Palestinians Welcome Pope to Refugee Camp in West Bank

They covered the walls of this teeming camp with symbols of their years of suffering and their longing for statehood.

They cleaned the camp’s streets--but not too much, because they wanted the world to see the reality of the squalid conditions in which they live.

And then thousands of Palestinian refugees gave a jubilant welcome to Pope John Paul II, greeting him during a brief visit here Wednesday with cheers, flags and, for many, the fervent hope that his presence might help spell an end to their plight.

“You have been deprived of many things which represent basic needs of the human person: proper housing, health care, education and work,” John Paul told a crowd of refugees gathered to hear him in a banner-festooned courtyard of the rundown Dahaisha boys school.

The pope’s words were a comfort to this sprawling camp’s 10,000 residents, who are members of Palestinian families who fled or were driven from their homes when Israel was created half a century ago. But less than an hour after John Paul left the camp, tensions and frustrations here boiled over, leading to a stone-throwing melee that left several people slightly injured.

Camp residents said the clash, which lasted almost 30 minutes, involved refugees and Palestinian police. They said it began amid continuing frustration here at the slow pace of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and anger at what several described as strong-arm tactics of police during the papal visit. The police prevented all but a handful of the refugees from approaching the pontiff.

“He came to visit us, and we could not even see him,” said Ismail Nassar, 52, an olive-wood craftsman who had hoped to present the pope with a small carving of Jesus. “The police kept him so far away.”

Nassar and a few others expressed minor disappointment that the pope didn’t offer explicit support for the right of the refugees to return to their homes under a final agreement with Israel. Many refugees insist that any such accord must include their right to return to the homes and land they lost in 1948 in present-day Israel; Israeli officials have said that will never happen.

“What he said was acceptable, but it was not 100% of what we hoped for,” said Nassar, who wore a black-and-white kaffiyeh, the Palestinians’ traditional headdress, in honor of the visit.

Mainly, however, the refugees said they were grateful for the pope’s presence and words of support, which came just as another round of Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive agreement got underway this week near Washington. Several said they hope the visit will help push the refugee issue high on the agenda for those talks.

“The pope’s timing is excellent,” said Amjed abu Laban, who listened to the pope’s speech in a courtyard strung with Palestinian, Vatican and U.N. flags and decorated with paintings depicting the Palestinian struggle. “It’s hard to imagine that his presence here will not have some effect, indirect perhaps, on these negotiations. We hope it will tip the balance in our favor.”

Riding in his glass-enclosed popemobile and surrounded by a small army of police officers, John Paul began his visit here with a quick drive through the camp, a jumble of makeshift cinder-block structures and narrow, rutted alleys, before proceeding to the school. There, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat took the pope’s hand and led him into the school, where the two aging leaders sat under a banner that read, “The right of return is a sacred right.”

“You bear the sad memory of what you were forced to leave behind, not just material possessions,” the pope said, “but your freedom, the closeness of relatives and the familiar surroundings and cultural traditions which nourished your personal and family life.”

Eager to make the most of a rare opportunity to seize the media spotlight, Dahaisha’s residents had been preparing for the visit for weeks. They daubed political slogans on the camp’s walls and planned ways to showcase their history, including photographic exhibits and long lines of residents holding the keys to houses many had not seen in more than 50 years.

The pope drove past long lines of Dahaisha children, some dressed in traditional Palestinian clothes and others wearing T-shirts showing the names of their families’ original villages. Still others, children of prisoners in Israeli jails, wore chains wrapped around their hands.

Nassar, whose family fled its village west of Jerusalem when Israel’s War of Independence broke out, said he hopes that the pope’s status as a venerated religious leader will persuade the international community, particularly U.S. leaders, to find a solution to the refugees’ long ordeal. “We cannot wait forever,” he said.

But others, who said they had watched other world leaders come and go through the years, were less hopeful.

“I don’t think it will help us because Israel will not listen to anyone,” said a 35-year-old resident who gave his name only as Khaled. “Even if a million popes will come, it will not help.”