Israel’s State President Shimon Peres greeted Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church, in Latin.
The Pope was given a red-carpet reception in Israel upon his arrival from Jordan at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport on Monday morning.
Just before the Latin greeting, Shimon Peres told the Pope: “I welcome you and offer you a blessing: “Shalom, Shalom lekha.” [Peace, Peace to you].
The main events in the Papal visit to Israel can be viewed on a live webcast on a site specially set up by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, in several languages, here .
In the welcoming address, Peres also said to the Pontiff: “Since the days of Abraham our forefather, we have believed that man should aspire to be a desirable guest and a gracious host. Abraham’s tent was open to all directions. It was easy for the pure air and wind to enter from north, south, east, and west”.
The Israeli government, when it wants to be, can be the best host. But is its tent open to all directions, allowing pure air and wind to enter from the four major points of the compass? Or is it closed behind The Wall and its massive security infrastructure, which makes crossing any border something like sheer hell for many people.
Oh, the longing for the days when it was possible to drive from Jerusalem to Beirut for lunch and some shopping, or to Damascus for dinner…
Can those days can come again? Peres told the Pope: “We have made peace with Egypt and Jordan, and we are in negotiations to make peace with the Palestinians, and even to arrive at a comprehensive regional peace. Your visit here brings a blessed understanding between religions and spreads peace near and far. Historic Israel and the renewed Israel together welcome your arrival as paving the great road to peace from city to city”.
The Pope, speaking in his German-accented English, told the audience at the airport that “I appreciate the opportunity that has been made available to me to come on pilgrimage…I take my place in a long line of Christian pilgrims to these shores… I come to pray at the holy places,to pray for peace in the holy land and around the world…We share the same priorities to give religion its right place in the modern world and to respect all individuals … Tragically, the Jewish people have experienced the terrible circumstances of ideologies that deny the fundamental dignity of every human person … It is right and fitting that during my stay in Israel I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah and pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude … Sadly, anti-semitism continues to raise its ugly face around the world … This is totally unacceptable. Every effort must be made to combat anti-Semitism where ever it is found, and to promote respect and esteem for the members of every people, tribe, language and nation across the globe”.
The Pope said “Even though the name Jerusalem means ‘city of peace,’ it is all too evident that, for decades, peace has tragically eluded the inhabitants of this holy land … in their struggle to achieve a just and lasting solution to conflicts that have brought so much suffering … 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 … I hope and pray for a climate of greater trust that will enable progress…”
The Pope called for freer access to Jerusalem.
He said that “The eyes of the world are upon the peoples of this region as they struggle to achieve a just and lasting solution to conflicts that have caused so much suffering … The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.
He was speaking with the Royal Jordanian airplane standing on the tarmac behind him, and the Royal Jordanian flight crew, including its stewardesses, lined up alongside.
The Pope concluded with a few words to the Catholic and Christian communities in the Holy Land: “I pray that your continuing presence in Israel and the Palestinian territories will bear much fruit in promoting peace and mutual respect among all the peoples who live in the lands of the Bible … May God give his people strength. May God enable his people to live in peace”.
As the Pope was about to get into a black limousine guarded by men in Black, Shimon Peres told him “I shall see you this evening”, and Benyamin Netanyahu said “I’ll see you in Nazaretz”. [Then, Netanyahu flew to Egypt for a brief visit with President Mubarak.] The Pope then boarded a military helicopter painted in desert-camouflage colors for the ride to Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. A few minutes later, military escort planes could be heard flying over north-eastern Jerusalem.
The Israeli Government activities for the Pope on Monday, as communicated by the Government Press Office (GPO), which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office:
Arrival reception at Ben Gurion Airport – 11:00 am estimated
Reception Ceremony at Mount Scopus – 12:00 noon
Ceremony at President’s Residence – 16:00 pm
Visit to Yad Vashem – 17:30 pm
Meeting of Religious Leaders at Notre Dame – 19:00
The Pope’s schedule in East Jerusalem, as communicated from the Palestinian Presidency Press Office in Ramallah (with a temporary media center at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem — UPDATE: WHICH HAS JUST BEEN SHUT DOWN BY ORDER OF THE ISRAELI POLICE, OR MAYBE JUST THE PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR 13:00 HAS BEEN CANCELLED, WHICH PERHAPS MAY BE RELOCATED TO UM KAMEL’S PROTEST TENT DOWN THE HILL. The cancellation is all the more surprising because the two speakers are both important religious figures in Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who were supposed to be discussing “the Pope’s meeting at the Notre Dame Center of Jerusalem and the interfaith dialogue in general” …:
East Jerusalem Monday, May 11th, 2009
12:30 Arrival at the Apostolic Delegation.
