Benedict remembers victims of Holocaust

POPE Benedict XVI pledged yesterday to remember the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, seeking to repair strains with Jews over one of the most sensitive issues at the start of a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

But his calls for the establishment of a Palestinian homeland threatened to overshadow the visit by putting him at odds with his Israeli hosts. Benedict is using a week-long pilgrimage to the Holy Land to reach out to both Muslims and Jews. He spent three days in neighbouring Jordan before arriving in Israel.

“It is right and fitting that during my stay in Israel, I will have the opportunity to honour the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah and to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude,” the German-born pontiff told a welcoming ceremony at Israel’s international airport, using the Hebrew word for Holocaust. He later lay a wreath at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. While Israel’s relations with the Vatican have improved greatly since Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II visited in 2000, differences remain, none deeper than the widespread belief in Israel that the Vatican did not do enough to halt the Nazi genocide. The Pope did not delve into any of the Holocaust-related controversies between Israel and the Vatican.

Israel and the Vatican are at odds over the legacy of World War II pontiff Pius XII, a candidate for sainthood. Benedict, in September, praised what he called Pius’s “courageous and paternal dedication” in trying to save Jews by quiet diplomacy.

At Yad Vashem, Benedict would not visit the main part of the museum, where a photo caption says Pius did not protest the Nazi genocide of Jews and maintained a largely “neutral position”.

Benedict himself has faced questions for his involvement in the Hitler Youth corps during the war. Benedict says he was coerced.

The Pope also outraged Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of a British bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Ties were further strained when a senior Vatican official said during Israel’s recent military campaign in Gaza that the territory resembled a “big concentration camp”.

As soon as the Pope arrived at the airport, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their differences. “The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace,” he said. “I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognised borders.”

While Benedict has spoken in favour of a Palestinian homeland in the past, the timing and location of his comments were noteworthy.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in the audience, has so far refused to endorse the two-state solution.

But he is expected to come under pressure to do so when he travels to Washington next week. Netanyahu did not speak at the ceremony, then flew to Egypt for talks on regional issues with President Hosni Mubarak.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor played down the Pope’s comments, saying he was voicing a long-standing position shared by the US and European countries.