Israel firm on banning Arafat from Bethlehem

Ibrahim Hazboun

Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | 10:03 a.m.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- Despite European and U.S. intervention, Israel said today it would not let Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem unless he arrests the assassins of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

In Bethlehem, Christmas festivities got under way in the afternoon without the Palestinian leader for the first time since 1995. Scouts playing drums and bagpipes marched in a Manger Square procession led by Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in Israel.

An Israeli settler, meanwhile, was shot and seriously injured near the West Bank town of Nablus, officials said -- the first such victim in about a week.

In Bethlehem, the mood was somber, with only local Christians attending the scout march. Manger Square was decorated with Palestinian flags, an Arafat poster and a large banner reading: "Sharon assassinates the joy of Christmas," in a reference to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

Arafat, a Muslim, has said he is determined to make his annual pilgrimage to Bethlehem, but it was unclear by afternoon if he would try to defy the ban and make it to the town for Mass at midnight (2 p.m. PST). He has been confined to his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, 12 miles north of Bethlehem, for weeks by an Israeli blockade. Israeli troops tightened the closure today to prevent Arafat from getting out.

"No one can humiliate the Palestinians or make them lose their determination," Arafat said today of the Israeli ultimatum. When reporters asked Arafat whether he intended to defy the Israeli ban, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo answered for him, saying: "Yes, yes, of course, see you tonight in Bethlehem."

The Israeli ban is a new blow to one of Arafat's symbols of authority -- his annual appearance at the Mass near the site where tradition says Christ was born -- and it highlights the restrictions Israel has placed on Palestinians' movements.

Earlier today, Arafat met with Christian leaders, including Sabbah. "The dignity of President Arafat is the dignity of all of us," Sabbah, a Palestinian, said. "The occupation situation is unfair to the Palestinians and they have to have their freedom. This is the message of Christmas."

Senior European Union diplomats said today they were trying to persuade Israel to rescind the travel ban. "We believe that this decision spoils a lot of positive points that Israel has gained in European opinion in the past few weeks," said the Belgian ambassador to Israel, Wilfred Geens, speaking for the EU.

Geens said Arafat is the only Muslim leader who makes a point of attending Christmas Mass in a show of religious tolerance. "It would look very bad if Arafat were prevented from attending the Mass," Geens told the Associated Press.

American officials spoke by telephone from Washington on Sunday with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to try to get the ban rescinded, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity.

The Vatican also said it was pressing for Arafat to be allowed to Bethlehem. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that "a diplomatic step has been made to avoid this arbitrarily imposed ban," without elaborating.

However, Raanan Gissin, a Sharon adviser, said Israel would not to allow Arafat passage to Bethlehem unless he arrests the assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, activists in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction. Gissin said Israel also wants Arafat to arrest the two leaders of the group, Ahmed Saadat and Jihad Ghoulmi.