Pope to hold mass in Nazareth

By Ari Rabinovitch

NAZARETH, Israel (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will visit Nazareth Thursday, the town of Jesus' boyhood in the heartland of Israel's minority Arab population.

On the fourth day of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the pope was due to celebrate an open-air mass, expected to see the biggest turnout of the tour, at a site where the Bible says an angry mob assaulted Jesus.

The pontiff was also to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In speeches since arriving in Jordan Friday, he has called for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, as backed by Western and Arab states.

Netanyahu has so far declined to endorse that goal.

The Vatican "supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with your neighbours," the pope said on Wednesday in Bethlehem, the town of Jesus' birth.

He also urged both sides to break the stalemate in peace efforts so that a barrier Israel has built in and around the West Bank territory it seized and occupied after the 1967 war could soon be torn down.

"I have seen ... overshadowing much of Bethlehem, the wall that intrudes into your territories, separating neighbours and dividing families," the pope said.

"Although walls can be easily built, we all know that they do not last forever. They can be taken down," he added.