ROME (EJP)—‘’Peace does not come easy. We must toil with all our strengths to reach it. To reach it soon. Even if it requires sacrifice or compromise,’’ said Sunday Israeli President Shimon Peres during an unprecedented prayer session for peace alongside Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The pontiff prepared the event by issuing an apparent impromptu invitation to Peres and Abbas during his recent visit to Israel and the region.
At the Vatican, the three leaders embraced and planted an olive tree together in the Vatican garden, where the prayer session took place.
Prayers from all three monotheistic religions were recited, focusing on peace-related themes.
The Vatican stressed that the event was an entirely spiritual, not diplomatic occasion. Vatican official Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa commented, “Nobody is fooling themselves that peace will break out in the Holy Land.”
Pope Francis declared, “We have tried many times … to resolve our conflicts with our strength as well as our weapons,” but “our efforts have been in vain.” He said that the presence of Peres and Abbas was “a great symbol of brotherhood.”
In his address, President Peres said that, “Whoever loves life and desires to see good days, let him turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.”
He added hopefully, “if we pursue peace with determination, with faith, we will reach it.”
‘’Two peoples – Israelis and Palestinians – still are aching for peace. The tears of mothers over their children are still etched in our hearts. We must put an end to the cries, to the violence, to the conflict. We all need peace. Peace between equals.’
Addressing Pope Francis, he said: ‘’On this moving occasion, brimming with hope and full of faith, let us all raise with you, Your Holiness, a call for peace between religions, between nations, between communities, and between fellow men and women. Let true peace become our legacy soon and swiftly.’’
Peres ended with a Jewish prayer: ‘’He who makes peace in the heavens shall make peace upon us and upon all of Israel, and upon the entire world, and let us say Amen.’’
The Vatican event came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world leaders to shun the new Palestinian unity government which is backed by Hamas, the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip and remains dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
However, an aide to Peres emphasised to Haaretz newspaper that Israel’s government authorised Peres’s Vatican visit and that he and Netanyahu are in “constant contact.”