In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Vatican would soon sign its first accord with Palestine, two years after officially recognising it as a state. The Vatican said that the "bilateral commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine" was putting the final touches to the treaty.The treaty states that the Holy See favours a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel and allows the Vatican to oversee aspects of Roman Catholic life in the areas President Abbas controls. Israel has however expressed disappointment with the treaty, which uses the term "Palestinian state".
“The Vatican is not just a state. The Vatican represents hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide, including Palestinians, and has vast moral significance,” said Husam Zomlot, a senior Palestinian foreign-affairs official. Also, Pope Francis has canonised two 19th century nuns who lived in Ottoman-ruled Palestine, making them the first Palestinian saints in modern times. The move speaks volumes about his commitment to revitalise the diminishing Christian presence in the Middle East.
Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement, launched in 2005 by the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, B.D.S. calls for ending Israel’s 1967 occupation, ending its institutionalized racial discrimination, which fits the UN definition of apartheid, and upholding the right of return for Palestinian refugees uprooted and dispossessed in 1948.
A government led by a prime minister who rejects Palestinian statehood and publicly race-baits Palestinian citizens of Israel and whose key partner, the Jewish Home, advocates for creating Palestinian Bantustans will make it much more difficult to defend Israel in the court of world public opinion.
(inputs from the <bbc.com/news>, <theguardian.com>, <nytimes.com> and information service of Badayl.aternatives edited by Ranjan Solomon)
