Vatican Says Closer Ties to Israel Won’t Lessen Concern for Palestinians

The Vatican has assured Palestinians of its continued concern for their welfare as it moves toward closer ties with Israel.

The assurance was conveyed by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican press office, in a recent issue of L’Osservatore Romano, according to Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of interfaith affairs at the Anti Defamation League.

It followed expressions of concern by Moslem and Christian Arab clerics in Jerusalem in the wake of a July 29 decision in Rome to move toward normalization of relations between the Vatican and Israel.

The concern was conveyed in a letter to Pope John Paul II signed by Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Grand Mufti Ibrahim Shaaban, Melkite Catholic Patriarch Vicar Lutfi Laham and Anglican Bishop Samir Kafity, according to a church press service in Geneva.

Laham was quoted as telling the Swiss Catholic news agency APIC that the Jerusalem clerics were not objecting to the move toward diplomatic ties with Israel as such. They only wanted to be reassured there would be no deterioration in relations with the Palestinians.

“For many years, the Vatican has taken very clear positions on the cause of the Palestinian Arabs and on Jerusalem,” Laham said, according to the Ecumenical Press Service of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

Laham said he was pleased Vatican representatives had briefed churches in Jerusalem before announcing the formation of a bilateral study commission with Israel.

Some of the signatories are members of a Moslem-Christian committee formed to closely follow the discussions between Israel and the Vatican, he said.

While expressing concern over the closer ties between the two states, Laham was optimistic about the future of Middle East peace negotiations.

“We are in favor of anything that can help the rapprochement between peoples,” he said.