Pope Calls to Investigate Israel’s “Genocide” in Gaza
In a soon-to-be-published book, Pope Francis called for an investigation into claims that Israel is carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza.
The book, by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa. “We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region,” the pope wrote. “I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory.”
This passage seems incongruous as no Arab countries, including Jordan and Lebanon, have accepted any refugees from Gaza.
Last December, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention. In January, the judges at the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts. The court has not yet ruled on the core of the case – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza.
In September, a report to the United Nations General Assembly titled “Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories “ stated that Israel was guilty of genocide.
“The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” the report concluded. “Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionally killed en masse in Gaza, while in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli colonial settlers, military and security personnel have continued to violate human rights and humanitarian law with impunity.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) slammed these remarks made by Pope Francis.
“The State of Israel is currently facing a war of intended annihilation on seven fronts, and these remarks look like a possible opening of an eighth front, from of all places, the Vatican, which can also lead to the spilling of Jewish blood around the world,” says CEO of CAM, Sacha Roytman Dratwa. “For a Pope who appears to prize even-handedness and peace, we see that the Jewish State once again appears to be the exception. We had hoped after Nostra Aetate in 1965 that the Jewish People would be seen as equal to all others around the world by the Catholic hierarchy. Still, these claims suggest otherwise, and out of all the conflicts and real genocides around the world, the national homeland of the Jewish People is once again singled out as a target for opprobrium.”
“The Catholic Church has a very troubling history of investigations into the conduct of Jews, which were frequently called Inquisitions,” continued Roytman Dratwa. “It would behoove Pope Francis to choose his words more carefully because they bring to mind a horrific and bloody history of Catholic religious leaders attacking Jews for the enjoyment of others in public at tribunals and Inquisitions where the Jew would always be found guilty regardless of the facts.”
Last year, CAM leaders met with Vatican representatives in Israel to offer them seminars on antisemitism, which unfortunately were never followed up on.
Last year, Pope Francis met with Palestinians whose relatives were security prisoners in Israeli jails or were in Gaza. Members of the Palestinian delegation told the media that the pope had described Israel’s actions as “genocide.”
In September, Pope Francis responded to a question about IDF airstrikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah; he replied that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon were going “beyond morality”.
In December, Pope Francis labeled children dying in wars, including in the Gaza Strip, as the “little Jesuses of today,” and said that IDF actions were reaping an “appalling harvest.”
The Vatican supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians that would establish an unprecedented militarized Palestinian state inside Israel’s borders that has been ethnically cleansed of Jews with its capital in an exclusively Muslim Jerusalem.
Pope Francis has a history of being myopic regarding Palestinians and Arabs bent on destroying the Jewish state. In 2015, just a few days after the Vatican officially recognized the Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was granted an audience in the Apostolic Palace. After the meeting, Francis gave Abbas a special medallion, which he said represented the angel of peace “destroying the bad spirit of war.”The Pope explained to Abbas that he felt the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.”
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