Wednesday, February 16 2000 / 10 Adar I 5760 http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/02/16/News/News.2731.html

Gov't: Vatican meddling with PA peace talks
By Judy Siegel and News Agencies

JERUSALEM (February 16) - The government yesterday accused the Vatican of interfering in the peace talks with the Palestinians by signing an accord with the PLO that cautioned Israel to refrain from unilateral decisions affecting Jerusalem.

"The agreement... is an interference in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and we regret this," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the agreement, which denounced "unilateral decisions" on Jerusalem as "morally and legally unacceptable."

The ministry said that the representative of the Holy See in Israel had been called for an "urgent meeting" today with Director-General Eytan Bentsur to discuss the matter.

The agreement was the most significant development in the Palestine Liberation Organization's relations with the Vatican since official ties were established in 1994. It came ahead of next month's historic visit here by the pope. In signing the agreement yesterday, the Vatican joined the Palestinians in strongly condemning Israel's hold over all of Jerusalem as "morally and legally unacceptable."

The two sides also signed an agreement that called for an internationally guaranteed statute to preserve "the proper identity and sacred character" of the city.

The text did not mention Israel, which considers Jerusalem its indivisible capital and has repeatedly ignored previous Vatican calls for such a statute.

The Vatican's stance underscored the difficulties Pope John Paul II may face on his March 20-26 tour of Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

Such strong wording in the bilateral agreement appeared to take Israel by surprise.

"We express our dismay," said Zvi Tal, spokesman of the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See. Tal said that while the Vatican's stance was known, yesterday's action amounted to interference in ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He also said the Palestinians appeared to breach an agreement with Israel, limiting the types of further agreements they could make. The accord covers the Vatican's relations with the PLO and the status of churches and the freedom of worship in the Palestinian territories.

It was signed on the same day that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Pope John Paul II and sprang a last-minute invitation - accepted by the pope - to add another Palestinian city, Jericho, to his itinerary. He is also scheduled to visit Bethlehem and a Palestinian refugee camp.

The preamble of the basic agreement declares that an "equitable solution" for Jerusalem based on international resolutions is "fundamental for a just and lasting peace." It says that "unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable."

The Vatican, like many states, has never recognized Israel's occupation of the eastern section of the city. The final status of Jerusalem is to be decided in talks between Israelis and the Palestinians, acknowledged as one of the most difficult points in the entire peace process.

During a 1998 visit to Israel, the Vatican's foreign minister caused a stir when he called the Israeli presence in east Jerusalem an "illegal occupation."

Pope Paul VI visited Jerusalem, but that was in 1964 when the eastern side, containing the major Christian, Moslem, and Jewish shrines, was in Jordanian hands.

The frail 79-year-old pope appeared in good form as he welcomed Arafat into private talks, their ninth meeting at the Vatican. As photographers snapped, the two were speaking in English about the pope's upcoming trip when Arafat announced the pope had also agreed to visit Jericho.

Later asked when the additional stop had been decided, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said "about 15 minutes ago." A formal communique issued by the Vatican said the pope repeated the Holy See's "solidarity" with the Palestinian people "[which] is still waiting to see [its] legitimate aspirations realized."

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry is coordinating the largest-ever medical support for a visiting dignitary in the country's history in preparation for the pope's arrival next month. The effort, said Dr. Michael Dor, the head of the ministry's community medicine department and who is heading the effort, is bigger than for any US president who visited the country.

"The pontiff is an elderly man with medical problems," said Dor, whose specialty is family medicine. "We also prepared for the visit of Boris Yeltsin, who is ailing, but his was only a one-day tour."

It is known that the pope suffers from Parkinson's disease. Dor said he has spoken to the pope's personal physician and received "all the necessary medical information." He added that the pope will be accompanied throughout his six-day visit by two physicians from Rome, as well as one or two Israeli doctors specializing in intensive care and paramedics from Magen David Adom. Wherever the pope is during his pilgrimage, nearby hospitals will be on alert.

Security officials have compared notes with counterparts in Spain and in South America, where John Paul previously visited. According to Vatican protocol, the pope always stays overnight at the home of the Vatican ambassador of the country he is visiting, not at a hotel.

Dor's Palestinian counterparts have been cooperating in preparing for the medical arrangements, but not the Jordanians, he said. The Palestinians have appointed a cardiologist of their own to accompany the pope during his visit to Bethlehem and other areas under their jurisdiction.

Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Yehuda Wilk said yesterday that 17,695 police officers will be responsible for securing the pope - and the tens of thousands of pilgrims expected with him - throughout the country and the Palestinian Authority areas. Israeli police will also oversee security on the Temple Mount when the pope visits there on March 26.

The pope will spend a full day in Bethlehem and a half-day in Nazareth. Police surveillance cameras will be set up in Bethlehem and Nazareth and monitored in Jerusalem.

Wilk mapped out the papal itinerary, which begins on March 21 when the pope and his entourage arrive from a day in Jordan. It includes a day in Jerusalem meeting with President Ezer Weizman, the chief rabbis, and a visit to Yad Vashem. He will travel to the Christian holy site of Korazim on Lake Kinneret, to Nazareth, and spend a day-and-a-half in Jerusalem's Old City, visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Around 54,000 Christian pilgrims and 2,000 members of the press are expected to arrive for the visit.

In Jerusalem's Old City, the pope will have to abandon his "popemobile," the car with a transparent bulletproof shield he uses on trips abroad, because it is too big for its alleyways. He'll instead use an armored vehicle of the General Security Service.

A tent for 6,000 people is to be set up in the Old City to accommodate the expected crowd during a March 24 outdoor mass.

(Tamar Hausman contributed to this report.)