Pope Benedict XVI yesterday was to wrap up a Holy Land pilgrimage in which he pleaded with passion for Palestinians, lamenting Israeli policies, and stirred criticism he lacked remorse over the Holocaust.
The pontiff was to pray at Christianity’s holiest site a day after he joined hands with Jewish and Muslim clerics to sing an ode to peace at the tail end of an eight-day trip that took him to Jordan, Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Benedict held a private mass in Jerusalem early in the morning and was later to visit the 11th century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City, built over the spot most Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.
PHOTO: EPA
The first church on the site was built in the 4th century and its destruction seven centuries later provided an impetus for the Crusades.
His visit will coincide with the Muslim calls to Friday prayers on a day the Palestinians mark the 61st anniversary of the Naqba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948.
During his trip, the pope prayed at some of Christianity’s most sacred pilgrimage destinations, visited Muslim and Jewish holy sites at the heart of the Middle East conflict, stood in silence at Israel’s Holocaust memorial and saw the conditions in which Palestinians refugees live.
The leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Christians took his message of peace and reconciliation to religious leaders of various denominations and to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.
In Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the pope visited Palestinian refugees living in the shadow of the 8m-high wall that forms part of the West Bank separation barrier Israel says is crucial to its security but to Palestinians symbolizes the Jewish state’s “apartheid” regime.
“Towering over us ... is a stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Israelis and Palestinians seem to have reached — the wall,” Benedict said at a refugee camp just outside the occupied West Bank city.
“In a world where more and more borders are being opened up ... it is tragic to see walls still being erected,” he said.
He expressed his solidarity with refugees and said his heart went out to relatives of detainees and families divided by Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians.
The pope also called for the lifting of the crippling blockade Israel has imposed against Gaza since the Islamic Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007 and expressed sorrow for the victims of the deadly 22-day military offensive Israel launched against the Palestinian enclave in December.
The pope told Palestinians he understood the frustration they felt as their “legitimate aspirations” for an independent state remained unfulfilled, but also urged young people to resist the temptation “to acts of violence and terrorism.”
He also urged the international community to use its influence in bring about a solution to the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Upon arrival in Israel from Jordan on Monday, the pope lashed out at anti-Semitism and, at the Yad Vashem memorial for the victims of the Nazi genocide, he said the Holocaust should never be forgotten.
But the German pope drew criticism for lack of emotion and for failing to express regret over the genocide. Benedict prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a top pilgrimage destination for Jews, and visited the compound overlooking it, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and has been a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He became the first pope to enter the Dome of the Rock on al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), also known as the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is Islam’s third holiest spot. The site, which the Jews call Temple Mount, is the holiest in Judaism.
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