Thursday May 14, 2009
Pope says mass in Nazareth, to meet Netanyahu
By Ari Rabinovitch
NAZARETH, Israel (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of the faithful turned out in the town of Jesus' boyhood on Thursday when Pope Benedict took his Holy Land pilgrimage to the heartland of Israel's minority Arab population.
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Israeli police officers stand guard as Pope Benedict XVI (C) arrives at an open-air mass on Mount Precipice in the northern city of Nazareth May 14, 2009. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner) |
The German-born pontiff, who has come under criticism in Israel over a speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial that some rabbis and politicians said lacked empathy, was to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day in Nazareth.
Against the backdrop of Israel's barrier in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday -- a project it calls a security necessity and Palestinians condemn as a land grab -- the pope repeated a call for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has so far declined to endorse that goal.
In Nazareth, one of the largest towns where Israeli Arab citizens live, Mount Precipice, where the Bible says a mob tried to hurl Jesus off a cliff, was chosen as the site for the papal mass.
Some 1.5 million Israelis, about a fifth of the population, are Arabs, 10 percent of whom are Christian.
The faithful waved Vatican flags as Benedict arrived in his white "popemobile" at the town southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Police gave an initial crowd estimate of around 30,000.
The pope also will visit the Church of the Annunciation, the site where Christians believe the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she would give birth to the son of God.
He completes his pilgrimage in Jerusalem on Friday with a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and the tomb where he was buried.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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