Much hoopla is surrounding the five-day visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Palestine and Israel this week. One only has to walk through the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City to sense the anticipation. Along the Via Delarosa and up to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and around near Jaffa Gate and the church there, yellow and white Vatican banners are strung all along the streets. Posters of the pontiff are plastered on windows throughout the Christian quarter and loyal servants of the faith can be seen making last minute touches to the floors and entranceways of churches and alleys where the Pope will walk.
Around the Aqsa Mosque Compound, where the Pope is scheduled to visit on May 12, people living directly around the courtyard have been ordered not to leave their houses. Some cannot even open their windows during the Pope’s tour of the Muslim holy site. Security will reportedly be extremely tight as the Pope visits some of Christianity’s holiest spots and also Islam’s places of worship to encourage religious tolerance in a place where religion often tears people apart instead of uniting them. Some schools in Jerusalem have shut their doors for the two days the Pope will be in the city, mainly because the roads will be closed to traffic. While students are jubilant over having two study-free days, businesses along the Via Dolorosa are not as happy. One hair salon owner, who is a practicing Christian, is already peeved at the fanfare around the papal visit. “It’s exaggerated,” he said. “I will have to close shop for three days because of the Pope. That means three days of financial loss.”
While the Pope’s visit is supposedly designed as a pilgrimage and devoid of any political undertones, anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the Middle East knows this is just not possible. The fact that he is landing in Tel Aviv, will meet with Israeli dignitaries first and visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum before visiting his own faith’s landmarks means politics will always come first in our region.
The Palestinians, however, are trying to make the best of the visit. The Pope will not only visit the holy sites, but will tour the Aida Refugee Camp, perhaps a kind of parallel visit to counter Yad Vashem. If he is to pay his respects to the fallen Jews of the Holocaust, then he should also acknowledge the ongoing suffering of Palestinian refugees. Israel, however, is making sure not too much Palestinian politics get in the way. Israeli authorities reportedly made the organizers change the place of the podium where the pope will stand in the camp so pictures of him will not include the gray cement separation wall in the backdrop.
Also, in preparation for the Pope, the Palestinian Media Center set up a press office, working out of Jerusalem’s Ambassador Hotel. A press conference was to be held coinciding with Benedict’s arrival to Israel at noon today. Early on, Israeli radio and press announced it would ban the press conference. Israeli police showed up early this morning and handed the hotel’s management the order.
No surprise, obviously. The Palestinian press room has been preparing documents and reports on Israel’s violations in the holy city and its impingement on religious rights, including denial of access for Palestinian Christians and Muslims to their places of worship. This is not something Israel wants highlighted to the pontiff, especially since he has been preaching religious tolerance and interfaith relations throughout his eight day trip, which began in Jordan.
These next couple of days will be the true testimony of how the Pope handles the extremely delicate balance between Israeli and Palestinian sentiments. He has already angered both Muslims and Jews since taking office, the first by making controversial statements about Islam and the latter by rescinding the excommunication of a bishop who apparently denied the Holocaust.
So, the pontiff will have to tread lightly through this landmine-filled country if he is to truly build bridges of faith. Being one of the most influential people in the world, the Pope has a golden opportunity to spread the word of tolerance to some people who desperately need to hear it. What he may not realize is that in Palestine, Christian-Muslim relations are extremely positive and basically embody what any preacher of faith espouses. It is not even the question of Jewish-Muslim or Jewish-Christian relations that need to be repaired. It is more of Palestinian-Israeli relations, which have been sucked up into a religious web because of Zionism’s exploitation of Judaism. Judaism and Israel have become synonymous to many, not because people are stereotypical or because they are ‘anti-Semitic’ but because that is how Zionism intended it. If it were not for Zionism and its project to usurp another people’s homeland and continue to oppress them until date, neither Palestinian Christians nor Muslims would have any serious bones to pick with Jews.
Let’s hope Pope Benedict XVI sees this when he visits Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Yes, politics may not be the most important aspect of his trip given that he is the leader of the Catholic faith, but he cannot deny the political dimensions of the place if he is to fulfill the goal for which he is coming. Israel cannot continue to claim it is democratic and allows freedom of worship as it oppresses and denies those living under its occupation of this very thing. Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike suffer from Israel’s repressive measures for the simple fact that they are not Jewish. If this does not symbolize intolerance, I don’t know what would.
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