Pope calls for Palestinian homeland

POPE Benedict has used his first visit to the Israeli occupied West Bank to express his solidarity with the Palestinian people and issue an explicit call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

"All Palestinian refugees across the world, especially those who lost houses and loved ones during the recent conflict in Gaza, are continually in my prayers," he said, according to a speech released by the Vatican.

In the speech, to have been delivered early this morning Melbourne time at a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, the pontiff said: "My visit to the Aida refugee camp this afternoon gives me a welcome opportunity to express my solidarity with all the homeless Palestinians who long to be able to return to their birthplace or to live permanently in a homeland of their own.

Link