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Pope steps into Mideast minefields during visit to Israel

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38075/full/38075/pope-steps-into-mideast-minefields-during-visit-to-israel/ Pope steps into Mideast minefields during visit to Israel Thursday, May 14, 2009 | by marcy oster jerusalem | Coming as a self-described “pilgrim of peace,” Pope Benedict XVI vowed to fight anti-Semitism and called for a Palestinian state during his five-day visit to Israel this week. Controversy marked the visit from the start, as the pope’s supposedly non-political trip abounded with politics and his hosts in Israel and the Palestinian Authority parsed his words with nearly talmudic precision. On his first day in Israel, May 11, the pope gave a speech at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, and drew criticism for not being contrite enough about the Holocaust on behalf of the Catholic Church. Other points of contention were that he used language deemed too soft, opting for “killed” rather than “murdered” in reference to the Holocaust, and did not to touch on the prevalence of anti-Semitism in Christianity. “I am deeply grateful to God and to you for the opportunity to stand here in silence: a silence to remember, a silence to pray, a silence to hope,” the pope said at the memorial. The cry of those killed in the Holocaust “echoes in our hearts. It is a cry raised against every act of injustice and violence. It is a perpetual reproach against the spilling of innocent blood.” Following the visit, in which the pope did not enter the actual museum due to an exhibit that offers an unflattering portrayal of Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of silence in the face of the Holocaust, former Israeli Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau criticized the pope’s speech in an interview on Israel’s Channel 1. Lau, a survivor of Buchenwald who serves as the chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, lamented that while Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, offered a moving personal expression of grief in an address at the museum nine years ago, the current pope did not go that far, instead offering the Church’s “deep compassion” for those killed in the Holocaust. <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="MEjta pope" class="left" height="300" src="http://dev.jweekly.com/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/ze_05_15_09/MEjta pope.jpg" title="Pope Benedict XVI prays at the Western Wall on May 12, the second day of his visit to Israel. photo/jta/nati shohat–flash 90" width="360" /> <div class="caption">Pope Benedict XVI prays at the Western Wall on May 12, the second day of his visit to Israel. photo/jta/nati shohat–flash 90</div> </div> “I personally missed hearing a tone of sharing the grief,” Lau said. “I missed hearing ‘I’m sorry, I apologize.’ ” Lau also pointed out that the German-born pontiff did not mention the Germans or Nazis as those who carried out the genocide. And not only did the pope use the term “murdered,” he added, but the pontiff never said that 6 million were killed, saying only “millions.” Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin also criticized the pope. “He came and told us as if he were a historian, someone looking in from the sidelines, about things that should not have happened,” Rivlin said on Israel Radio. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi fired back, noting that the pope has denounced the Nazis and spoken of his German heritage in previous speeches, and that he did use the 6 million figure in remarks upon arriving in Israel. He said that the pope should not have to “repeat all the time in every speech all [those] points.” Lombardi also strongly denied statements by Rivlin and others that that the pope served in the Hitler Youth, whose members were volunteers. Rather, Lombardi said, the pope was forced to join anti-aircraft troops against Allied aerial raids near his hometown. On the third day of his trip, May 13, the pope made a pilgrimage to Jesus’ traditional birthplace, Bethlehem, and offered his strongest public support yet for Palestinian statehood. Standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town, the pontiff acknowledged Palestinian suffering during decades of Mideast turmoil. “Mr. President, the Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders,” the pope said. Benedict told Palestinians “I know how much you have suffered and continue to suffer,” but he stopped short of naming Israel as an aggressor. Earlier that day, Palestinians scored what the Jerusalem Post called “a major publicity coup” when the pope was photographed near the security barrier in the Aida refugee camp. “In a world where more and more borders are being opened up — to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges — it is tragic to see walls still being erected,” the pope said. A day earlier, on May 12, the pope made a brief visit to the Western Wall, where he placed a handwritten personal prayer between the stones. The note asked God to “send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East, upon the entire human family,” according to a text released by the Office of the Holy See. Following his quiet reflection at the wall, the pope made a courtesy visit to the compound of the chief rabbis of Israel, telling Israel’s two chief rabbis that the Catholic Church is “irrevocably committed” to “a genuine and lasting reconciliation between Christians and Jews.” On May 11, the pope halted an interfaith conference in Jerusalem after the head of the Palestinian sharia court commandeered the stage. In a five-minute tirade, Sheik Taysir Tamimi accused Israel of killing women and children and urged the pope “in the name of the one God to condemn these crimes and press the Israeli government to halt its aggression against the Palestinian people.” Vatican officials criticized his outburst at what had been billed as an interfaith meeting. Tamimi said organizers had not allotted him speaking time, so he simply righted a wrong by seizing the podium. The pope traveled with a 40-person staff and 70 reporters in Israel. He was to fly back to Rome on Friday, May 15, on a special El Al flight. He arrived in Israel after spending two days in Jordan. On May 9, he visited Mount Nebo, from where the Bible says Moses saw the Land of Israel. On May 11, the pope met with the family of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. On May 12, he celebrated Mass outside of Jerusalem in the valley of the Kidron, at the site where Jesus is said to have prayed the night before he was crucified. Hundreds of people lined up to see the pontiff make his way to the site of the Mass in his bulletproof Popemobile. The Associated Press, Jpost.com and Ynetnews.com contributed to this report.

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