Despite European and US intervention, Israel banned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from attending Christmas Mass in Bethlehem unless he arrests the assassins of an Israeli Cabinet minister.
The Israeli military sent reinforcements to checkpoints ringing the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Arafat is staying, to tighten the blockade preventing the Palestinian leader from leaving. Bethlehem, Jesus's traditional birthplace, is about 12 miles south of Ramallah.
Arafat, has said he is determined to make his annual pilgrimage to Bethlehem, and walk, if necessary. However, the 72-year-old leader was not expected to go on foot, a journey that would take him through hilly territory, past Israeli tanks.
The mood in Bethlahem was sombre, and many local Christians said they were angry about the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's travel ban. Manger Square was decorated with Palestinian flags, an Arafat poster and a large banner reading: "Sharon assassinates the joy of Christmas."
Arafat, who has effectively been confined to Ramallah in recent weeks by an Israeli blockade, has attended Midnight Mass in Bethlehem every year since 1995, when Israel withdrew from Bethlehem and other West Bank towns.
Arafat said yesterday that, "no one has the right to prevent us from fulfilling our duty to God, despite all kinds of weapons and M-16s that (the Israelis) have."
As part of his efforts to rally international support, Arafat today met Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah in Ramallah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land. There were indications of contacts involving Western diplomats in an attempt to work out a compromise.
However, Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said today that 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.
Otherwise, "he will not be allowed freedom of movement," Gissin said. "Both of them (Saadat and Ghoulmi), and the two killers (of Zeevi) are in Ramallah, and Arafat knows exactly where they are. Yet he has not arrested them."
Gissin said Saadat and Ghoulmi were behind plans for a new suicide attack in the Israeli port city of Haifa. Yesterday, Israeli police arrested two Palestinian suspects in Haifa, and said explosives were found in their hotel rooms.
Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said if Arafat was not allowed to attend, he would boycott the service "in protest against the irresponsible and stupid Israeli measures."
Dissenters in Sharon's divided Cabinet were also openly critical of the decision. "This is a silly, inflammatory and unjustified decision," said Industry and Trade Minister Dalia Itzik of the moderate Labour party.
Arafat has been marooned at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah since an Israeli air strike destroyed his helicopters on December 3. Israeli subsequently tightened the cordon around Palestinian towns. The Israeli moves came in response to a deadly series of Palestinian attacks.
AP