The Israeli government deleted a social media post offering condolences over the death of Pope Francis only hours after posting it.
It is understood that Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide were also instructed to delete similar posts and not to sign Vatican embassy condolence books.
But Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed it would be sending and envoy – its ambassador to the Holy See – as a representative to attend the funeral of Pope Francis
The decision to keep the representation at the lowest level possible is a sign of how far Israel’s relations with the Vatican have deteriorated since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023, diplomats said.
A post on Israel’s offical X account on Monday readL “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing. It was posted alongside an image of the Pope visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
But it was subsequently deleted. Officials at the Foreign Ministry said its publication was an “error.”
Israel sent both then-president Moshe Katsav and then-foreign minister Silvan Shalom to the last funeral of a pope who died in office, that of Pope John Paul II in 2005.
Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday, aged 88, following a serious bout of double pneumonia earlier this year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not commented on the pope’s death as of Wednesday afternoon, nor had the foreign ministry issued a statement.
Opposition MK Gilad Kariv attended a mass held in Jerusalem on Wednesday for Francis, saying he was doing so to apologize for the government.
“I’m here to express my condolences on behalf of the vast majority of Israeli citizens to both Christian believers who live in Israel and to the hundreds of millions of Catholic Christians around the world,” he told The Times of Israel.
Kariv harshly criticized the government for not doing the same.
“I’m ashamed by the fact that the Israeli government and the Knesset did not release an official message of condolences,” he said.
