Pope Francis
condemned on Monday what he called the “arrogance of occupiers” in
Ukraine and Palestine in a rare stance against Israeli policy and a week
after he first addressed the allegations of genocide levelled against
Israel.
Speaking at the Vatican on the 40th anniversary of the peace
treaty between Chile and Argentina, the Roman Catholic pontiff spoke of
“current armed conflicts” and the “very painful suffering” they cause.
“I simply recall two failures of humanity
today; in Ukraine and Palestine, where suffering is great and the
arrogance of the occupier undermines dialogue,” he told diplomats and
religious representatives in an improvised statement. He again
criticised the arms trade, referring to the “hypocrisy of talking about
peace while waging war.” Dialogue, added the pontiff, must be the
essence of the international community.
The Pope regularly offers prayers for the
civilians in Gaza and Ukraine “who are suffering greatly” as well as for
the release of the Israeli captives held by Hamas since the movement’s
unprecedented cross-border incursion on 7 October, 2023. He received 16
former Israeli hostages on 14 November at the Vatican.
Last week, Pope Francis suggested that the
global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza
constituted genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most
explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its year-long war.
In a new book, Hope Never Disappoints. Pilgrims Towards a Better World,
the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics said, “According
to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of
genocide.”
Extracts were published on Sunday in Italy’s La Stampa.
The book is scheduled to be published next Tuesday.
“Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon are
immoral and disproportionate,” said the Pope in September, adding that
the Israeli army had exceeded the rules of war.
This is the first time the head of the
Roman Catholic Church has publicly condemned Israeli policy in the
occupied Palestinian Territory in such terms.
