Following the escalation of the Gaza war, Pope Francis has urged Israel and the Palestinians to come to a negotiation table in order to find solution.
This approach has enjoyed broad support for decades but has not progressed despite all international appeals.
Pope strongly advocated for a two-state solution, one state for Israel and one for the Palestinians.
The 86-year-old in an interview on Italian broadcaster RAI, noted that there are no winners in war.
Pope Francis said, “Every war is a defeat. Nothing is solved by war. Everything is gained with peace, with dialogue. In war, one slap provokes another. One strong and the other even stronger, and so it goes on.”
“Two peoples who must live together. With that wise solution: two peoples, two states. The Oslo Accords: two clearly delineated states, and Jerusalem with a special status,” the Pope told RAI.
He stressed that “The hour is very dark. One cannot find the ability to think clearly,” the pontiff said in the interview, describing the world as enveloped in darkness since 1945, because the wars did not stop after WWII. He blamed the military-industrial complex for this.
“The most serious problem is still the arms industry,” the Pope argued. “A person who understands investments, who I met in a meeting, told me that today investments that generate the most income are weapons factories.”