RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM: Pope Benedict XVI called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland after he arrived in Israel yesterday, a stance that could put him at odds with his hosts on a trip aimed at improving ties between the Vatican and Jews.
The pope also took on the delicate issue of the Holocaust, pledging to “honor the memory” of the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide at the start of his five-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Benedict urged Israelis and Palestinians to “explore every possible avenue” to resolve their differences.
“The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace,” he said.
“In union with people of goodwill everywhere, I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognized borders.”
While Benedict has spoken in favor of a Palestinian homeland in the past, the timing and location of his comments were noteworthy.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in the audience, has refused to endorse the two-state solution since his election. But he is expected to come under pressure to do so when he travels to Washington next week. Later, Netanyahu flew to Egypt for talks on regional issues with President Hosni Mubarak.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor played down the pope’s comments, saying he was voicing a long-standing position shared by the US and European countries.
Israeli President Shimon Peres yesterday told the pope that peace could be on the way in the Middle East and prayed that 2009 would be the year when “walls of hostility fall.”
“This year, the year of your visit here, may reveal an opportunity for us and our neighbors, to attain peace,” Peres said he told Benedict at the presidential palace in Jerusalem. Peres said, “Concerted efforts can yet turn this year into a historic one for the benefit of all people, all religions, all children.”
“From this land on which the Prophets walked, I wish to offer a prayer: That walls of hostility fall, that hatreds of the past disappear, that a new history will bring a new dawn, to permit the coming generations to be born in peace, to live in peace, and to impart a legacy of peace to their descendants.”
The pope also spoke out against anti-Semitism, which he called "totally unacceptable." Peres, a Nobel peace prize laureate, said that he was "very moved" by those remarks.
The pope was to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem after his courtesy visit to Peres, who spoke in graphic detail of the extermination of Jews by the Nazis.
Later, the pope flew by helicopter to Jerusalem for another red-carpet ceremony.
Mayor Nir Barkat handed Benedict an ancient map of the world, with Jerusalem in the center and dozens of children welcomed him. The children waved Israeli and Vatican flags and red carnations, and many wore T-shirts that read, “I’m with the pope in Jerusalem.”
But the pope visit to Jerusalem has put the question of the city’s east part status to the test once again.
The Israeli police in Jerusalem yesterday sealed off a conference hall at the Ambassador Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood following the Palestinian Authority’s plan to hold a briefing for foreign and Palestinian journalists ahead of the pope’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
