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Some 400,000 mourners attended the funeral of Pope Francis in a massive ceremony Saturday. However, Israel sent no official delegation to Rome, opting instead for its ambassador to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman, to represent the country.
This decision comes against the backdrop of a diplomatic controversy surrounding the Foreign Ministry's move to delete condolence messages posted by Israeli missions worldwide immediately following Pope Francis' death. The late pontiff was known for his strong criticism of the ongoing war in Gaza.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Pope Francis
(Photo: Reuters/GIL COHEN-MAGEN/Pool, AP)
In an interview with Ynet, former Israeli ambassador to the Vatican Raphael Schutz sharply criticized the handling of the situation. "When a leader of this magnitude passes away, you don't deviate from diplomatic protocols," Schutz stated.
"We should discuss our disagreements with the Vatican directly with the Vatican, not by boycotting the funeral. A funeral that the whole world is attending, from Trump downwards, our absence creates a negative front for us with the entire Catholic Christian world – 1.3 billion people."
He added, "These are two different matters: you can continue to express your dissatisfaction with the deceased pope and detail why he was wrong, and at the same time, you attend the funeral. This is how the diplomatic world behaves. Beyond the fact that the funeral was an opportunity to meet other world leaders, as always happens at such funerals, Israel, through its absence, beyond the antagonism it created with the Christian world, also created yet another display of political isolation – and this is not a good image for us, certainly not in these times."
Meanwhile, the Foreign Relations Forum, comprised of former ambassadors and senior Foreign Ministry officials, also issued strong criticism of the decision not to send high-ranking representatives to the pope's funeral.
"The world is watching the farewell ceremony for Pope Francis. Dozens of kings, princes and heads of state, many of whom are not Catholic, have arrived at the Vatican to pay their last respects to the head of the Catholic Church," the forum said in a statement.
"The absence of a senior representative of the State of Israel, the Jewish state, a proud member of the family of nations, especially during these days between Holocaust Remembrance Day and the revival of our independence, is a serious diplomatic error vis-à-vis the countries of the world in general and the Christian world in particular, and it is a badge of shame for the government of Israel and its head."
Rabbi Yosef Garmon, a former chief rabbi of Guatemala and current president of the International Humanitarian Coalition, spoke with Ynet about his meetings with Pope Francis. He also voiced criticism regarding Israel's diplomatic conduct.
"I have been working around the world for years, particularly within the Christian world, investing time and resources, and in recent days I have been receiving many calls from various leaders who are angry, and rightly so, at Israel," he stated.
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The funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican
(Photo: Reuters)
"'Has Israel gone mad?' they ask me. 'We supported Israel throughout the war, and suddenly we receive this severe blow to our feelings.' I like to explain, but here I am left speechless, and I truly have no way to explain this bizarre, not to say delusional, behavior. I think Israel has made a serious mistake here, and we will pay the price for it."
Rabbi Garmon continued, "One can oppose the pope, one can even be angry at him, anything is possible, but we must not simply hurt the feelings of more than 1.3 billion people who believe in him and see that Israel published condolence messages on official networks – and shortly after deleted everything, and of course, screenshots remained and were published everywhere in the world.
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"It would have been appropriate to send even a slightly more respectable delegation to his funeral and not ignore it almost completely. The pope is not the issue here, and his opinions no longer matter so much. Israel may even be right, but it is certainly not wise in this matter."
Rabbi Garmon recounted his meetings with the pontiff: "I personally cannot forget that he always received us with love and attention, and he personally told me that whenever a delegation from Israel wished to meet with him, he would make time.
“I was attacked when I went to meet with the pope during the war, but I went to explain the situation to him from the heart and to show him how absurd it is to accuse Israel. When Israel endangers the lives of its soldiers, and I showed him how many of my friends died because of it, it is solely to harm terrorists. Israel could have ended the war in a single day with enough bombs to wipe out Gaza completely, and it did not do so to protect innocent people and for the benefit of the Palestinians who need to be freed from Hamas."
"He personally retracted his accusation against Israel of genocide, both to me and to the media, and this was published on his official page. He said he saw so much material from Gaza because there are people close to him there who are very anti-Israel, and Israel did not bother to show him anything, so he said it needed to be investigated. One doesn't have to believe him, but at least it was important to make that effort. It is clearly easiest to make peace with the prince of Monaco and with Zionists, but in the complex world we live in – we must talk to everyone."