PALESTINIANS scored a diplomatic triumph today when Pope Francis landed in Palestine and called the stalemate in peace talks “unacceptable.” 

He immediately stopped to pray in front of the Israeli apartheid wall under a spray-painted slogan calling for a Free Palestine.

Previous popes always went to the West Bank after first arriving at Tel Aviv in Israel. 

Pope Francis, however, landed in Bethlehem from Jordan and immediately headed into a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Standing alongside President Abbas, the Pope declared: “The time has come to put an end to this situation, which has become increasingly unacceptable.”

He said both sides needed to make sacrifices to create two states with internationally recognised borders.

“The time has come for everyone to find the courage to be generous and creative in the service of the common good,” he said.

In reply, President Abbas voiced his concerns about the recent breakdown in US-backed peace efforts and lamented the difficulties facing the Palestinians.

He listed a series of complaints against Israel, including continued settlement construction, the plight of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, Israel’s control of east Jerusalem and Israel’s construction of the “ugly wall.”

“Your visit is loaded with symbolic meaning as a defender of the poor and marginalised,” Mr Abbas said.

“We welcome any initiative from you to make peace a reality.”

Palestinian officials welcomed the Pope’s decision to arrive in Bethlehem rather than Tel Aviv and to refer to the “state of Palestine.” 

In its official programme, the Vatican referred to Mr Abbas as the president of the state of Palestine and his Bethlehem office as the presidential palace.

That he came straight from Jordan to Bethlehem without going through Israel was tacit recognition of a Palestinian state said Hanan Ashrawi, who is a Christian and a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

At the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the visit “an opportunity to present the real Israel — the advanced, modern, tolerant Israel.”

As he spoke, about 8,000 police were deployed in Jerusalem and 320 closed-circuit surveillance cameras monitored the old city.