La Custodia di Terra Santa e la politica estera italiana nel Levante

This article examines the close connections that from the 1890s to the mid-20th century developed between Italy’s foreign policy in the Levant and the Franciscan presence in Palestine. On the one hand, the Italian foreign service repeatedly tried to take advantage of the Custody of the Holy Land to strengthen Italy’s political and cultural influence in the region. On the other, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, a number of Franciscans sought to play a political role in the area, synergic with Italian interests, mainly through their order’s claim to the Cenacle in Jerusalem. This paper highlights the continuity of Italy’s efforts to expand its influence and pursue its claims in the area, as well its attempts to exploit the religious dimension, despite the profound changes that over the course of six decades repeatedly overhauled the political scene in Palestine   from Ottoman rule to occupation by the Entente’s armed forces and the establishment of the British Mandate, to the birth of the State of Israel, the 1948-1949 Arab- Israeli war, and the subsequent division of Jerusalem between Israel and Jordan.