Francis points the way to peace

Pope Francis has demonstrated once again that he has an intuitive grasp of the power of symbolism. During his visit to the Middle East, the picture of him touching and praying at the notorious security wall that divides Palestinians from Israel went round the world. It said, better than any words, that this was not an acceptable solution to the Arab-Israeli problem. That he repeated the gesture at a memorial to Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists, and again at the Holocaust memorial and museum, Yad Vashem, shows he also understands the history and complexity of the conflict and the sensitivities on both sides.

His visit came after progress towards a two-state solution had reached an impasse, despite the efforts of the Obama administration and others. It was presented by the Vatican as religious in intention rather than political, but this lasted only until the printing of a papal itinerary, which talked of him visiting the “Palestinian State” and showed him entering it from Jordan, not Israel. That will not have pleased the Netanyahu Government, which was also outmanoeuvred by the Pope’s surprise invitation to the presidents of Israel and Palestine, Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, to join him for a prayer meeting in the Vatican next month.

There is a very great danger that the breakdown of peace talks could harden the mood on both sides, with the resumption of bloodshed a likely outcome. What triggered the stalemate was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to negotiate with a Palestinian administration that included Hamas, after the Islamist group buried its differences with the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas. Hamas has refused to recognise Israel, though the status of that refusal under the new unity government is blurred and it has not foresworn the right to fire rockets into Israeli territory from Gaza, nor to promote other acts of terrorism. Israel, meanwhile, has not foresworn the right to expand Jewish settlements on the West Bank nor to start new ones, though the overwhelming consensus of legal opinion, at least outside Israel, is that these are illegal.

What, when they kneel together beside Pope Francis next month, will the two presidents be praying for? Can the prayers of President Peres, a known peacemaker, alter the obdurate pro-settler stance of the Netanyahu coalition? Can the prayers of President Abbas, also a man of goodwill, restrain the hotheads in Gaza? It is not impossible. The Hamas position is driven by impotent rage; the settlers by the belief that their security depends on a well-defined and well-defended Jewish state that makes no concession to its enemies. What is missing, as every peace initiative in the past has recognised, is trust. And trust can be built by meaningful and sincere symbolic gestures. This is where Pope Francis is the expert.

Both Judaism and Islam have at their core a common belief that God’s will for humankind is for peace and justice. Justice means recognising the rights of the other as well as asserting one’s own. How to translate that into symbolic acts that can move hearts and minds is the challenge Pope Francis has set himself. At least he has made a good start.