Report Vatican Drops Demand for Internationalization of Jerusalem

A report that the press spokesman for the Vatican told a news conference at the Vatican last week that the Vatican has dropped its 1947 position calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem was confirmed today by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, director of inter-religious affairs of the American Jewish Committee.

Rabbi Tanenbaum told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that be received a telephone call over the weekend from an official of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, confirming that the press conference had been held and that the statement on the Vatican’s major shift on the issue had been made by Frederico Allesandrini, the press spokesman. Rabbi Tanenbaum said he had been informed that Allesandrini said that the Vatican is now interested “in pursuing some arrangement that will provide an international statute or guarantee for the holy places” in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Tanenbaum said the clarification was significant because, in the past, Allesandrini has consistently followed a pro-Arab line interpreting Vatican policy, “frequently distorting actual positions held by the Pope and the Secretariat of State.” The rabbi said that “this statement makes it clear” that Allesandrini “has been called upon by higher authorities in the Vatican to make his personal position conform with the official policy of the Vatican which has informed us that they regard internationalization as unworkable and untimely.” Rabbi Tanenbaum said that view had been conveyed to him in Antwerp last December at a meeting of the International Jewish Committee with Vatican officials.