Pope Francis used the final day of his tour of the Middle East to visit some of the most important holy sites for Muslims and Jews.<br /><br />His day started with a visit to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Ahmed Hussein at the al-Aqsa mosque compound; considered the third holiest site in Islam.<br /><br />There, he urged Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together for peace and to condemn intolerance.<br /><br />Speaking in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other dignitaries at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, he talked of the “boundless tragedy of the Shoah”.<br /><br />The memorial commemorates some six million Jews who perished during World War Two.<br /><br />Religion played a large part in the timetable. Francis became the first pontiff to lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, seen as the founder of the modern Zionism that led to Israel’s foundation.<br /><br />Later in the day, he left a written prayer in a crack in the Western Wall, an important religious site for Jews. <br /><br />At the controversial Israeli security barrier separating Bethlehem in the West Bank from Jerusalem, the pontiff prayed at the Wall for several minutes.<br /><br />Euronews correspondent Luis Carballo reported from Jerusalem:<br />“In his trip to the Holy Land Pope Francis prayed at two walls: the separation wall in Bethlehem and the Western Wall here in Jerusalem,” he said. “In two weeks Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make a similar gesture, by praying together in Rome.”
