Arafat Still Barred From Traveling to Bethlehem

JERUSALEM —  Israel announced an end to the blockade around Bethlehem as a Christmas gesture Thursday but upheld its travel ban on Yasser Arafat despite international protests.

A government spokesman said the Palestinian Authority president will not be able to attend Orthodox Christmas observances in Bethlehem on Jan. 6 unless he arrests the killers of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of trying to sabotage truce efforts after Israeli troops raided Palestinian territory Thursday for the second straight day in pursuit of suspected militants.

Also Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon assured critics in his right-wing Likud Party that he, not moderate Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, will manage future peace negotiations with the Palestinians. “When the day comes for peace talks, I will run them,” Sharon said.

Peres has been holding informal talks with Palestinian parliament Speaker Ahmed Korei, a key negotiator, in the past few weeks. They have been discussing a framework for a possible peace deal in which Israel’s recognition of a Palestinian state would be a first step, officials on both sides said.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer announced late Thursday that Israel was lifting the blockade around Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Christ, to ease access to holy sites during the Christmas season.

The roadblocks have choked off the town, along with other West Bank Palestinian centers, throughout most of the 15 months of Palestinian-Israeli fighting.

The Israelis say the restrictions are necessary to keep militant attackers out of Israel, and they tightened the closures earlier this month after a series of Palestinian suicide bombings.

Arafat has been marooned at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah since an Israeli airstrike destroyed his helicopters Dec. 3 in response to the suicide bombings.

Thursday, soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of about 40 European protesters a few hundred yards from Arafat’s compound. No injuries were reported.

Israel barred Arafat from traveling to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve services, prompting worldwide criticism, including from the United States.

Arafat, a Muslim, has attended Christmas festivities there since Israel handed the town over to Palestinian control in 1995.