerusalem is, it must be shared,» stated Fr. Jaeger. «Moreover, we Catholics ask that certain aspects be guaranteed at the international level, according to U.N. principles. I am speaking of the safeguarding of the cultural and religious patrimony of the city; of the 'status quo' in the shrines; liberty of religion and conscience; the juridical equality of the institutions of the three religions; access to the shrines by all. U.N. Resolution 181 (of 1947) set the same objectives, but thinking of the internationalization of the territory. This internationalization does not seem realistic. Therefore, this same objective can find another type of solution that is not of a territorial character, but of common agreement between Israelis and Palestinians on one hand, and the international community on the other.»
«A sign of hope is that the Palestinians have already made this view their own. Nothing stops us from thinking that our Israeli friends will do the same. Jews and Palestinians of good will are already thinking of a shared city, in which West Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish State and East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine. As regards the rest, although Israel has made Jerusalem its capital, it has also committed itself to find a negotiated solution for Jerusalem: the only way out is to share the capital,» Fr. Jaeger concluded.
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