Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Pope Benedict In Isreal: Urges Israelis & Palestinians To Seek A “Just Resolution”
Pope Benedict XVI urged the Israelis and Palestinians to find a “just resolution” to their long-running conflict as he arrived in Israel Monday.
“I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue,” the pope said, “So that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own, within secure and internationally recognized borders.”
He cited the Biblical prophet Isaiah on the meaning of “security” — a justification Israel often uses for its actions against Palestinians.
“Security — batah (in Hebrew) — arises from trust and refers not just to the absence of threat but also to the sentiment of calmness and confidence,” he said in a speech at Israeli President Shimon Peres’ residence.
Later, speaking to religious leaders at Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem, the pope called for interfaith understanding and cooperation.
“Since many are quick to point out the readily apparent differences between religions, as believers or religious persons we are presented with the challenge to proclaim with clarity what we share in common,” the pope said.
Controversy erupted after the pope’s statement when Taysir Tamimi, chief of Muslim Sharia courts in the West Bank and Gaza, commandeered the microphone and began to criticize Israel in Arabic. He was not scheduled to speak.
Some people clapped, but many appeared uncomfortable and the Latin Patriarch, Fouad Twal, walked across the stage and tapped Tamimi on the hand as he implored him to stop. Tamimi finished the speech after several minutes and sat down. It was not clear whether the pope understood the tirade, and he did not react.
Muslims and Christians must work together against Israel, Tamimi said.
“We struggle together and we suffer together from the injustice of the Israeli occupation and its oppressive practices, and we look forward to freedom and independence,” he said.
Tamimi also criticized Israel’s West Bank separation barrier as the “racist wall,” saying it “turned it [Palestine] into a giant prison and keeps Muslims and Christians from praying in their churches and mosques.” Speaking about Gaza, Tamimi said Israel’s “aggression violated human rights in a way unprecedented in this era.”
“His holiness the pope, I call on you in the name of the one God to condemn these crimes and pressure the Israeli government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people,” Tamimi said.
Controversy dogged the pope even as he arrived in the country, with Israelis and Palestinians engaged in a dispute over the location of the press center for the papal trip.
Palestinian officials set up an alternative press center, arguing that the Jerusalem Municipal Building, the site of the official one, was linked to Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes built without permission in East Jerusalem.
Both sides claim the neighborhood.
Israeli police shut down the alternative press center, according to police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld, on the grounds that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed to host events in Jerusalem.
The pope also made reference to the Holocaust, an issue that sparked controversy for the Roman Catholic Church earlier this year.
“It is right and fitting that during my stay in Israel that I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Shoah,” he said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. “And to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude.”
The pope said anti-Semitism was “totally unacceptable.”
Benedict drew the ire of Jews and German Catholics this year by rehabilitating a bishop who had been excommunicated, and who had disputed the number of Jews killed in concentration camps during World War II. His excommunication was unrelated to his Holocaust denial.
The Catholic Church is “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism,” Benedict said at the time.
The pope later on Monday laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, in memory of victims of the Holocaust.
He clutched a small cross and bowed his head in front of the eternal flame at the memorial, where he was accommpanied by Peres and other dignitaries.
The pope, quiet and somber, quoted the Biblical Book of Lamentations before saying he was “deeply grateful” for the opportunity to stand in silence and pray at the site.
The pope arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport as part of an eight-day trip that takes in places of unequaled religious resonance for the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. He was due to meet Jerusalem’s Muslim grand mufti and two chief rabbis .
His first stop in the region was in Jordan, where he called for greater respect for women at a historic Mass in Amman on Sunday.
In the 13-minute address, he urged Christians in the Middle East to persevere — an acknowledgment that the Christian population has declined sharply in the past 50 years in the region where the religion was born.
He also called on the faithful to oppose terrorism through good examples.
Benedict’s trip includes stops in Bethlehem and Nazareth, which Monday he called “the setting for the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I take my place in a long line of Christian pilgrims to these shores,” he said.
It is the first papal visit to some of Christianity’s most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000. Story filed by CNN. For more news, information and video, click the link below for www.cnn.com. CNN is the leading name in cable news.
Do you agree with Pope Benedict XVI? Please leave your thoughts below.
Pope addresses Holocaust, Mideast conflict on Israel visit – CNN.com.
