Mission Impossible

Israelis are offended by the Pope

Today, on the third day of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, it has finally become clear that his visit to the Holy Land did not contribute to the reconciliation of the warring forces in the Middle East. On the contrary, according to Israeli analysts, the visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church largely exposed the antagonism of Muslims and Jews living in the region. The 82-year-old pontiff arrived on May 11 for a state visit to Israel, including the Palestinian Authority, having previously visited Jordan. He will stay in the region until Thursday.

The Pope's trip was planned "in the spirit of unity." “I will come to you as a pilgrim of peace,” the pontiff said before his Middle East visit. However, the very first day of Benedict XVI’s stay in Israel ended in scandal. On the evening of May 11, at a meeting between the Pope and the heads of various faiths, the head of the Palestinian Sharia courts, Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, accused Israel of crimes against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories and of the murder of “innocent Palestinian children.” In his fiery speech, the Sheikh called Jerusalem the only and true capital of the Palestinian people. He called on the pontiff to intervene in the situation and change it. Because the speech was not planned, the sheikh's words, speaking in Arabic, were not translated, and the Pope did not immediately understand what he was being called upon to do. When the essence of the speech was translated to him, he hastened to leave the event.

Sheikh Taysir Tamimi's speech caused an immediate reaction from Israelis. A representative of the press service of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with Vremya Novostey, noted that the sheikh “used the meeting, designed to demonstrate warm relations and mutual understanding between representatives of various religious faiths, for anti-Israeli propaganda.” Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said that the sheikh's actions did not harm the Jewish state, but the Pope and his mission in the region.

The Pontiff yesterday visited the holy places of Jerusalem, including the most revered place for Jews - the Western Wall. According to tradition, he put a note in the wall in which he addressed the Almighty with a request to grant peace to the Holy Land, the Middle East and humanity.

Despite the positive tone of the visit, Israelis continue to criticize the Pope's actions. On Monday, Benedict XVI visited the Yad Vashem memorial complex in Jerusalem, where the memory of Jews killed by the Nazis during the Second World War is immortalized. Immediately after this, the head of the complex’s board of trustees, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, announced that the Pope looked “unconvincing.”

The rabbi was outraged that Benedict XVI, speaking in English about the victims of the Holocaust, used the "banal" English word killed ("killed"), and not murdered ("killed with intent"). The rabbi also did not like the fact that the Pope spoke of “millions” of dead without specifying their number. Historians estimate that more than 6 million Jews died in Nazi camps. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote about these same linguistic subtleties. Some Israeli political scientists also noted that the Pope did not say the word "Nazis."

Benedict XVI's words about the Holocaust were listened to with special attention due to the fact that on the eve of his visit to Israel, the British weekly The Sunday Times published an article, the authors of which again recalled that in his youth Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope) was allegedly among the youth German organization "Hitler Youth". By the way, the Vatican denies this. Radio Voice of Israel noted that, unlike his predecessor John Paul II, who visited Israel in 2000, the current pontiff was rather dry in his speech at Yad Vashem, did not show solidarity with the Jews and did not find words of condolences.

Ordinary Israelis are also dissatisfied with the Pope's visit. They are not happy with the traffic jams caused by this visit. “What kind of reconciliation can we talk about if it takes half a day to get to work?!” - a resident of Jerusalem named Vlad exclaimed in a conversation with VN. He admitted that he feels nothing but irritation in connection with the Pope's visit.

The head of the Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, devoted exactly as much time to the guest from the Vatican as was required by protocol. On Monday, May 11, immediately after meeting the head of the Roman Catholic Church at the airport, Netanyahu went on his first foreign visit as head of government to Egypt, where he met with President Hosni Mubarak. They discussed how Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could be resumed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that the Moscow Middle East Conference could help. True, the minister again found it difficult to name the timing of its implementation, noting that they will be determined “after the formation of new Israeli approaches to the peace process.”

Maria GRISHINA, Dmitry DUBOV, Jerusalem