Pope Francis’ silent prayer at the separation barrier running through the West Bank_2014 May

Pope Francis' impromptu prayer at Israel's Apartheid Wall hinted at a radical critique of Israel

by Phyllis Bennis, May 29, 2014

The pope’s visit was carefully orchestrated – shaped not only by security concerns, but by his insistence on avoiding Israeli checkpoints. U.S. and other official visitors often work diligently to avoid having to see – or be photographed seeing – the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints or the Apartheid Wall that snakes through the West Bank, separating Palestinians from their land and dividing the area into tiny noncontiguous pieces of territory.

But Pope Francis’ complicated logistics were not aimed at pretending not to see, but at refusing to acknowledge Israeli power and control over the Palestinian territories. Instead of crossing into the West Bank through the Israeli military-controlled Allenby Bridge, for example, his helicopter flew from Jordan to land directly in Bethlehem, in the West Bank. He said Mass at Manger Square, but what got all the international attention were his meetings with Palestinian refugees, his visit with kids at the Dheisheh refugee camp, and his unexpected invitation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres for a “prayer summit meeting” at the Vatican.

But by far the most lasting image of the trip was the popemobile’s seemingly unscripted halt in Bethlehem. For days, Bethlehem’s kids had fought a running battle with Israeli troops – not with stones, but with spray paint. Each day, the troops whitewashed the graffiti that covers the Apartheid Wall, which in that area separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Each night, the Palestinian kids would return to recreate their art.

This time, the kids won. When the pope drove by, he read “Apartheid Wall” and “Bethlehem is like the Warsaw Ghetto” on the 24-foot-high cement panels that make up the wall. He got out, walked to the wall, leaned his face against it, and prayed. The photo, splashed across the front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and probably most of the daily newspapers in the world, remains the main takeaway of the papal visit.

http://original.antiwar.com/phyllis-bennis/2014/05/28/pope-francis-in-palestine/