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ROME — This weekend Pope Francis presided over the unveiling of a nativity scene in the Vatican featuring a baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf used as a national symbol.
I greet “the representation of the Embassy of the State of Palestine, tormented Palestine, which has come to present, on behalf of the City of Bethlehem, this ‘Nativity,’ created by the craftsmen of Bethlehem,” the pontiff said in his address.
“I extend a cordial welcome to the civil and ecclesiastical Authorities present, in particular the Special Representatives of the president of Palestine, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas – he has come here several times,” the pope added.
Before this Nativity display, “let us remember the brothers and sisters who, instead, right there and in other parts of the world, are suffering from the tragedy of war,” he said. “With tears in our eyes, let us raise our prayer for peace. Brothers and sisters, enough war, enough violence!”
The keffiyeh-draped crèche, which is displayed in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, is one of a series of nativity scenes collectively titled “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,” designed by artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi, both Palestinians from Bethlehem.
Pope Francis prays before the ‘Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,’ upon its inauguration in the Paul VI Hall, during the private audience with donors of the nativity scene, in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on December 7, 2024. (Andreas Solaro/ AFP via GETTY)
The creation and display of the nativity scene were organized by the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, an organ of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Palestinian embassy to the Vatican, along with several local institutions in Bethlehem.
Joining the pope in the inauguration ceremony was PLO executive committee member Ramzi Khouri, who conveyed “warm greetings” from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, local Italian media reported.
Khouri expressed “deep gratitude for the pope’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and his tireless efforts to end the war on Gaza and promote justice,” according to a PLO press release.
This weekend’s unveiling of the unusual nativity scene follows a series of statements by the pope about the conflict in Gaza, in which he has seemed to take the side of Palestinians and against Israel.
Pope Francis “has taken a side in the Hamas-Israel war,” stated the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board in a Nov. 19 op-ed. “The headlines all have ‘pope,’ ‘Israel,’ and ‘genocide’ in them—a great victory for anti-Israel forces.”
As Breitbart News has reported, in a book-length interview with Hernán Reyes Alcaide titled Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Towards a Better World, the pontiff called for a “careful investigation” by international experts to see whether Israel’s military actions in Gaza meet “the technical definition” of genocide.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pontiff stated in the book.
Pope Francis had already described Israel’s military incursions in Gaza as “terrorism” and a “massacre,” but significantly intensified his rhetoric by suggesting that Israel’s actions may constitute genocide.
“There is something disturbing about a pope accusing Jews — the victims of genocide themselves — of genocide while they are fighting for survival on several fronts against enemies aiming to destroy them,” the WSJ editors declared.
“Especially after the barbarous Oct. 7 massacre of unarmed Israeli civilians that started the war, and the follow-up Hamas strategy of using innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields,” they added.
Pope Francis’s words also provoked a swift reaction from the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See, which refuted any comparison between Israel’s military operations and a genocide.
In a statement published on X, the Embassy said: “The massacre of October 7 was a genocidal massacre against the people of Israel. Israel is acting in accordance with international law and in self-defense. Any attempt to call this self-defense by another name is to single out the Jewish state.”
Similarly, an Italian Holocaust survivor also rebuked Pope Francis for suggesting that Israel’s actions in Gaza could be considered “genocide.”
“Genocide is something else. When a million children are burned to death, then you can talk about genocide,” said the 93-year-old Edith Bruck in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.
A Hungarian-born Jew and survivor of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Bergen-Belsen, Bruck said that the bloodshed in Gaza is a “tragedy that concerns us all,” but insisted that Israel is not attempting to eliminate the entire Palestinian population.
Israel has categorically rejected this description of its conduct in the ongoing war, which began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
