Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican on Sunday pushed back against Pope Francis’s call in a new book for the global community to investigate whether Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza constitutes genocide, saying that the only act of genocide was Hamas’s massacre of Israelis.
The back and forth between the Pontiff and Israel’s Ambassador to the Holy See highlighted a months-long ever-widening chasm between the Vatican and the Jewish State over the 13-month old war in Gaza triggered by the Ocober 7, 2023 Hamas massacre which has now erupted in full public view.
The book, “Hope never disappoints” by Hernán Reyes Alcaide, is based on a series of interviews with the pope. In an excerpt published on Sunday by Italian daily La Stampa, Francis states that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
“Following today’s report in Vatican News: There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens,” Ambassador Yaron Sideman tweeted on Sunday. “Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state.”
In the book, the pope goes on to state that, “We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition [of genocide] formulated by international jurists and organizations.”
It is the first time that the pope has publicly called for an investigation into the accusations of genocide against Israel.
The controversial remarks were also condemned by Jewish groups.
“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,” said Combat Antisemitism Movement CEO Sacha Roytman. “The Catholic Church has a very troubling history of investigations into the conduct of Jews, which were frequently called Inquisitions.”
Francis has been increasingly critical of Israel over the course of its war against Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon.
In September, he expressed dismay at the “death and destruction” caused by Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon.
He called the airstrikes in Lebanon “unacceptable” and urged the international community to do everything possible to halt the fighting.
Last year, Francis labeled children dying in wars, including in the Gaza Strip, as the “little Jesuses of today,” and said that the Israeli military was reaping an “appalling harvest.”
