Pope urges peaceful coexistence in Holy Land

NAZARETH, Israel (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday urged faiths in the Holy Land to reject hatred and live in peace, underscoring the point by holding hands and singing with Muslims and Jews in Jesuss hometown.
In a poignant moment, the rarely spontaneous pope rose to his feet and held hands with religious leaders inside Nazareths Basilica of the Annunciation as a rabbi sang a peace song that he composed for the pontiff the night before.
The pontiff called earlier for all religious faiths sharing the land revered by the worlds three main monotheistic faiths to put aside the decades of conflict and live in peace.
Sadly Nazareth has experienced tensions in recent years which have harmed relations between its Christian and Muslim communities, he told tens of thousands of people gathered for a morning mass at an open-air amphitheatre just outside Nazareth. I urge people of goodwill in both communities to repair the damage that has been done, and to work to build bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence, he said.
Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, Benedict said on Mount of Precipice, where Christians believe Jesus vanished.
In an address to the religious leaders, the pope said all faiths were united in their desire to protect their youth from violence.
Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world, he said.
The pope later met Israels hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Franciscan convent adjacent to the basilica, who said he asked the pope to denounce statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.
I asked the pope to make his voice heard against statements by Iran for the destruction of Israel, he said. The pope told me: 'I denounce all forms of anti-Semitism and hatred. I have the feeling I was heard.
The Vatican said the two also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during the brief meeting at a convent.
The meeting lasted about 10 minutes and addressed the Middle East peace process and how to make it move forward, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists.
Meanwhile in Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians on Thursday marked the 61st anniversary of the Naqba, the catastrophe that sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees after Israel was created in 1948.
Holding Palestinian flags and photos of Arab villages razed by Israeli forces six decades ago, demonstrators marched in the centre of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The right of return is sacred, No peace without the right of return, read the banners held by the marchers.
The ceremonies took place a day early because the May 15 anniversary of the Naqba falls this year on a Friday, a day off in the mostly Muslim Palestinian territories. In the northern West Bank town of Nablus, about 2,000 people participated in a march, holding Palestinian flags tied with black ribbons as a sign of mourning. In Aqabet Jaber refugee camp, in the oasis town of Jericho, participants unveiled a statue featuring a six-metre (20-foot) metallic key, symbolising the refugees attachment to the houses from which they fled or were forced out in 1948.
Around 700,000 people were exiled in this way in 1948, with the United Nations estimating that today they and their decendants number 4.6 million.
In the Gaza Strip, its Hamas rulers prevented the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from holding a ceremony to mark Naqba in the tiny territory that today is home to one million refugees.
A PLO committee said that Hamas police had prevented the group from holding any events to mark the Naqba, slamming the decision as a violation of political and democratic rights.
Witnesses said Hamas police were deployed in force in the centre of Gaza City, preventing any public gathering. No comment was immediately available from the Islamists.