Franciscan monks greet Pope John Paul II Wednesday at the Milk Grotto Chapel in Bethlehem. (Gabriel Bouys - AFP) Pope John Paul II visited with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Bethlehem Wednesday. Watch _____ On the Web _____ • The Vatican on The Jubilee Pilgrimage to the Holy Land • The Israeli government's Papal Visit site E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 22, 2000; 12:26 PM

BETHLEHEM, March 22 – Making a pilgrimage to the traditional site of Jesus's birth, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed today the Vatican's support for creation of a Palestinian homeland and called for "decisive actions" by world leaders to improve living conditions for 3.1 million Palestinian refugees.

During a day of travel in territory under control of the Palestinian Authority, the pontiff said that "legitimate Palestinian aspirations" should be urgently fulfilled through a negotiated Middle East peace accord. Although Vatican policy has long supported Palestinian rights, the pope's decision to affirm this view so clearly during a week-long visit to holy sites in the region as head of the world largest Christian church was clearly meant to make an impact.

"No one can ignore how much the Palestinian people have had to suffer. . . . Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has gone on too long," the pope said during a half-hour meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat at his residence here.

"In a particular way, my prayers are with those Palestinians – Muslims and Christians – who are still without a home of their own, their proper place in society and the possibility of a normal working life," the pontiff added.

After making these remarks and presiding over a Mass on Manger Square, the pope visited a refugee camp at Dheisheh, home to 9,624 Palestinian refugees – most of them Muslim. The crowded, fetid camp is one of 59 such facilities, which house 1.5 million Palestinians – including many who left when the state of Israel was created on parts of historic Palestine in 1948.

Living conditions for these Palestinian refugees – another 2.4 million live outside the camps – are frequently "degrading," the pope said during his visit to the camp. Long-term living conditions "that are barely tolerable in emergency or for a brief time. . . . the fact that displaced persons are obliged to remain for years in these camps . . . these are the measure of the urgent need for a just solution to the underlying causes of the problem," the pope said.

Speaking to an audience of children and residents at the camp in a rundown school, the pope said "my appeal is for greater international solidarity and the . . . will to meet this challenge" by granting Palestinians the justice that is "their inalienable right."

Arafat had earlier told the pope the Palestinian people welcome "his just positions in support of its cause and its rightful presence on its homeland and as a sovereign and independent people."

But Arafat also sought to use the pope's pilgrimage – which had the trappings of a state visit – to call attention to a longstanding dispute over the fate of the city of Jerusalem, which both Jews and Palestinians claim as their capital. Diverting from his prepared remarks, Arafat describe the city as "Palestine's eternal capital," matching a similar claim made by the Israeli president on Tuesday.

The audience in Manger Square consisted mostly of Palestinian Christians who cheered the pontiff's prescription of reconciliation and enhanced respect for human rights.

"All the people are hoping there will be peace after this visit," said Ida Kattan, an Arabic teacher in Bethlehem who said she came to see the visit of Pope Pius VI in 1964 as a 22-year-old. That visit occurred at 6 a.m., lasted 30 minutes and only concerned religion, not politics, she said. Pope Pius never even mentioned Israel, which the Vatican did not recognize till 1993.

"Pilgrims sometimes distance themselves from the place where they have come. They just want to see the sights," said Susan Silveus, 38, a former native of Indiana who now lives in Jerusalem. "This pope is not like that. He involves himself with the people where he goes. All Christians love the pope and are really happy he's here.

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