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From the speech of Pope Francis at the Western Wall
in Jerusalem on the second and final day of his
visit to the Holy Land. He reiterated messages
of fraternity, mutual respect and tolerance
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| President
Peres welcomes Pope Francis. Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO |
Pope Francis arrived in Israel and implored its leaders to
leave no stone unturned in their quest for peace
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| The
Pope with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO |
POPE Francis has denounced arms dealers and appealed for
an urgent end to the Syrian civil war as he began his three-day trip to the Middle East.
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| Photo:
Avi Ohayon, GPO |
By William Booth and Ruth Eglash, Published:
May 26
JERUSALEM
— Proving himself to be a shrewd diplomat, Pope Francis on Monday reached out
to Jewish Israelis by kissing the hands of elderly Holocaust survivors at a
memorial, praying at the holiest Jewish site in Jerusalem — the Western Wall —
and later placing a wreath at the grave of the founder of Zionism.
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| Meeting
the Chief Rabbis of Israel
at Heichal Shlomo. Photo: Haim Zach, GPO |
And at the invitation of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the pontiff added an unplanned stop at an Israeli
monument to commemorate the civilian and military victims of terror attacks.
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Photo: Haim Zach, GPO
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The pope’s unscheduled
trip to the terror victims memorial was added by the Vatican
after Israeli authorities privately complained about the pontiff’s photo op
Sunday at a controversial security barrier in Bethlehem
separating Israel and the
West Bank, according to an account from a Western diplomat in Jerusalem.
The new pope, 15 months into his
job, demonstrated a canny ability to calm emotions in a region beset by
religious and political frictions on a three-day trip to the Holy
Land that ended Monday. The pontiff had said his visit would be
“strictly religious,” but it was not.
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The
Pope lands in Jerusalem.
Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO
|
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| The
Pope with Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: Mark Nyman, GPO |
Francis on Sunday secured a
promise from Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas to meet with him at the Vatican next month to pray together and talk peace. While his efforts may
lead to nothing, Francis at least has gotten the two sides to start talking
again after Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s negotiations collapsed in a
round of bitter recriminations in April.
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| . The
Pope at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO |
Asked what the three men might
discuss, a Vatican spokesman said: “The pope
does not have a political agenda and does not have a proposal for diplomatic
dialogue. This is not his mission. This is not what he desires.”
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| The
Pope at the Dome of the Rock. Photo: Haim Zach, GPO |
In a marathon schedule that saw
the 77-year-old pontiff attend more than 30 events in 55 hours, the pope seemed willing
to acknowledge the often-conflicting narratives of suffering from both Israelis
and Palestinians.
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| At the
Western Wall. Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO |
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| Photo:
Kobi Gideon, GPO |
He also was a gracious guest in Jordan, showering Jordan’s ruling monarch, King
Abdullah II, himself a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad, with praise
for his people’s generosity. There are about 600,000 registered Syrian refugees
and 250,000 Iraqis who live in Jordan
after fleeing war and chaos in their homelands.
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| At the
memorial for victims of terror. Photo: Avi Ohayon |
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| Meeting Holocaust survivors. Photo: Amos Ben
Gershom, GPO |
On Sunday, the pontiff prayed in Bethlehem at a section of the high cement wall that
recently had been spray-painted with graffiti reading “Free Palestine” and
comparing Bethlehem, surrounded by barriers on three sides in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, to the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw during the reign of
the Nazis.
The photograph of the pope at the
wall was published widely in news reports and social media around the world,
and Vatican
and Israeli officials acknowledged that Netanyahu was troubled by the stop.
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