So the Vatican officially recognized a bantustate for Palestine. Whoopdidoo! Now what? The Vatican has 67 years of equivocations about Palestinian justice. This must be another one of those symbolic things Palestinians are expected to rejoice about–like the pope saying a Hail Mary at the apartheid wall. Symbolic is another word for empty gesture.

Israel is reportedly disappointed. But not as disappointed as Palestinian supporters when Pope Francis refused to denounce Operation Ethnic Cleansing last summer & held a public smooch-fest with then Israeli president Shimon Peres.

These bantustate recognitions are a political scam. If the Vatican comes out for BDS, now we’re talking. Now we’re getting somewhere. Save the empty gestures.