Roadmap and PeacemakingIsrael and Palestine
What starts the numerous peacemaking efforts? What brings them to a halt? Are they doomed to fail because the problem is intractable? Or are some peacemaking plans simply unrealistic? With one-sided conditions and expectations?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
In Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI makes strongest call yet for a Palestinian homeland | World news | The Guardian
In Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI makes strongest call yet for a Palestinian homeland | World news | The Guardian
...
Today the pope made his strongest call yet for a "sovereign Palestinian homeland". He said mass in Bethlehem's Manger Square and offered his "solidarity" to the Palestinians of Gaza, telling them he wanted to see the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip lifted.
Later, he was driven in to the UN school in the Aida refugee camp on the edge of Bethlehem, home to refugees who in 1948 were forced out or fled their homes in what is now Israel.
The pope acknowledged their "precarious and difficult conditions". Today 5,000 live on just 500 sq metres of desperately crowded land. Their homes are in the shadow of Israel's vast concrete and steel barrier, which stretches more than 400 miles across the West Bank. It was not there when his predecessor, John Paul II, visited nine years ago – its construction a sign of just how deeply the political climate has worsened since then.
"It is tragic to see walls still being erected," Benedict said. ...
In Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI makes strongest call yet for a Palestinian homeland | World news | The Guardian
...
Today the pope made his strongest call yet for a "sovereign Palestinian homeland". He said mass in Bethlehem's Manger Square and offered his "solidarity" to the Palestinians of Gaza, telling them he wanted to see the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip lifted.
Later, he was driven in to the UN school in the Aida refugee camp on the edge of Bethlehem, home to refugees who in 1948 were forced out or fled their homes in what is now Israel.
The pope acknowledged their "precarious and difficult conditions". Today 5,000 live on just 500 sq metres of desperately crowded land. Their homes are in the shadow of Israel's vast concrete and steel barrier, which stretches more than 400 miles across the West Bank. It was not there when his predecessor, John Paul II, visited nine years ago – its construction a sign of just how deeply the political climate has worsened since then.
"It is tragic to see walls still being erected," Benedict said. ...
