Pope John Paul's pilgrimage to the Holy Land took him to Bethlehem yesterday for a visit laden with religious and political symbolism. He used the powerful and emotional location of the birthplace of Christ to endorse Palestinian hopes for a homeland, despite having said he would adhere to purely religious themes during this week-long pilgrimage in the footsteps of Christ. When he kissed a bowl of earth offered by a local boy and girl, Palestinians saw the gesture as putting a Papal seal on their demands for an independent state. But, in his words, the Pope stopped short of formally endorsing Palestinian statehood.
The future of four million Palestinian refugees is among the key issues Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hope to resolve by September, and the Pope used yesterday's part of his pilgrimage to identify with the suffering of Palestinian people, saying it has gone on too long, and visiting a 50-year-old squalid refugee camp. The Vatican had always recognised that the Palestinians "have the natural right to a homeland and the right to live in peace and tranquillity with the other peoples of this area", in the words of the Pope yesterday. Nevertheless, his emotional endorsement of Palestinian hopes was a crowning moment for the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat. Indeed, in the words of one Palestinian minister, the visit as "one of the best moments of his life" for Mr Arafat.
In the face of Palestinian rejoicing, Israel has played down the significance of the Pope's remarks, saying they echo long-standing Vatican policy. It appears the Pope has managed to show his support for the Palestinian cause without infuriating the Israeli leadership. Israeli officials can point out that they are already engaged in negotiating the shape of a future Palestinian homeland. Although Mr Arafat has threatened to declare a state in the West Bank and Gaza later this year, with or without a deal, the Pope's appeal for political leaders "to implement agreements already arrived at" comes in a week that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators open a new round of talks in Washington.
In welcoming the Pope to the Holy Land, President Ezer Weizman has described Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal capital", while Mr Arafat has described the city as the "eternal capital" of Palestine. But, with diplomacy and caution, the Pope has so far avoided all mention of the disputed status of Jerusalem. "He walked between the raindrops" and "steered clear of the minefields", said observers.
However, the major diplomatic test for the Pope may come today when he meets Israel's two chief rabbis and visits the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem. Jewish leaders expect him to make a fuller apology for the behaviour of some Catholics during the Holocaust, going beyond his recent moving plea for forgiveness in Rome. If the Pope can meet those Jewish expectations, having met the expectations of the mainly-Muslim Palestinians, he will truly have achieved great advances in relations between the world's three great monotheistic faiths which regard the Holy Land as sacred.