WEST BANK: Bethlehem boosts security in preparation for Pope Benedict's visit to West Bank

Record ID: 561345

  • Title: WEST BANK: Bethlehem boosts security in preparation for Pope Benedict's visit to West Bank
  • Date: 14th May 2009
  • Summary: BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (MAY 13, 2009) (REUTERS) (DAWN SCENES) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN POLICE, SNIFFER DOGS AT MANGER SQUARE, CHECKING TV VAN VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN POLICE VARIOUS OF CHURCH OF NATIVITY AT SUNRISE VARIOUS OF SECURITY AT MANGER SQUARE POLICE, SNIFFER DOGS AT MANGER SQUARE WHERE CEREMONY WILL BE HELD FOR POPE BENEDICT FLAG SUNRISE OVER BETHLEHEM (5 SECONDS) VIEW OF VATICAN FLAG OVER NATIVITY CHURCH VARIOUS OF SUNRISE OVER NATIVITY CHURCH VARIOUS OF POLICEMAN GUARDING WIDE OF EMPTY CHAIRS IN MANGER SQUARE BELLS RINGING IN MANGER SQUARE CLOSE OF BELLS RINGING PHOTOGRAPH OF POPE BENEDICT AND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS HANGING ON BANNER ABOVE MANGER SQUARE VARIOUS OF SECURITY VIEW OF RACHEL'S TOMB CHECKPOINT VIEW OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS GUARDING CHECKPOINT SECURITY ON HORSEBACK /SNIFFER DOGS HELICOPTER HOVERING OVER CHECKPOINT VARIOUS OF SECURITY AT CHECKPOINT CHECKPOINT
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA389XMMOQUQMHXPBVLXFTOV7S6
  • Story Text: Palestinians boost security ahead of Pope Benedict's arrival to the West Bank to meet President Mahmoud Abbas.
    Palestinians boosted security in preparation for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI to the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Wednesday (May 13) where Palestinians hope his visit to the West Bank will draw attention to their plight under Israeli occupation.
    Israeli media reports said some 3,000 Palestinian policemen were securing the pope's historic visit.
    The German-born pope will celebrate mass in Bethlehem, the town of Jesus's birth, just outside Jerusalem, and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the third day of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land that is so far marked by Israeli complaints that he has failed to show enough sympathy to Jewish suffering in the Nazi Holocaust.
    Patriarch Fouad Twal, during a mass in Jerusalem on Tuesday, reiterated before the pope the Palestinian people's aspirations for a "free and independent state".
    The pope himself, on his arrival in Israel on Monday, reaffirmed Vatican support for a Palestinian state, something new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been reluctant to accept as a necessary outcome of negotiations.
    To dramatise the impact of Israeli occupation on their lives, Palestinians have set up a small amphitheatre by a high concrete wall that forms part of the barrier that Israeli is building in and around the West Bank.
    They said they ignored orders by Israel, which says it needs the barrier to keep out suicide bombers and others threats to its people, not to complete the amphitheatre. It remains unclear if the pope will use it when he speaks at the Aida refugee camp.
    Israel's parliament speaker on Tuesday evoked the pope's teenage membership of the Hitler Youth and berated him over his address a day earlier at Israel's memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
    A Vatican spokesman said the German-born pope was not an "active participant" in the Nazi movement and was enrolled against his will. He later served with the German armed forces.
    The pope will hold a mass at Nazareth in northern Israel, where Jesus grew up, on Thursday. The surrounding Galilee region is where most of the country's 154,000 Christians live and where he will meet Netanyahu.
    He flies back to Rome on Friday.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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