VATICAN CITY (RNS) – Once again, the Vatican issued a statement reinforcing its support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after the recently installed government of Israel announced plans to vote for the annexation of the West Bank territory.
“The Holy See reiterates that respect for international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, is an indispensable element for the two peoples to live side by side in two States, within the borders internationally recognized before 1967,” read the Vatican statement, sent to journalists on Wednesday (May 20).
The chief negotiator and secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, called the Vatican’s equivalent of the minister for foreign affairs, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, to inform the Holy See of the possibility of Israel unilaterally claiming sovereignty over the contested territories, the statement read.
The statement said the Vatican “is following the situation closely” in the hope that with the help of the international community, Israel and Palestine may resume peaceful negotiation “so peace may finally reign in the Holy Land, so beloved by Jews and Christians and Muslims.”
An emergency government in Israel, set to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and led by Benjamin Netanyahu of the nationalist Likud Party and Benny Gantz of the centrist…
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