Pope urges lifting Gaza blockade
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Gaza City, May 13, IRNA -- Pope Benedict XVI visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ (PBHU), telling Palestinians that after decades of suffering, they had a right to a sovereign homeland “in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors."
Confronting the region’s political tripwires, he evoked “the loss, the hardship and the suffering” of Palestinians in war-torn Gaza, saying he prayed for the lifting of the economic blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza Strip.
He was speaking in the presence of Palestine Authority chief Mahmud Abbas before offering a mass in a sunlit Manger Square.
While his words on Palestinian statehood reflected Vatican policy, and followed a similar endorsement two days ago, they gained added weight from his presence here — the first time he has ventured into the West Bank since he came from Jordan Monday on his first Middle East journey as pope. As with the rest of his tour, the visit carried a heavy political charge.
Mahmud Abbas used the opportunity to assail Israel’s separation barrier with Palestinian areas as “the apartheid wall which forbids our people from the West Bank” from reaching Christian and Muslim holy sites in holy Quds. The pope’s motorcade passed through the barrier to reach Bethlehem.
Most of the barrier built in 2002 is made up of a wire fence flanked by barbed wire, a trench and patrol roads. In some urban areas, particularly around Jerusalem, it takes the form of a towering concrete wall.
In his address, the pope, who planned to visit a Palestinian refugee camp later, said: “I know how much you have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the turmoil that has afflicted this land for decades. My heart goes out to all the families who have been left homeless.”
He said the Vatican “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. Even if at present that goal seems far from being realized, I urge you and all your people to keep alive the flame of hope, hope that a way can be found of meeting the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians for peace and stability.”
At the mass in Manger Square, where the Church of the Nativity stands on the site that Christians believe to be the birthplace of Jesus, the pope referred indirectly to Israel’s 22-day war in Gaza in December and January, saying that “in a special way my heart goes out to the pilgrims from war-torn Gaza: I ask you to bring back to your families and your communities my warm embrace, and my sorrow for the loss, the hardship and the suffering you have had to endure.”
“Please be assured of my solidarity with you in the immense work of rebuilding which now lies ahead and my prayers that the embargo will soon be lifted,” he said.
While thousands of people thronged the square, the overall number of Christians in the faith’s biblical homeland has fallen sharply in recent years. In 1948, for instance, Jerusalem was about one-fifth Christian. Now it is two percent. And, across the Middle East, a region that a century ago was 20 percent Christian is about 5 percent today and dropping.
Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said an estimated 10,000 people attended the mass, including 100 Christians from Gaza, whom the pope greeted personally after the service.
IRNA reporter in Gaza City said that the Israeli authorities had eased restrictions to permit the Christians to travel from Gaza to the West Bank.
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