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Source: Israel bans Arafat trip to Bethlehem
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- For a second year in a row, the Israeli government will not allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas services, a senior Israeli diplomatic source said Sunday. Israel will "provide full access to all others who want to go there to celebrate Christmas," the source said. If Arafat attempts to violate the ban, "we will feel free to enter his compound to arrest all the terrorists there," the source said. Last year, Israeli troops confined Arafat to his headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank, following suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa. Israel's Security Cabinet would not allow Arafat, who is a Muslim, to leave his compound to attend the midnight Mass in Bethlehem because the Palestinian Authority had not arrested four militants blamed for the October 2001 killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi. It was the first time since Bethlehem was turned over to Palestinian control under terms of a 1995 interim peace accord that Arafat was not allowed to travel there to attend services at the Church of the Nativity. This Christmas, the Israeli Army will continue to patrol Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, because "it has been a center of terrorist attacks," the diplomatic source said. Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat criticized the move. "I believe the Israeli decision to prevent President Arafat to reach Bethlehem is a major escalation and just a reflection of the determination of the Israeli government to continue on the path of escalation and bloodshed and violence, and we hold the Israeli government fully responsible for such decision," he said.
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