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CNN Saturday Morning News

Christians Make Pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Good Friday

Aired April 14, 2001 - 07:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Christian pilgrims from around the world braved tensions in the Middle East to mark Good Friday in Jerusalem, but the crowds are thinner than in previous years.

Here's CNN's Jerrold Kessel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Good Friday, the Via Dolorosa, and the tight but generally unobtrusive Israeli security, the faithful of several Christian denominations wend their way down the Way of the Cross, the traditional route taken by Jesus on his way to his crucifixion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very relevant to what Easter's all about when you see armed soldiers and obviously a certain (audio interrupt) in the air.

KESSEL: Prayers and hymns softly chanted, even one crude attempt to simulate the events of two millennia ago. Candles and crosses, small, large, and very large, but much, much smaller than normal, the number of pilgrims, because of the current violence in the area.

This year, Western and Eastern churches observe Easter the same week, which would normally have meant a shoulder-to-shoulder crush at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, for most Christians, site of the crucifixion.

Separate ceremonies of the different denominations, but people from around the globe mingle easily.

(on camera): The atmosphere here is in marked contrast to what's happening this holy season between the peoples of the Holy Land themselves, arrayed as they are in battle across their divide.

(voice-over): Palestinians headed for the main Muslim weekly prayers, and Israelis worshiped at Judaism's holiest shrine during their Passover week.

MONSIGNOR PIETRO SAMBI, PAPAL NUNCIO: On the Way of the Cross, I was praying, Oh Lord, give to these people wisdom to stop, to make each other (inaudible) sufferings, to understand each other, at least the suffering of each other, and to take another way of dialogue and the way of peace. KESSEL: No sign of that in the unrelieved confrontation. A 14- year-old Palestinian boy mourned. He was shot and killed on a main West Bank road where Palestinians say there'd been no violence. The Israeli army says soldiers shot at someone trying to throw a firebomb at a bus, triggering an exchange of gunfire.

In the Palestinian town of Ramallah, a car blows up in an empty field. Palestinians say the booby-trapped car was intended as an Israeli assassination attempt on a leading activist in Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. And as Palestinians demonstrate, a declaration that will add to the anger. Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says any future Palestinian state will be restricted to less than half the West Bank.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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