Pope Francis Arrives in Israel After West Bank Visit

Holy Trip: Israel President Shimon Peres greets Pope Francis in Tel Aviv Image by getty images
Pope Francis has landed in Israel for a two-day visit.
The pope arrived Sunday afternoon at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport via a helicopter ride from Bethlehem, where he spent the morning. Francis will depart Israel on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres greeted the pope upon arrival, accompanied by a band playing “Jerusalem of Gold.”
“You have arrived in the State of Israel where today members of different religions and nationalities live together – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druse and Circassians,” said Peres in an address upon the pope’s arrival. “Israel is a Jewish and democratic state where coexistence in peace is implemented, and a state that aspires for peace with all its neighbors. Even if peace calls for sacrifices, the sacrifices of peace are preferable to the threat of war.”
In Israel, the pope will visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, as well as several holy sites in Jerusalem — including the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Cenacle in Jerusalem, the traditional site of Jesus’ Last Supper. Jews consider the site to be King David’s burial place. He will also sign a joint declaration with Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, who heads the Eastern Orthodox Christian church.
In Bethlehem Sunday, the pope called for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and referred to the “state of Palestine.” He also called for peace in a speech upon arriving in Israel.
“All of us must become the builders and constructors of this peace,” he says. “All men and women of this land, and the world at large, are asking us to work towards peace.”
He also invited Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican next month for a prayer summit for peace. Peres and Abbas have accepted the invitation, according to reports, despite Israel’s suspension of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority last month.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO