Biggest Development in Bilateral Ties in 6 Years

Pope John Paul II (R) poses with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during their meeting at the Vatican February 15, 2000. (Andrew Medichini/Reuters)
V A T I C A N   C I T Y, Feb. 15 - 2000 — The Vatican and the PLO signed a basic agreement today on their relations and in an apparent swipe at Israel said any unilateral decisions affecting Jerusalem were “morally and legally unacceptable.”
     The wide-ranging agreement was signed by delegations as Pope John Paul, who visits Holy Land sites controlled by Israel and the Palestinians next month, discussed the Middle East with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at a private audience.

The response from Israel was swift.
     “The agreement...is an interference in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and we are sorry about this,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
     The agreement, made up of a preamble and 12 articles, came after the Palestinians recently expressed concern about new housing in and around the Holy City’s eastern half, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

The “Basic Agreement Between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization” deals with matters such as freedom of religion, human rights, freedom of church institutions and their legal, economic and fiscal status in Palestinian-ruled areas.
     It was the most significant development in PLO-Vatican relations since official ties were established in 1994.
     While the agreement’s 12 articles dealt with day-to-day affairs in the religious minefield of the Middle East, its preamble packed a potent political punch. Nearly a third of the 37-line preamble was dedicated to Jerusalem.
     The agreement said “an equitable solution for the issue of Jerusalem, based on international resolutions, is fundamental for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
     More significantly, it added that “unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable.”
     It called for “a special statute for Jerusalem, internationally agreed” to safeguard “the proper identity and sacred character of the city and its universally significant religious and cultural heritage.”

Israel has always resisted the concept of any form of international mandate over Jerusalem, which the Jewish state considers its united and eternal capital.
     The international community has not recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Most countries keep embassies in Tel Aviv.
     Palestinians, who view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, charge that Israel has long violated peace deals by building new housing in and around the eastern half, in effect claiming areas under construction.
     Speaking in Morocco on Monday, Arafat had appealed to Muslim states for funds to save East Jerusalem from what he called “cancerous Judaisation” by Israel.
     The agreement said the international statute for Jerusalem, should safeguard freedom of religion and conscience for all, freedom of access to the holy places and defend the city’s universally significant religious and cultural heritage.
     Israel has always maintained that no international statute is needed because it guarantees the city’s special nature as sacred to the three great monotheistic religions.

During their private talks, Arafat urged the Pope to add a stop in the Palestinian-ruled Biblical city of Jericho to his trip to the Holy Land next month.
     Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Pontiff “agreed on the spot.” During the trip, the Pope had already been scheduled to make a stop at the Palestinian-ruled town of Bethlehem, Jesus’s birthplace.
     In 1994, Jericho became the first West Bank town to be handed over to Palestinian self-rule.



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