After being blasted by Jewish groups, the Vatican chose to not put the keffiyeh back in its original place on the manger of the Palestinian-made Nativity scene in the Paul VI Hall. The installation was made by artists from Bethlehem using local materials and was inaugurated by Pope Francis before Palestinian political representatives on Dec. 7.
One of the artists told RNS that Palestinian officials had placed the keffiyeh, a black and white checkered scarf that has come to symbolize the Palestinian people, on the manger of the Nativity shortly before the pope arrived. Faten Nastas Mitwasi insisted that they did not intend to turn the Nativity into a political statement but welcomed the keffiyeh as a symbol of national identity.
Initially, the keffiyeh was removed with the baby Jesus. This is traditional as the statue of Jesus is removed from the Nativity scene until Christmas Day. However, when the statue was revealed, the keffiyeh was still missing. Neither the artists nor catholic officials have responded for comment. Jewish groups instantly made their disapproval known.
One leader said they were “disappointed and troubled” by the keffiyeh being displayed in the Vatican’s Nativity scene. Giuseppe Momigliano, the chief rabbi in Genoa, said that “the dialogue with the Italian Bishops’ Conference remains open, but the pope’s behavior surely doesn’t help. Regardless of whether it’s explicit or symbolic.”
The war in Gaza has heightened tensions between the Vatican and the Jewish world. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations released a letter that said, “With global antisemitism at record highs, the American Jewish community calls on you to refrain from making incendiary comments and to build bridges between our two peoples.”
We reported earlier that The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) wrote an open letter to Pope Francis. The Group criticized the Pope for his “one-sided perspective” in the Gaza conflict. In the letter, the IJCIC objects to Francis’ troubling and deeply concerning” remarks regarding the conflict in Gaza, which “have been repeated on several occasions.”
They say that he portrays Israel’s war efforts against Hamas simply as “cruelty” and Francis “risks presenting a one-sided perspective that overlooks the broader context and complexities of the current crisis,” the IJCIC states. The letter, which was signed by IJCIC chairman Rabbi Mark Dratch, claims that Israel is engaged in a “defensive war against jihadist terrorism” provoked by “the brutal and unprecedented massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7.”
The Hamas attack claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis “in cold blood.” According to the letter “101 remain held hostage under unspeakable conditions.” According to this Jewish group, framing the war solely in terms of cruelty without acknowledging the necessary aim of dismantling a terrorist infrastructure is unfair. The IJCIC claims that this fuels “rampant antisemitism.”
The Times of Israel Staff also commented on the controversy. They disputed how the Pope characterized the war and drew attention to ‘antisemitic‘ passages in the Book of John. “Israel categorically rejects that characterization 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, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.”