Actually, the Vatican Recognized Palestine already in 2012.

Actually, the Vatican Recognized Palestine already in 2012. (TM).

Vox’s “Pope Francis just officially recognized Palestine as a state” offers a representative headline. Soon, the move was being alternatively celebrated and condemned by anti-Israel activists, the Anti-Defamation League, and even members of Congress.

But there was just one small problem with the news driving the whole hullabaloo: the Vatican had actually recognized Palestine in 2012, after it declared statehood at the United Nations. 

This fact, which is evident from a cursory search of the Vatican’s official news service, was quickly noted by several experts in Palestinian politics.

Others observed that during his trip last May to Israel and Palestine, Pope Francis had explicitly heralded the “good relations existing between the Holy See and the State of Palestine.”

As Ramallah-based journalist and former Al Jazeera producer Dalia Hatuqa put it: “For years, Vatican has referred to it as State of Palestine. Nothing new here.”

The new treaty reported by the AP between the Vatican and “the state of Palestine,” in other words, was simply the first accord signed by the two parties since that original official recognition.


The Vatican surprised on Wednesday, announcing that it intended to sign an agreement with the "State of Palestine", a term adopted by the Holy See after the UN vote, which suggests that the Holy see Headquarters no longer deal with the PLO but with the state of Palestine.

The Treaty therefore constitutes official recognition of the Palestinian state by the Vatican. In 2012, the Vatican had approved the resolution of the UN General Assembly that recognized the Palestinian state.

The agreement, according to several sources, would focus on the status and activities of the Catholic Church in the Palestinian territories, said Wednesday a communiqué from the Holy See, while France has decided not to waive its property rights on the numerous religious buildings and land it owns in Jerusalem.

The agreement would cover "on religious freedom and conscience (...) on the life and activities of the Church in the Palestinian Territories: freedom of action, its staff and its jurisdiction" , according to Bishop Antoine Camilleri, Head the delegation of the Holy See, in an interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.  Read the full story here.