18:30 To the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center.
The merged and annotated schedule for today is:
Arrival reception at Ben Gurion Airport – 11:00 am estimated
Reception Ceremony at Mount Scopus – 12:00 noon
Arrival at the Apostolic Delegation – 12:30
Ceremony at President’s Residence – 16:00 pm
It was announced on Sunday that Shimon Peres called Noam Shalit, the father of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, and invited him to take part in his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Pope Benedict agreed ahead of time to meet with Noam Shalit and to work personally to help in the effort to bring Gilad Shalit home. The meeting of President Peres, Pope Benedict XVI, and the Shalit family will be held immediately following the political meeting between President Peres and the Pope tomorrow at 16:10 at the President’s Residence. The Office of the President attaches great importance to the meeting between the Pope and the Shalit family, as the Pope represents over one billion Catholic believers worldwide. He routinely travels all around the world to meet with political and religious leaders, and his assistance can be a great asset in the struggle to bring Gilad home.
Visit to Yad Vashem – 17:30 pm
To the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center – 18:30.
Meeting of Religious Leaders at Notre Dame – 19:00
According to the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) summary and translation of today’s Hebrew Press, Israel’s largest-selling newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, “reminds its readers that Pope Benedict XVI, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, ‘opposed the approach that championed a negative attitude towards Jews and condemned the Jewish state, and was one of the architects of the establishment of relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel’. Yisrael Hayom suggests that ‘It is difficult to categorize’ Pope Benedict XVI beyond defining him as a staunch conservative, and notes that ‘There have been ups and downs’, in the Jewish People’s relations with the Roman Catholic Church” The author rejects calls to either boycott, or turn a cold shoulder to, the Papal visit and reminds his readers that an active dialogue with the Vatican bolsters Israel’s standing in the eyes of Catholics the world over”. [The GPO wrote that Aviad Klingberg wrote the article in Yediot Ahronot, and Dan Margalit wrote the article in Yisrael Hayom.]
ONE-UPSMANSHIP EPISODES
Today there were two episodes of one-upsmanship:
(1) At the Pope’s arrival in Jerusalem at the Mount Scopus helipad, behind Haddasah Hospital (Mount Scopus), where the Pope was greeted by the relatively-new mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barakat (the AP pool report submitted to the Foreign Press Association (FPA) reported that “As the pope left the helicopter, surrounded by clergy and dignitaries, loudspeakers played ‘Jerusalem of Gold’, a song that commemorates Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war”. Barakat later stated that “I presented him with an ancient map with Jerusalem at the center of the world”, but the AP pool report said that “Mayor Nir Barkat welcomed Benedict, who stood by his side on a podium, and gave the pontiff an etching reproducing an ancient map depicting Jerusalem at the center of the world”.
(2) A second AP pool report for the FPA said that at the end of an otherwise totally politically – and religiously – correct interfaith gathering at Notre Dame Church just outside the Old City, the appointed head of the Islamic Courts of the West Bank and Gaza, Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, “commandeered the microphone and began to criticize Israel in Arabic. He was not scheduled to speak. Some people clapped, but many appeared uncomfortable and the Latin Patriarch, Fouad Twal, walked across the stage and tapped him on the hand as he implored him to stop. Tamimi finished the speech after several minutes and sat down. It was not clear whether the Pope understood the tirade, and he did not react. Some quotes from Tamimi’s speech: He welcomed the pope to Jerusalem, which he called ‘the eternal political, national and spiritual capital of Palestine’. He referred to Muslim history in Jerusalem. Muslims and Christians must work together against Israel, he said: ‘We struggle together and we suffer together from the injustice of the Israeli occupation and its oppressive practices, and we look forward to freedom and independence’. He referred to Israel’s West Bank separation barrier as the ‘racist wall’, saying it ‘turned it (Palestine) into a giant prison and keeps Muslims and Christians from praying in their churches and mosques’. On Gaza: ‘in its (Israel’s) aggression in the Gaza strip it violated human rights in a way unprecendented in this era’. [Tamimi said] ‘His holiness the pope, I call on you in the name of the one God to condemn these crimes and pressure the Israeli government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people’. He sat down, some people clapped, and then everyone left”. A little while later, the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) sent out an email containing, in both Italian and in English, what was reported as a “Statement from Papal Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi”, which read: “The intervention of Sheikh Tayssir Attamimi was not scheduled by the organizers of the meeting. In a meeting dedicated to dialogue this intervention was a direct negation of what a dialogue should be. We hope that such an incident will not damage the mission of the Pope aiming at promoting peace and also interreligious dialogue, as he has clearly affirmed in many occasions during this pilgrimage. We hope also that interreligious dialogue in the Holy Land will not be compromised by this incident”.
