TEL AVIV – Pope Benedict XVI called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland immediately after he arrived in Israel Monday, a stance that puts him at odds with his Israeli hosts.
Benedict touched down in Israel on the second leg of a weeklong pilgrimage to the Holy Land, after spending three days in neighboring Jordan. He is using the tour to reach out to both Muslims and Jews.
Benedict urged Israelis and Palestinians to "explore every possible avenue" to resolve their differences.
"The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace," he told a welcoming ceremony at Israel's international airport.
"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."
"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," he said at the welcoming ceremony.
While Benedict has spoken in favor of a Palestinian homeland in the past, the timing and location of his comments were noteworthy.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in the audience, has pointedly refused to endorse the two-state solution since his election.
But he is expected to come under pressure to do so when he travels to Washington next week. Netanyahu did not speak at the ceremony, then flew to Egypt for talks on regional issues with President Hosni Mubarak.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor played down the pope's comments, saying he was voicing a long-standing position shared by the US and European countries.
"At any rate, discussing this is not the purpose of the visit," he said.
Parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin conspicuously skipped the airport ceremony.
Before leaving Jordan, he said he had a "deep respect" for Islam.
The pope flew Monday by helicopter to occupied Jerusalem for another red-carpet ceremony.
He also spoke against anti-Semitism.
"Sadly anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is totally unacceptable," the pontiff said.
The pope is to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem later on Monday.
"It is right and fitting that during my stint in Israel I will have the opportunity to honour the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah and pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude," he said.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians were angry that the pope planned to meet with the family of an Israeli soldier held by resistance fighters in Gaza but would not meet with relatives of any of the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel.
Israeli police shut down a media center for the pope's visit that the Palestinian Authority had set up at an east Jerusalem hotel.
Under international law, neither East nor West Jerusalem is considered Israel's capital. Tel Aviv is recognised as Israel's capital, pending a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.
East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.
In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.
Declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.
Pope visit unites Israel's gays and far-right
Gays, Holocaust survivors and the far-right have all found an unlikely common cause in their opposition to Benedict XVI's landmark visit to Israel.
The Dorot Hemeshech association of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust have called on drivers to blow their horn during the 81-year-old pope's speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum on Monday.
"Israelis will express this way their disapproval of the pope who encourages Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism," the association said.
The German-born pontiff has raised the ire of Holocaust survivors over his membership, albeit forced, in the Hitler youth and his move to beatify pope Pius XII who has been accused of not speaking out against the Holocaust.
A group of far-right activists has also said they planned to press criminal charges against the pope over Vatican treasures they claim were plundered from Jewish people over the centuries.
US-born Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir have named Benedict as a leading defendant in a criminal complaint they plan to file before a Jerusalem court on Monday.
The two accuse the pontiff and other top Roman Catholic officials of receiving and possessing stolen goods.
And gay rights activist Nitzan Horowitz, a left-wing MP, said on Sunday he will boycott all official ceremonies held for the pope.
"Pope Benedict XVI is responsible for the suffering of thousands of people in the world ... He conveys a message of extremism and insensitivity," Horowitz said, also referring to a papal warning that condom use could be aggravating the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Palestinian refugees want pope against the wall
Palestinians in a refugee camp on Benedict XVI's itinerary want the pontiff to address them with his back against the wall -- the towering barrier Israel has built through the occupied West Bank.
"We want the world to see him with the wall and the Israeli army watchtower behind him," says Adnan Ajarmeh, a member of the committee that will welcome the pope on his visit to Aida camp just outside Bethlehem on Wednesday.
The visit will be "a gesture of solidarity and an occasion for the Holy Father to meet with a category of people that sometimes is suffering more than the rest of the people," Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco said last week.
To drive home the point, the welcoming committee initially wanted to receive the pope on a specially built stage right against the imposing wall that surrounds much of the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ.
"Welcome Pope in Aida Camp," says a sign, in English, painted in green on the concrete facade.
But eventually the committee bowed to requests from the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority to organise the event at a UN-run school nearby.
Ajarmeh suspects that Israel, which ordered the works on the stage stopped, had exerted pressure to have the venue changed, but the church denies this.
Nevertheless, the stage on which the pope will stand beside Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will be sufficiently elevated that cameras recording the visit will capture Israel's separation wall.
"In addition, during his arrival, we'll try to slow down his convoy as he passes the wall so that the maximum of photos can be taken," Ajarmeh says.
The wall in Bethlehem is part of hundreds of kilometres (miles) of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire, which the Palestinians call an "apartheid wall" that cuts off chunks of the West Bank.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling declaring parts of the barrier illegal because they were built inside the occupied West Bank, but Israel has pressed ahead with its construction.
The 4,600 refugees in Aida also hope to use the pontiff's visit to draw the world's attention to their demands to return to their rightful homes in the 43 villages in what today is Israel, something rejected by the Jewish state.
"I'm not gullible enough to think that the pope will bring us back home, but his visit will remind the world of our suffering, which can be used as a political lever," Ajarmeh said.
The courtyard of the primary school that was chosen to receive the pontiff is surrounded by a mosque and buildings with filthy walls.
"If you sow hatred, it will consume you, but if you sow love it will flower among you," says Arabic graffiti painted on the walls.
Officials at the UN-run school decline to say anything about the papal visit, having been instructed not to do so because of security concerns. But the children are under no such constrictions.
"I want the pope to see the misery that we live in," says 14-year-old Abssel Abu Odeh, as other students play football. "The wall, the occupation and our families chased from their lands and dreaming of returning."
Says his friend Najdat al-Azza: "I hope that he will speak about our suffering to the whole world and say that the Palestinian people only want to live in peace."
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