Holy Land: Storm forces Obama to see Separation Wall up close

Separation Wall- image ICN

Barack Obama ended his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories today with a desert storm disrupting his schedule. Instead of flying to Bethlehem by helicopter, he had to travel by road, passing close by the massive eight-metre-high concrete wall that separates the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Obama had to wait two hours while Israeli police blocked roads to allow the presidential convoy to pass through. Palestinians regularly have to wait up to eight hours to get through the wall to go to work, see family or attend church services.

The President spent 30 minutes in the Church of the Nativity, on the site where Jesus was born. He was greeted by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, who said: "We welcome you as a messenger of peace and reconciliation."

Vera Baboun, the first female mayor of Bethlehem, said Obama's visit was an opportunity to learn of the obstacles facing her city. "It's important that President Obama comes and sees, as a president, and listens, because we need acts," she said. "Enough is enough, I think. We waited a long time."

After meeting other Christian leaders in the company of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, the presidential convoy left for Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv to fly to Jordan.

During his three-day visit the president laid wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, and the assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. He spent an hour at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial.

See also: Rabbi Lerner asesses Obama visit to Holy Land www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22210

and Plans to build military school on Mount of Olives postponed during Obama visit www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22191