PNN – Following the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s order to its ambassadors in various countries to quickly delete their messages of condolence on the occasion of the death of Pope Francis and the warning of Israeli diplomats due to fear of damaging the regime’s image among the world’s one billion Catholics, Benjamin Netanyahu issued a message of condolence with a three-day delay.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, citing the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu posted a message of condolences on his English-language X Network (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday on the occasion of the death of Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s Catholics.
According to this report, Netanyahu finally, after a three-day delay, offered condolences on the passing of the world’s Catholic Christian leader, writing: (The) Israeli regime expresses its deepest condolences to the Catholic Church and the Catholic community worldwide on the occasion of the passing of Pope Francis.
Yedioth Ahronoth added: Netanyahu’s condolence message was published while the accounts of the Israeli ambassadors in various countries affiliated with the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had written condolence messages on the X network after the announcement of the Pope’s death, were deleted by order of the ministry.
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According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the Foreign Ministry had ordered embassies and diplomats to remove all messages about the Pope’s death from social media without providing any explanation. In addition, the ministry had ordered ambassadors to refrain from signing letters of condolence at Vatican embassies around the world.
This action drew criticism from many users in Israel and other countries, who considered the removal of condolence messages from political officials an insult to Catholics around the world.
Meanwhile, Israeli ambassadors and diplomats also echoed these criticisms with anger, warning that such a move could severely damage the Zionist regime’s public image among thousands of Catholic Christians around the world.
According to Yedioth Aharonot, one of the regime’s ambassadors, in response to the order to remove the condolence message, said: We are deleting a simple condolence tweet, while everyone clearly knows that this action is only due to the Pope’s criticism of Israel (the regime) for the war in Gaza.
Pope Francis, who died at the age of 88, supported the Palestinian people since October 7, following the start of the Zionist regime’s aggression and crimes in Gaza, and had repeatedly explicitly called for an investigation by international institutions into the regime’s genocide in Gaza. His criticism of the occupiers for escalating the war in Gaza and his condemnation of them for the killing of Palestinian children had angered the Zionist authorities.