DS109.86.V3F37

Vatican’s Concerns in the Turmoil of the Middle East Reshuffle ................................................... 7 • The ‘Eastern Question’ and the Status Quo ............................................................................................ 7 • The Dismembering of the Ottoman Empire and the Balfour Declaration ........................................... 9 • The Vatican’s Denial of Diplomatic Relations with Israel and the 1948 War ....................................... 11 The Lobbying for the Internationalization of Jerusalem at the United Nations ......................... 15 • Jerusalem as a Corpus Separatum .............................................................................................................. 15 • The Failure at the UN and the De Facto Partition of Jerusalem ............................................................. 19 “Nostra Aetate” and the Turning Point of 1967 ................................................................................ 21 • Opening up to the Jewish Faith ............................................................................................................ 21 • The Renunciation of a ‘Corpus Separatum’ for Jerusalem, in Favor of a ‘Special Statute, Internationally Guaranteed’ .................................................................................................................. 23 • The Recognition of the Palestinians as a ‘People’ ................................................................................. 27 John Paul II and the Centrality of Jerusalem for the Achievement of a Just Peace .................... 29 • The Support of Palestinian Aspirations ................................................................................................ 29 • The Indivisibility of the Territorial and Religious Aspects of the Question of Jerusalem ................... 31 The Search for a Stronger Influence in the Negotiations on the Future of Jerusalem ............... 35 • From Multilateralism to Bilateralism .................................................................................................... 35 • The ‘Fundamental Agreement’ and the Recognition of the State of Israel ........................................... 38 • The ‘Basic Agreement between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization’ ................. 42 The Disappointments of the Peace Process ........................................................................................ 45 • The Papal Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and the Breakout of the Second Intifada ............................... 45 • The Rising Tensions between Israel and the Vatican ............................................................................ 47 The Holy See Under Benedict XVI: Losing its Moral Stance? ....................................................... 55 • The Progressive Estrangement from the Palestinians ........................................................................... 55 • The Draft Economic Agreement between the Holy See and Israel....................................................... 59 • The End of the Holy See’s Traditional Stance on Jerusalem and the Palestine Issue? ............