Pope Endorses Arafat’s Quest for Statehood

Taking his Holy Land pilgrimage into Palestinian territory, Pope John Paul II prayed Wednesday at Jesus’ birthplace and then bestowed a ringing endorsement on Yasser Arafat’s quest for an independent homeland.

John Paul kissed Palestinian soil--a gesture normally reserved for sovereign states--and heard fiery speeches from Palestinian refugees demanding to be restored to their homes in what is today Israel. He in turn deplored the “degrading conditions” of their lives in refugee camps, calling for an end to their 52-year plight.

“No one can ignore how much the Palestinian people have had to suffer in recent decades,” the pope said shortly after an Israeli air force helicopter deposited him in the West Bank near Palestinian Authority President Arafat’s official residence.

“Your torment is before the eyes of the world,” he said. “And it has gone on too long.”

Urging decisive action by the international community and a “just and lasting peace,” the pope emphasized that Palestinians have “the natural right to a homeland.”

In a day replete with exalted prayer and emotional politics, the pope was escorted in Bethlehem and later to the Dahaisha refugee camp by a visibly delighted Arafat, whose Palestinian Authority now rules 40% of the West Bank that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War. The two aging leaders often walked hand in hand.

“It is an international signal for the whole world,” Arafat said of the pope’s presence in the West Bank, seizing quickly on the opportunity to assert the Palestinians’ claim to Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, a pointed challenge to Israel. Arafat has said that he will declare an independent state before the end of the year.

The pope, on the third day of a historic journey through the crossroads of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, is under enormous pressure to balance the competing agendas of Israeli authorities, with whom he is seeking to improve relations, and the Palestinians, whose precarious status is of profound humanitarian concern to the pontiff.

On Tuesday, John Paul was received with full honors by Israel’s top government figures upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport on the first-ever official papal visit to the Jewish state. On Wednesday, Arafat sought to match the reception, giving the pontiff a red carpet, honor guard and long line of hands to shake.

The political jockeying continued as Arafat, departing from his prepared text during the welcoming ceremony, asserted his claim to an “eternal” capital in Jerusalem, echoing the same claim made by Israeli President Ezer Weizman and the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, the day before.

Yet there was extraordinary religious significance to the pope’s mission Wednesday, as well, as he continued his lifelong dream of retracing the steps of Jesus, who wandered this land 2,000 years ago.

Dressed in golden robes and miter, the pontiff said Mass to thousands of Christians gathered in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, a short distance from the grotto where the Virgin Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus.

He waved his hand to bless the crowd. “Salaam aleikum,” he said in Arabic. “Peace be upon you.”

Reflecting the diversity of the Holy Land’s tiny Christian community, prayers were recited in Arabic, English and Spanish, and rites followed Maronite, Byzantine and Latin traditions. The pope also shared air time with a wailing muezzin.

A giant poster of Arafat and the pope hung behind the stage that served as the pontifical altar. During Mass, Arafat sat in the front row with his Christian-born wife, Suha. The plaza was festooned with Vatican and Palestinian flags.

Crowds of Palestinians in the square, and along the route that the pope traveled, shouted “Viva Baba!”--using the Arabic word for father. Little girls tossed flowers, and elderly nuns clambered onto stepladders to get a better look at their Holy Father.

“Do not be afraid to preserve your Christian presence and heritage in the very place where the savior was born,” the pope told the crowd.

At the precise moment the pope ended his homily with a firm “Amen,” the Islamic call to midday prayer rang out from the nearby Omar ibn Khatab mosque. The pope paused in meditation, his chin resting in his hands.

Although some priests appeared taken aback by the muezzin’s wail--a reminder that Christians are a minority in the birthplace of Christ--it in fact was the product of a carefully arranged compromise. The muezzin agreed to wait for the pope’s pause and then shortened the usual reading of Koranic verses to a few chants of “Allahu akbar!”--”God is great!”--broadcast by loudspeaker over the plaza that the mosque shares with the Church of the Nativity.

Later, at the church, the pope knelt briefly in prayer at the Greek Orthodox altar over a 15-point star designating the spot where Christ is said to have been born. Then he moved to the Roman Catholic part of the church, knelt at a replica of the manger where the infant Jesus lay, asked to be left alone and prayed in silence for 20 minutes.

Baher Kazzaleh, a Christian from Bethlehem who works as a blackjack dealer in a casino in Jericho, was among the several thousand people who heard the pope under gray, damp skies.

“I can’t tell you what the odds for peace are,” the 24-year-old Palestinian said. “It’s something only the bosses decide. The people--we’re just spectators. But John Paul is our big boss, so maybe he’ll have some influence.”

Both Israelis and Palestinians have hoped to use the papal presence to enhance recognition of their political claims. Israeli authorities, wary of the pope’s visit to a Palestinian refugee camp, had braced for a more specific affirmation of the refugees’ right to return to land that is now Israel, something considered anathema to the survival of the Jewish state. In the end, they were relieved that the pope, who has never concealed his sympathy for the Palestinian cause, had treaded more gingerly.

Haim Ramon, the Israeli Cabinet minister in charge of the pope’s visit, noted that, after all, Israel is already negotiating the form and scope of Palestinian self-rule. As for Jerusalem, he dismissed Arafat’s attempts to drag the pope into that most intractable of disputes.

“The difference between us is that Arafat sits in Bethlehem and speaks of Jerusalem,” Ramon said. “We are sitting here [in Jerusalem] and receiving him in Jerusalem, in our sovereign city of Jerusalem.”

John Paul ended his day in Palestinian territory with a private meeting with Arafat at the heliport just before flying back to Jerusalem. The two men sat under a painting of the golden Dome of the Rock, the seminal Muslim symbol of Jerusalem, and the pope received a medal for his “work on behalf of the Palestinian struggle.”

The pope told Arafat, “I know that you too are convinced that only patience and courageous dialogue will offer the way to the future that your people rightly deserve.”

As the pope’s helicopter took off for the five-mile hop back to Jerusalem, Arafat told reporters that he longs for the day when the pope visits him in a Palestinian-ruled East Jerusalem. “Inshallah”--”God willing”--he said, “we will stand together in a similar position in Jerusalem, the capital of the independent Palestinian state.”

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Boudreaux reported from Bethlehem and Wilkinson from Jerusalem.