NAZARETH, ISRAEL // Pope Benedict XVI urged the Christian and
Muslim communities of Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city in Israel, to
“reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice” as he addressed 40,000
followers yesterday at his final public Mass in the Holy Land.
His message of peace and reconciliation for Nazareth, renowned as
the town where Jesus grew up, was delivered amid a heavy Israeli security
operation that angered many residents.
Huge numbers of armed police sealed off the city centre around
the Basilica of the Annunciation, built over the spot where Mary is believed to
have first heard she was carrying the son of God. In the church the Pope later
held talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
Police said their tough stance was a response to the threat of
protests both by Islamic groups opposed to the Pope’s visit and by local
activists against the presence of Mr Netanyahu in the city.
Thousands of Christians and Muslims who lined the city’s main
street expecting to catch a glimpse of the Pontiff passing in his popemobile
were disappointed. Instead, he was smuggled into the Basilica in an armour-plated
car with blacked-out windows.
“This is the choice of the police, not the Pope,” said Hanada
Shamshoum, 28, a local Roman Catholic clutching her baby. Expressing widely held
sentiments, she added: “Israel wants to make Nazareth look like a dangerous
place, but that’s not true.”
In the afternoon, Mr Netanyahu arrived in Nazareth from a
surprise meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan. His talks with the Pope came the
day after the 82-year-old pontiff spoke in favour of a “sovereign Palestinian
homeland” – a position Mr Netanyahu has so far rejected.
According to the daily Haaretz newspaper, Mr Netanyahu asked the
Pope to “sound your moral voice against the Iranian threat”, adding that Israel
did not want a Palestinian “terror state backed by Iran to rise alongside us”.
In return, the paper said, he suggested Israel would speed up
unresolved talks on millions of dollars of tax owed on property in Israel owned
by the Vatican as well as easing rules on visits by priests.
Earlier, the Pope held the largest Mass on his trip to the Holy
Land on Mount Precipice, a hill overlooking Nazareth where, according to
tradition, Jesus miraculously escaped death after a mob threw him from a cliff.
Throughout the night, local and foreign pilgrims poured into an
amphitheatre specially built for the visit. In contrast to his later secretive
dash through Nazareth, the Pope passed leisurely in his popemobile through the
crowds on Mount Precipice.
After his previous day in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where
he tried to address Palestinian concerns about the occupation, the Pope steered
clear of issues relating to the bigger conflict.
Instead he spoke of the “sacredness of the family” and what he
described as “tensions” between Muslims and Christians inside Nazareth and the
wider Galilee, where most of Israel’s 140,000 Palestinian Christians are to be
found. There are also 1.2 million Palestinian Muslims who hold Israeli
citizenship.
“I urge people of goodwill in both communities to repair the
damage that has been done,” he said, adding that it was important “to build
bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence”.
Nazareth’s residents assumed he was referring in particular to a
long-running battle over control of a square next to the Basilica, which a small
radical Islamic group claims as a holy place. Fights between Christians and
Muslims broke out there in Easter 1999, in the run-up to Pope John Paul II’s
visit for the millennium.
Police had banned Sheikh Nazim Abu Saleem, who leads the radical
group, from entering Nazareth during the Pope’s visit.
The northern wing of the Islamic Movement, the country’s most
influential Muslim group, boycotted an interfaith meeting with the Pope
yesterday. The group is angry at his failure to apologise for comments in 2006
in which he quoted a Medieval text denouncing the Prophet Mohammed as evil.
A few signs opposing the German-born Pope’s visit – including one
in his native language – were visible along the route to the Basilica.
Some Christians, who often complain of being a double minority –
both among Israel’s Jewish majority and among the Palestinian population inside
Israel – appreciated the Pope’s message.
But others thought he should also have highlighted the
discrimination suffered by all the country’s Palestinian citizens.
“All of us, whether Muslims or Christians, face severe obstacles
in most aspects of our lives from the Jewish majority and from the government,”
said Yamen Rock, 28, who attended the Mass.
“The Pope should have pointed that out, but politically it would
have been messy for him. He seems to be very worried about offending Israel.”
Mariana Kheel, 24, a teacher in a Christian school, said she was
disappointed that Pope Benedict, unlike his predecessor John Paul II, had not
travelled through Nazareth in the popemobile but supposed he was afraid.
She added: “It is difficult here, but it is our duty as
Christians to remain on the land, to uphold Christian traditions in the place
where Christianity was born.”
The Pope’s appearance coincided with the 61st anniversary of the
Nakba, or Catastrophe, in which most Palestinians were expelled to make way for
Israel’s creation.
Elias Chacour, the Greek Catholic Archbishop of the Galilee,
raised with the Pope the case of two villages in the Galilee, Biram and Ikrit,
whose Christian inhabitants were expelled in 1948. The government has repeatedly
reneged on promises to allow them to return.
Nazareth, home to 80,000 people, is traditionally a Christian
city but today has a two-thirds Muslim majority, many of them refugees who fled
from neighbouring villages in 1948.
The Pope is due to leave the Holy Land today after visiting the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Many Muslims also turned out to see the pontiff in Nazareth.
“Jesus is a prophet in Islam,” pointed out Kamal Me’ar, 47, who runs a shawarma
restaurant in the city.
He said he was pleased that the Pope was visiting. “When he came
here, he knew nothing about Palestinian life. Now he has seen the wall and the
occupation at first hand. Maybe he finally understands our reality.”
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