Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin has announced he will not take part in the Ben-Gurion Airport welcoming ceremony of Pope Benedict XVI on Monday. He will also absent himself from the official ceremony in the President’s Residence.
Rivlin will however take part in the pope’s visit to Yad Vashem. The Speaker explained the pope does not view himself visiting Eretz Yisrael, but the “Holy Land” and he is disturbed by the visit, explaining he can not brush aside the pope’s serving in the Hitler Youth or his more recent act, his attempt to have Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson reinstated.
Also boycotting the pontiff at the airport will be a number of MKs, including Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), Eliezer Moses (Yahadut HaTorah) and Dr. Michal Ben-Air (Ichud HaLeumi).
Moses stated l’havdil elef Alfei havdolos, he prefers to make his way to Kever Rashbi over visiting the pope. Ben-Ari cited the pontiff’s recent and distant history as cited above, prompting his decision.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
Although I doubt the pope will care, or even know about it, but it is great to see people in power forgo their “kovod” and stick to their principles
Rivlin’s background as the grandson of the great Rav and builder Rav Rivlin has the correct attitude.
Notice which guy’s wearing the yarmuka in the picture. Yeah – a real chazer-feesel. Now don’t catch the flu.
attention charliehall:the pope,then known as joe ratzinger in fact DID volunteer for the hitlerjugend
along with his brother,two of only several that joined from his hometown.The majority of kids from
his town did NOT join.The statement that he was coerced into joining is a crock!
Roger Green, how do you know that?
Charlie Hall, what do you mean that Williamson “must renounce his holocaust denial if he is ever to be reinstated to the Church”? He has been “reinstated”, i.e. his cherem has been lifted and he is allowed to take communion. What more “reinstatement” does he need? What I THINK you mean is that if he wants a license to practise as a clergyman then he must conform himself to the Church’s views and stop bringing it into disrepute.
Oh, and by the way, he IS a Roman Catholic bishop. He was consecrated by an archbishop, and that makes him a bishop. There’s nothing the Pope can do about it. In fact he was originally put in cherem for accepting that consecration without permission from the Pope. But he does not have a license to practise as a clergyman, so his status as a bishop doesn’t really matter.