In recent days, the former Israeli prime minister and the former Palestinian ambassador to the UN issued a joint call to resume negotiations between the two states and reach a political solution for Gaza. They were received in audience at the Vatican by Pope Francis along with Gershon Baskin (Israeli negotiator with Hamas) and Samer Sinijlawi (a Palestinian very close to Mohammad Dahlan) precisely when the Israeli government claims to have killed the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar.
Vatican City () – A former prime minister of Israel, a former foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority, nephew of Arafat, an Israeli academic known for having negotiated in the past with Hamas the release of some hostages and a Palestinian activist who He is considered very close to Mohammad Dahlan, Abu Mazen’s former “rival” expelled from Fatah in 2011 and who has since lived “in exile” in the United Arab Emirates with the support of Mohamed Bin Zayed. “Messrs. Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel, Nasser Al-Kidwa, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine, Gershon Baskin and Samer Sinijlawi,” as the statement on today’s hearings released by the Vatican Press Office says, They were received this morning at the Vatican by Pope Francis.
As is usual in hearings in which heads of State or Government do not participate, no official news has been given about the content of this meeting. But the very fact that it happened, and with this modality, is in itself a very significant message from the pontiff in the context of the war that has been bleeding blood in the Middle East for more than a year. The four interlocutors, in fact, are united by a common red thread: all of them openly expressed themselves in favor of the ceasefire, the release of the hostages and the relaunch of a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Therefore, Pope Francis has not only made repeated calls but also encourages encounter initiatives that can turn the page on the endless violence between the two peoples. He had already done so in May, when at the Verona Arena he publicly hugged Maoz Inon – an Israeli businessman who lost his parents in the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 – and Azia Abu Sarah, his Palestinian colleague, who was also personally touched by the loss of a loved one in the conflict. But today’s hearing shifts the focus from the personal level to that of political solutions.
The presence of Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon’s political heir, who also served 16 months in prison in 2016 on corruption charges linked to his long tenure as mayor of Jerusalem in the 1990s, is very significant. Olmert is the last Israeli prime minister. who held negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for a solution to the conflict in 2009. And for years he has been one of Israel’s most critical voices against Benjamin Netanyahu, who was once his party partner in the Likud.
Together with Nasser Al-Kidwa – who was the PLO’s representative to the UN until 2005 and then Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority for a year – they launched earlier this month from the columns of some important international newspapers a peace plan based on the birth of a Palestinian State. The idea remains essentially the same as it has always been talked about: the 1967 borders as a reference point, Jerusalem as a shared capital, land exchanges between the two states (for an area equivalent to 4.4% of the West Bank) to allow Israel to annex the most populated settlements near the Green Line and offset them with other areas currently in Israeli territory. As for Gaza, the Olmert-Al-Kidwa plan proposes that it be administered by a Council of Commissioners, made up of professional Palestinian technocrats organically linked to the Palestinian Authority, to lead the transition towards elections that will take place in two or three years. three years. It would be supported by a Temporary Arab Security Presence (a peace contingent made up of soldiers from Arab countries) whose deployment would be coordinated with the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
This is the plan that two figures who today no longer have any institutional role have put on the table. But they also try, in this dramatic situation, to restore what is called Track II diplomacy, the parallel meeting between non-institutional subjects whose objective is to ensure that the parties at least return to dialogue with each other. Today it seems like a distant perspective. However, Pope Francis wanted to encourage her by receiving them at the Vatican.
Coincidentally, at these same hours the current Israeli government affirms who “in all likelihood” has also killed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who is considered the organizer of the October 7 massacres. A new crossroads in this conflict. Where political leaders exalt their military achievements, but still do not have the courage to tell their people a single word about what will happen next.
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