Pope Francis will lay a wreath at the grave of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem today, following a visit to Bethlehem where he endorsed Palestinian statehood and prayed for an end to Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The time has come to put an end to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable,” Francis said yesterday upon arriving in the West Bank city revered as the birthplace of Jesus. “The time has come for everyone to find the courage to be generous and creative in the service of the common good.”
The pope began his two-day visit to the West Bank and Israel with a short helicopter ride from the Jordanian capital of Amman to Bethlehem, where he celebrated Mass in Manger Square. In a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Francis called for “the state of Palestine” to be fully established and lamented the collapse of U.S.-mediated peace talks last month.
The pope showed further support for the Palestinian cause with an unscripted stop at the concrete wall dividing Bethlehem and Jerusalem, part of the West Bank barrier Israel says it built to keep out attackers and which Palestinians decry as encroaching on territory they want for a future state. The pontiff leaned his head against a section of the barrier, which had “Free Palestine” and “Apartheid Wall” spray-painted on it and was located near an Israeli military watchtower.
Ending the day in Jerusalem’s Old City, the pope met at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with Orthodox Christian leader Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Their encounter marked the 50th anniversary of the 1964 meeting between the leaders of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, which led to a mending of the split that had taken place more than nine centuries earlier.
Zionist Founder
Today’s schedule features meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as a visit to the grave of Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement that led to Israel’s birth. Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti objected to the wreath-laying, saying it will “serve to whitewash Israel’s occupation and apartheid,” according to an e-mailed statement.
Upon landing at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport by helicopter from Bethlehem yesterday afternoon, the pope called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart their deadlocked peace talks. He also condemned the weekend shooting at the Jewish museum in Brussels that left four people dead, calling it a “criminal act of anti-Semitic hatred.”
Francis is the third pontiff to visit Israel since the Vatican established diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in 1993.
Abbas Critical
Earlier in Bethlehem, Abbas criticized Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying its restrictive policies have led to the emigration of Christian Palestinians. He also reasserted the Palestinians’ claim to east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as capital of their hoped-for state.
“We call on the Israeli government to halt these acts, which violate international law, and on our side, we have provided a vision for our capital in east Jerusalem, which will remain open to the followers of the three monotheistic religions without discrimination,” he said.
Francis invited Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to jointly visit the Vatican and pray for peace. Both accepted.
Police broke up an unauthorized Israeli demonstration protesting the pope’s visit outside Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday, arresting 26 protesters, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The run-up to Francis’s Israel visit has been marred by at least five anti-Christian incidents by suspected Jewish vandals, police said, including “Jesus is garbage” spray-painted in Hebrew on a Jerusalem church and “murder to the pope” painted on a military vehicle. Restraining orders were issued against some “right-wing” activists after police received information that they intended to disrupt the papal visit, Rosenfeld said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net; Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net Amy Teibel, Nancy Moran
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