THE HEAD of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation wants Pope John Paul to visit Palestinian refugee camps "to see that the Palestinians also walk on the way of Calvary carrying their cross." PLO leader Yasser Arafat has invited the Pope "in the name of both Christian and Moslem Palestinians."
Mr Arafat also wants Pope John Paul to visit Bethlehem and Jerusalem "when the city has been liberated" and an independent Palestinian state established. He said no Vatican official should visit Jerusalem at this time, because such a visit would "give legality to the occupation, the oppression, the terrorism." He added: "It would be a grave error and a great injustice to the Palestinian people if the Pope were to arrive in the Holy Land during the Zionist occupation," The PLO leader often compared the flight of the Palestinian people to the early days of Christianity.
David Alton — page 5.