Israel won't send senior official to pope’s funeral amid Vatican criticism over Gaza war

Most countries are expected to dispatch presidents, prime ministers and royalties to the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday. By contrast, Israel will be represented by its ambassador to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman.

Jerusalem’s decision to send a lower-level representative comes at a time of heightened diplomatic tensions between the Vatican and Israel due to the Vatican’s strong criticism of Israel amid the ongoing war with the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far not conveyed condolences to the Catholic world on the passing of the pope. 

“It’s a low point in a spiral,” one diplomat said condition of anonymity. “I hope both sides will be able to overcome the differences and climb out of this together."

However, Israeli President Isaac Herzog described Pope Francis as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”

When the pope’s death was officially announced on Monday, the Israeli government’s verified @Israel account on 𝕏 wrote a message: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing.” The message was accompanied with an image of the pope during his visit at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s old city. However, the post was deleted and Israeli Foreign Ministry officials later stated that it was an “error.” 

When the Polish-born Pope John Paul II passed away in 2005, Israel was represented by its then foreign minister Silvan Shalom and then President Moshe Katsav. While Pope John Paul II was considered friendly towards Israel, Pope Francis has failed to differentiate between the terrorist organization Hamas’ deliberate massacre of Israeli civilians and Israel’s military operations against Hamas terrorists who use Gazan civilians as human shields in flagrant violation of international law. 

In late December, Pope Francis condemned Israel’s “cruelty” in Gaza. 

“And with pain, I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pope stated, failing to condemn Hamas for cynically using Gazans as human shields in hospitals, schools and residential buildings, a war crime under international law. 

Former Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, Raphael Schutz, criticized the Vatican for failing to distinguish between Hamas’s aggression and Israeli self-defense. 

“There is a simple distinction, one side is murdering, raping, and does not care about those on their own side. The other side is engaged in a war of self-defense,” Schutz stated. 

In addition to failing to recognize the complex challenges that Israeli forces face in Hamas-run Gaza, Pope Francis also appeared to embrace anti-Jewish revisionist history. 

In December, the pope attended “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,” a politicized exhibition in the Vatican where the pope claimed that a keffiyeh-clad baby Jesus should remind the world of people who “suffer the tragedy of war in the Holy Land and other parts of the world.” The exhibition was designed by Johny Andonia and Fatem Nastas Mitwasi, two Bethlehem-based artists. The exhibition embraced the Palestinian Authority’s historically false narrative that Jesus was “Palestinian” instead of Jewish and reinforced the antisemitic blood libel of Israel as a state that deliberately murders children.

The anti-Israel exhibition completely ignored the over 1,200 Israeli men, women and children that Hamas terrorists slaughtered on Oct. 7, 2023. It also ignored the 251 people that Hamas kidnapped from Israel during the atrocities. 59 Israeli hostages remain in captivity in Gaza including 24 who are still believed to be alive. 

While diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Jerusalem are currently tense, Israeli opposition lawmaker Gilad Kariv attended a mass held in Jerusalem on Wednesday for Pope Francis. Kariv articulated his opposition to the Israeli government’s policy towards the Vatican. 

“I’m here to express my condolences on behalf of the vast majority of Israeli citizens to both Christian believers who live in Israel and to the hundreds of millions of Catholic Christians around the world,” Kariv said in an interview with The Times of Israel. 

“I’m ashamed by the fact that the Israeli government and the Knesset did not release an official message of condolences,” he argued.