ROME, OCT. 24, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Yasser Arafat has sent a personal appeal to John Paul II, while a senior Palestinian official in Italy said the Pope should intervene to help resolve the Mideast crisis, Reuters reported.
Nemer Hammad, the top Palestinian Authority official in Italy, said Palestinian President Arafat had sent the appeal but did not reveal the details of Arafat's letter, the news agency said.
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Hammad as saying the Pope should intervene and that only a voice as respected as the Pope's could hope to diffuse Mideast tension.
"Palestinians need the intervention of such a prestigious person who is above politics,'' Hammad said.
"Whoever has the power to do so, should speak out today,'' he said, adding that international intervention was needed if four weeks of violence, resulting in the deaths of at least 135 people, the vast majority Arabs, was to be diffused.
Israeli soldiers in a Jerusalem suburb and Palestinians in a nearby Arab town exchanged gunfire today as the ever-widening rift between the two sides threatened to split the Mideast neighbors irrevocably, CNN reported.
The Polish Pontiff made a historic trip to the Holy Land in March, and several times in recent months has used his weekly addresses to appeal for peace in the region.
ZE00102421
24. oktober 2000