Pope Walks Out of Meeting After Palestinian Outburst

Monday, May 11, 2009 3:32 PM

By: Nicole Jansezian


JERUSALEM – An meeting of 300 religious leaders hosted by the Pope came to an abrupt end Monday night when a Palestinian sheikh, who was not on the program, forced his way to the pulpit to criticize Israel.


The head of Sharia courts in the Palestinian Authority, Taysir Tamimi, made an animated plea to the Pope to fight for “a just peace for a Palestinian state and for Israel to stop killing women and children and destroying mosques as she did in Gaza.”


“Israel destroys Palestinian cities and establishes settlements on Palestinian land,” he cried in a rising voice, adding that Jerusalem “will remain the capital of a Palestinian state.”


Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the outburst a “provocation” and said that instead of “fostering peace and co-exstistence chose to plant seeds of division and confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians and also between Jews, Muslims and Christians.”


“It is a shame that the extremists are those who represent the Palestinians and the Muslims in his important event in the presence of the Holy See,” said Aviv Shiron of the Foreign MInistry.


The speech was given in Arabic with no translation, but most local Christians and Muslims present understood what was said. Others simply understood the intent.


“If the Pope wasn’t there, I could stand up and leave the room, but I didn’t want to insult the Pope,” Oded Wiener, director general of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, told Newsmax after the incident.


Wiener and his Palestinian friend from the Islamic land trust were supposed to present a gift to the Pope after the scheduled speeches, but the Pope left the stage after Tamimi finished his speech, which wasn’t stopped by officials at the dialogue.


During the speech, some in the audience got up to leave, but most attendees stayed put, some laughed while others even applauded enthusiastically when Tamimi finally brought his statement to a close.


The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the interruption was “a direct negation of what a dialogue should be. We hope that such an incident will not damage the mission of the Pope” and inter-religious dialogue.


“We hope also that inter-religious dialogue in the Holy Land will not be compromised by this incident,” Lombardi added, in his statement.


Outbursts like these are not uncommon for Tamimi, who was specifically banned from speaking tonight because he has chosen to speak off-topic at other gatherings.


“All religious people in the world of all other religions need to guard the Palestinians from Israel and protect their lands,” he implored.


Wiener accused Tamimi of “time and again” spoiling the dialogue.


“We want to speak about peace and he speaks hatred,” he said. “He embarrassed the Pope and wasn’t supposed to speak tonight. The fact that a person like him ... used an internal stage instead of seeking peace, promoting peace instead of using the opportunity with the Pope to promote peace, he spoke about hatred and terrorism.”


http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pope_pa...13147.html

Israel should have crushed the Palestinians when they had the chance.

We have to realize that this isn't war that will ever, EVER end. Both groups want that land.

(05-11-2009 05:42 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  We have to realize that this isn't war that will ever, EVER end. Both groups want that land.

Not true. It will end when everyone is dead from fighting a war to prove who owns the land.

They've fought since biblical times. They don't die, they multiply

there weren't any muslims during biblical times.


land has been fought over, in pretty much all the world, for all of history pretty much. US citizens tend to forget how relatively tame the last few decades have been, historically speaking.

Well, Israel does establish settlements on Palestinian land, and has been doing that for a while. So he's right about that. At best (for the Palestinians) Jerusalem would be an open city. I'm surprised they let him continue if he wasn't even supposed to be presenting. I wonder what he said that had to do with hatred? They didn't mention that.

(05-11-2009 08:22 PM)GGniner Wrote:  there weren't any muslims during biblical times.


land has been fought over, in pretty much all the world, for all of history pretty much. US citizens tend to forget how relatively tame the last few decades have been, historically speaking.

There weren't muslims, but these ethnic groups were. They've had fights in this area by the same groups of people forever, albeit under different labels.

Todays Muslims/Palestinians are yesterday's Philistines, Amorites, Malekites, Phoenecians, etc. If you read the bible you'll find lots of these people that Israel defeated and then lost to and then were all assimilated into Babylon and then got to go home from Babylon by Persia and then were ruled by the Greeks (Ptolomy's) and later Egyptians, and then the Romans, and then the Muslims and then the Christians and then the Muslims, and then the British, and then the Germans and then Israel. The fact is that all of these people are descendants of Abraham either through Issac or Ishmael or both.

(05-18-2009 03:24 PM)EastStang Wrote:  Todays Muslims/Palestinians are yesterday's Philistines, Amorites, Malekites, Phoenecians, etc. If you read the bible you'll find lots of these people that Israel defeated and then lost to and then were all assimilated into Babylon and then got to go home from Babylon by Persia and then were ruled by the Greeks (Ptolomy's) and later Egyptians, and then the Romans, and then the Muslims and then the Christians and then the Muslims, and then the British, and then the Germans and then Israel. The fact is that all of these people are descendants of Abraham either through Issac or Ishmael or both.

The Philistines most certainly were not. Nor were the Amorites. It is unlikely that the Phoenicians had any connection to Abraham (although it's conceivable that some could trace ancestry to him), and while there is some minor debate, it seems that Malekites were not descended from him either.