The Vatican’s refusal to recognize the State of Israel was disputed by two Canadian Jewish leaders with a ranking representative of the Holy See in Canada. McGill University Prof. Irving Cotler, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress and Alan Rose, executive vice president of the CJC, expressed their views strongly at a meeting with The Most Rev. Angelo Palmas, the Vatican Ambassador, at the Vatican Embassy in Ottawa.
They met with Palmas to reiterate Jewish protests against the audience granted Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat by Pope John Paul II last September. According to the CJC officials, by its refusal to recognize Israel, the Vatican was signaling the PLO and the rest of the Arab world that their refusal to recognize Israel was not an impediment to their reception at the Vatican.
Palmas replied that the reason the Vatican does not recognize Israel is because it is in a “conflict area.” He said that “As soon as there is peace between Israel and her neighbors, we shall recognize Israel.”
But Cotler and Rose took a different view. Cotler told the envoy that “In all of my meetings with Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian and other government leaders over the years, they all pointed to the non-recognition of Israel by the Vatican as a reason for their refusal to accept the existence of the State of Israel.”
He added that the Vatican’s position that Israel will be recognized when peace is achieved turns the issue on its head because the fact of non-recognition by the Vatican impedes the peace process. He cautioned that the continued non-recognition of Israel by the Vatican was detrimental to improved Catholic-Jewish relations.
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