WESTERN RITE Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank were barred from celebrating Easter and Eastern rite Christians Palm Sunday in Jerusalem yesterday in spite of an appeal from the heads of the 11 Christian communities of the Holy Land and from France.
Israeli soldiers manning check points on the outskirts of the city turned back worshippers bound for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Via Dolorosa for "security reasons" while recent bus bombings in Israel discouraged foreign pilgrims from journeying to Jerusalem.
On Saturday the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, told a cabinet meeting that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was not conducting a dialogue with Hamas and said West Bank personalities had no mandate to mediate between the PNA and the Islamists. As a result it was not clear whether a team of mediators would meet exiled Hamas leaders in Amman this week.
Nevertheless it is expected that the mediators would go ahead with their initiative to end Hamas attacks against Israel and the PNA's arrest campaign against the Islamists.
The basis of the initiative is a proposal for restoring Palestinian unity which was endorsed on March 25th by the PNA representative in Jerusalem, Mr Faisal Husseini, and the head of the Fatah movement in the West Bank, Mr Marwan Barghouti, both close to Mr Arafat, as well as leading figures from the secular and Islamist opposition.
According to the proposal Hamas would accept the PNA as the sole authority in the self rule areas and lay down its arms, while the PNA would adopt political pluralism and permit Hamas To participate in the building of the state.
A leading, Islamist, Mr Jamil Hamami, said the document was produced in response to the people's demand for internal dialogue between all factions".
