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Bethlehem prayer palestinians { December 24 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=1959285http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=1959285
Christmas Gloom Pervades Bethlehem
Tue December 24, 2002 08:51 PM ET
By Mark Heinrich
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land issued a strong appeal in a Christmas Midnight Mass on Wednesday for an end to strife and freedom for Palestinians from Israeli occupation.
Speaking in French to a packed congregation in the Roman Catholic Saint Catherine's church, adjoining the Church of the Nativity where by tradition Jesus was born, Patriarch Michel Sabbah told Israelis:
"Blood has been flowing in your cities and streets, but the key to solving this conflict is in your hands. By your actions so far, you have crushed the Palestinian people but you still have not achieved peace."
He called for "a new vision" to achieve peace and security.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was but a ghost of Christmas past at the mass, his empty chair a symbol of holiday gloom in a town ringed by Israeli armor as torrential rain teemed down.
Sabbah, himself a Palestinian and the Vatican's senior representative in the Holy Land, addressed the empty chair which Arafat -- although a Muslim -- has occupied in the past before Israelis banned his presence for a second straight year.
"We wish you were with us tonight, and we call on God to give you the wisdom and the power under this siege to continue your mission toward peace and justice," Sabbah said.
Arafat's front-row seat was as last year draped with a checkered Arab headdress, a symbol of his struggle for a homeland.
On the chair was a sign in English reading: "His Excellency Yasser Arafat, President of the State of Palestine," framed by a drawing of the Palestinian flag.
RAFAT BARRED FROM BETHLEHEM
Israel barred Arafat from traveling to Bethlehem from his headquarters at nearby Ramallah, accusing him of fomenting violence in the uprising for statehood that erupted more than two years ago. Arafat denies the allegation.
At least 1,736 Palestinians and 671 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks broke down.
Even an Israeli military pullback to the outskirts of Bethlehem failed to bring comfort and joy to residents of what used to be a prosperous place of pilgrimage packed with Christian tourists.
But the crash of worshippers -- including many foreigners -- inside the church was so great that some fainted and had to be helped out.
"This Christmas finds us in difficult circumstances with the doors of life closed," Sabbah told them in Arabic.
"We will continue to demand our freedom and dignity...the Palestinian people want to say to the Israeli people that we wish you peace, security and well-being. With such peace, Palestinians want freedom and an end to occupation," he said.
"We ask you (Israelis) that you understand the reason for the violence, and this is (the) occupation. You need new leaders with a new vision, or you must help your leaders to adopt a new vision that will give all peoples here peace and security."
"Bethlehem is a sad city," Mayor Hanna Nasser earlier told reporters. "It's the first time in the city's history that the Christmas tree is not lit -- in protest against the Israeli occupation."
SECURITY LOW-KEY
There were no signs of Israeli troops in the vicinity of Manger Square and Palestinian security was low-key.
The only sign of Christmas festivity, however, was a neon side on the side of a public building opposite the Church of the Nativity saying "Merry Christmas" in English.
Israeli troops had patrolled and imposed curfews in Bethlehem for the past month after reoccupying the West Bank city following a suicide bombing that killed 11 Israelis on a Jerusalem bus. Bethlehem was the bomber's hometown.
"Now they have prevented me for the second time to participate with my brothers in the Nativity Church," Arafat told reporters in his battered headquarters in Ramallah, some 20 km (12 miles) from Bethlehem.
"In spite of that, I am sending from my heart my greetings, 'Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas', and we hope that we will meet together in Jerusalem and also in Bethlehem."
In an apparent goodwill gesture following appeals from Pope John Paul, the Israeli army said it had withdrawn to the edges of Bethlehem.
But it said it would "continue to operate according to the security situation and existing terror threats."
The army said Palestinian Christians with security permits, foreign tourists and pilgrims would be allowed into Bethlehem for Christmas events. The city came under Palestinian rule in 1995 but Israel controls its entrances.
Since the start of the uprising, souvenir shops have gone out of business, hotels have closed for lack of guests and the tour buses that once plied the streets have vanished.
Christians are a tiny minority among the three million mostly Muslim Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but they make up about 35 percent of the 140,000 people in Bethlehem and its satellite villages.
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