Israel to snub Pope’s funeral as Jerusalem-Vatican relations hit a low amid Gaza war

VATICAN CITY — Most major nations will be sending heads of state or government, or royalty, to Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, but Israel will be represented only by its ambassador to the Vatican.

The decision to keep the representation at the lowest level possible is a sign of how far Israel’s relations with the Vatican have deteriorated since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023, diplomats said.

It also follows an Israeli government decision to delete a social media post that had offered condolences for the pope’s death.

Shortly after Francis’ death was announced on Monday, the verified @Israel account used by the government on X published a message that read: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing”. It also showed an image of the pope visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The post was later deleted without explanation. Officials at the Foreign Ministry said its publication was an “error.”

Israel sent both then-president Moshe Katsav and then-foreign minister Silvan Shalom to the last funeral of a pope who died in office, that of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

According to the Israeli embassy to the Vatican, it will be represented at Francis’s funeral by Yaron Sideman, who has been its ambassador since September.

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

The Israeli embassy to the Vatican has limited its social media reaction to the pope’s death by reposting a message of condolence to Christians in the Holy Land and around the world by President Isaac Herzog, who described Francis as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not commented on the pope’s death as of Wednesday afternoon, nor had the foreign ministry issued a statement.

Opposition MK Gilad Kariv attended a mass held in Jerusalem on Wednesday for Francis, saying he was doing so to apologize for the government.

“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,” he told The Times of Israel.

Kariv harshly criticized the government for not doing the same.

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

Relations between Israel in the Vatican have soured amid the Gaza war, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Pope Francis, who visited Israel in 2014, called repeatedly for the hostages’ release and met often with their family, but became increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct as the war dragged on.

In a letter to Middle East Catholics on the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught, Francis did not mention the Palestinian terror group by name or explicitly reference its atrocities.

At the end of November, he went a step further and denounced “the invader’s arrogance” in both “Ukraine” and “Palestine,” breaking with the Holy See’s modern tradition of neutrality. And in a book excerpt published that month, he said some international experts had posited that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

In December, Francis twice slammed Israel’s “cruelty” in Gaza, and provoked further outrage in Jerusalem by inaugurating a nativity scene at the Vatican that featured the baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol.

In January, the pope called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “shameful,” prompting criticism from Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, who accused Francis of “selective indignation.”

Di Segni this week paid tribute to the pope, visiting his body in the chapel of the Vatican residence where he died. He has also said he will attend Francis’ funeral, even though it is taking place on Shabbat.

Israel has sparred with other Vatican officials besides Francis during the war.

Last year, after Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Israel’s response to the Hamas attack had been “disproportionate,” Israel’s embassy issued a statement calling his comments “deplorable.” The embassy later toned down its criticism, citing a translation error, but relations remained tense.

Last June, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, appeared to rebuke Israel’s then-ambassador Raphael Schutz at an event they both attended.

“The Holy See does not close its doors to anyone and strives to understand everyone’s motivations and perspectives,” Gallagher said. “In this regard, it is very much appreciated when the positions of one’s own authorities are timely presented through the appropriate diplomatic forum and channels.”

Schutz had lobbied the Vatican’s Secretariat of State repeatedly in late 2023 and throughout 2024 for the pope to be more forceful in his condemnation of the Hamas onslaught.

“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 said in 2023.

Lazar Berman and Rossella Tercatin contributed to this report.