[n.b., the Latin Patriarch, Archbishop Fouad Twal, who is reported here to have tried to stop Sheikh Tamimi’s “unauthorized” statement, was quoted in Haaretz last week as saying “The thing that worries me most is the speech that the Pope will deliver here … One word for the Muslims and I’m in trouble; one word for the Jews and I’m in trouble. At the end of the visit the Pope goes back to Rome and I stay here with the consequences.”]
Both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post reported later, somewhat unconvincingly, that the Pope walked out after Tamimi’s “unauthorized” statement. Haaretz reported that “al-Tamimi accused Israel of slaughtering women, children and senior citizens. The speech was delivered in Arabic, without simultaneous translation, but after the pope was informed of the political nature of al-Tamimi’s speech, he left the conference … ‘Israel destroyed our home, exiled our people, built settlements, ruined the Muslim holy sites, and slaughtered women, children and senior citizens in Gaza’, he continued. At this point, the conference’s organizers tried to persuade al-Tamimi to end his spontaneous speech, but to no avail … Al-Tamimi shook the pope’s hand as he left the podium and the meeting broke up as scheduled immediately afterwards. The director general of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, Oded Wiener, said that ‘Sheikh Tamimi embarrassed the pope’. He said Tamimi, a familiar and fiery figure in Palestinian public life, had pressured the Catholic organisers to be allowed to speak and that the Jewish members would no longer take part in a long-standing, three-way interfaith dialogue until the sheikh was barred from attending. ‘The Chief Rabbinate will not continue it as long as Tamimi is part of the Palestinian delegation’, Wiener said … The incident further marred the start of the German-born pope’s five-day tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories, after criticism by some Jews that a speech at a Holocaust memorial did not go far enough to mend Catholic-Jewish rifts”. This Haaretz report can be read in full here.
UPDATE: Journalists who attended the interfaith dialog in Notre Dame assure me that Archbishop Twal had indeed acceeded to Tamimi’s request to speak — though it was Twal who then tried to stop Tamimi from speaking mid-stream, or at least he visibly and publicly tried to curtail Tamimi’s remarks. [The next day, these journalists attended the Mass with the Pope at Gethsemane and said that Archbishop Twal had in fact been quite the hero of the day at that event, making remarks not so different from Tamimi’s, although perhaps more eloquently, and less stupidly. Then, the day after that, the Pope endorsed Twal’s remarks at Gethsemane by saying, at Mass in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, “I am grateful to Patriarch Fouad Twal for the sentiments which he has expressed on your behalf”. The “your” refers to “my brothers and sisters in the faith, in these Palestinian territoires [sic – the Pope’s text uses the plural of territory, despite the preferred UN usage of the singular, according to the reasoning of the Oslo Accords, endorsed by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion on The Wall]”.
Haaretz published a Reuters photo of Tamimi making his “unauthorized” statement at the Notre Dame Church’s interfaith dialog:
The Jerusalem Post reported that Tamimi “staged an identical verbal attack against Israel during Pope John Paul II’s visit in March 2000”. The JPost wrote that this time, “A leading Palestinian cleric commandeered an evening devoted to interfaith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday to rant against Israel for ‘killing Gaza’s children’, ‘bulldozing Palestinian homes’ and ‘destroying mosques’ … He also called for the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees, and called on Christians and Muslims to unite against Israel. Tamimi invoked the name of Saladin, the Muslim sultan who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Tamimi said that unlike Israel, Saladin upheld the religious freedoms of all faiths … When Tamimi finished, applause could be heard from a few dozen in an audience of a few hundred … Following the diatribe and before the meeting was officially over, the pope exited the premises. However, he shook Tamimi’s hand before walking out … The Foreign Ministry and Tourism Ministry released a joint statement saying it was “very unfortunate” that the sheikh took advantage of the event to ‘wildly incite against Israel’.” The JPost report can be read in full here
AFP summarized the major sources of angst in the Israeli sector of the Pope’s visit: “[H]e will pointedly not visit the area of the memorial where a caption under a photo of Pius XII says the war-time pope failed to protest against the Holocaust — a stance that has angered the Vatican which disputes the claim. Benedict unleashed a torrent of criticism in January when he lifted the excommunication of Holocaust-denying British bishop Richard Williamson and three other ultra-conservative bishops in what he called a ‘discreet gesture of mercy’. There is also concern among Jews over the Pius beatification and Benedict’s membership of the Hitler Youth, although he has said he was enrolled against his will after membership became compulsory in 1941”. This AFP report can be read in full here. [Apparently the Pope reversed his decision to rescind the excommunication of Williamson, according to recent references in wire service reports which I do not have the time t– or, frankly, the interest — to follow up at the moment… ]
