JOIN USPope steps into political minefield
Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel is intended to strengthen inter-faith ties among Christians, Muslims and Jews. However, the week-long journey is likely to give rise to controversy rather than promote coexistence. With every step the pontiff will advance deeper into a West Asian political minefield.
The tour begins on Friday in Amman where Benedict risks angering the influential Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin. The Brotherhood is demanding that the pope apologise for statements hurtful to Muslims made in 2006. Although he has tried to explain away these comments, many Muslims have not forgiven him.
Palestinians criticise the pope’s plan to lay a wreath at the Israeli Holocaust memorial. He will not enter the building due to the Israeli characterisation of Pope Pius XII, who was pontiff during World War II, as a leader who refused to stand against the extermination of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis.
Despite these issues, the pope expects a warm welcome in Jordan, where 100,000 Catholics and an equal number of Orthodox Christians live among six million Muslims. He will visit the site on the eastern shore of the Jordan river where, tradition holds, St John baptised Jesus, and travel to Mount Nebo where Moses was said to have viewed the promised land.
Benedict begins his visit to Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem on Monday. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Vatican custodian of the holy sites, said the pilgrimage is meant to boost the morale of the small Palestinian Christian community which has shrunk to 170,000. Although Benedict decided not to visit Gaza, where 2,500 Christians live among 1.5 million Muslims, the Strip’s 200 Catholics are to travel to Bethlehem where they will attend Wednesday’s papal mass at Manger Square.
Some 50,000 worshippers are expected to take part in Thursday’s Mass at Galilee’s Mount Precipice, where an angry mob sought to throw Jesus, who was seen as a trouble-maker, over a cliff. Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, is the largest Palestinian city in Israel. About 65,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel live in “Lower Nazareth,” while Jewish settlers have colonised “Upper Nazareth.” Relations are strained. Local businessmen hope that the pope’s visit will boost tourism which has been growing in recent years. Israel has invested $6 million to improve infrastructure ahead of the pope's arrival.
But some in Nazareth have issues with Benedict. The Israeli Islamic Movement also declared its opposition to his visit due to his 2006 comments about Islam. The Movement also objects to the Vatican’s rejection of a plan to build a mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation.
In Jerusalem, Benedict will visit the Wailing Wall, the main Jewish shrine; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and al-Aqsa mosque.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims oppose his presence at their holy sites while Greek Orthodox Christian prelates and priests will not welcome his presence in the massive church where sites and time slots are bitterly contested. The keys are kept by Muslims.
Benedict is to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and attend ceremonies at Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp, where local notables have constructed a reception platform against Israel’s eight metre high apartheid wall. Israel has banned this gathering, citing security reasons, but the Palestinians are determined to go ahead with their programme. This papal progression will be more low key than the brief, 11-hour visit to the holy land made by the first papal visitor Paul VI in 1964, before Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Benedict, a dry scholar, cannot eclipse the widely beloved and charismatic John Paul II who went on a week's tour in 2000. Indeed, only 15,000 pilgrims will accompany Benedict while 47,000 visited with John Paul II.
Pope Benedict departs on a difficult day, May 15, commemorated by Palestinians as the 61st anniversary of the Naqba, the catastrophe that befell them at Israel’s creation in 1948. Ignoring the anniversary will anger Palestinians, while empathising with them will upset Israelis.
The way he navigates the minefield could for some time determine the Vatican's relationship with one side or the other.