BETHLEHEM – The death of Pope John Paul II deeply saddened Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land, who this week recalled the Pope’s tireless work to bring peace to this strife-ridden region.

Jews in Israel and abroad were deeply touched by John Paul’s 1979 visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, not far from his hometown in Poland, and his 1986 visit to a Rome synagogue.

They were also moved by his millennium-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he placed a prayer into a crack of the Western Wall, and at Yad Vashem, the country’s Holocaust memorial.

And while the Israeli government was sometimes at odds with the Pope over certain issues — for example, the security barrier that has cut off Palestinians from Jerusalem but which Israel says is vital for preventing terror attacks — Israeli leaders and private citizens considered John Paul a truly good man with noble intentions.

“The Pope embodied the best that is within all mankind as well as the commonness of humanity,” said Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres. “His actions and statements transformed relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths, and made a fundamental impact on the struggle against anti-Semitism.”

Israeli President Moshe Katsav said the Pope “showed his believers new paths to interfaith reconciliation and brotherhood.” The president said that John Paul’s disavowal of the long-held belief that the Jews killed Jesus helped “put an end to an historic injustice.”

Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, expressed their appreciation for the Pope, whom they regarded as a champion of the downtrodden.

Ikrima Sabri, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, said the Pope’s death was “a loss for the world, the Catholic Church, peace and freedom-lovers.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also a Muslim, described the Pope as “a great religious figure who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom, justice and equality for all races and religions, as well as our people’s right to independence.”

John Paul, who met with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, often called for an independent state for the Palestinian people. He rebuked Israel for its military actions against Palestinian civilians while condemning Palestinian — and all other — acts of terror.

Deeply concerned over the plight of Holy Land Christians, who have suffered greatly as a result of the four-year-old Palestinian uprising and Israeli military incursions, the Pope repeatedly urged Catholics around the world to make Holy Land pilgrimages.

The result was an increase in Catholic tourism, which has been a boon to local Christian merchants, many of whose livelihoods are based on pilgrims’ visits.

In Bethlehem, both Christians and Muslims nostalgically recalled the Pope’s visit in 2000, just months before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. Since then the residents of this and other West Bank towns, cities and villages have been confined by Israeli military closures.

A nearly completed 30-foot-high concrete wall, built by Israel to prevent the incursion of terrorists, surrounds the town, limiting the residents’ ability to move freely. Choked by the closure, many families have left the country.

Those who remained spoke reverently of the Pope following Sunday Mass at Bethlehem’s ancient Church of the Nativity, built atop the grotto where Mary is believed to have given birth to Jesus.

During the emotional Mass, which was held in a large white-walled chapel, Father Amjad Sabbara, the parish priest of Bethlehem, told the faithful “our Holy Father was a great man who spent all his life serving religion and humanity. He was a courageous man who fought for justice.”

Following the liturgy, Sami Sayeh, 60, a Catholic from Bethlehem, said the Pope “meant a great deal to our entire community. We still remember his visit to Bethlehem in 2000, the first visit of a Pope since the 1960s.”

Sayeh said that John Paul’s recognition of the Palestinian Authority as the government of the Palestinian people “was very significant for Christians and Palestinians as a whole.”

Jamal Salman, 65, director general of the Bethlehem municipality, agreed that “all the people of Bethlehem, Christians and Muslims, were so proud when the Pope visited Bethlehem. We are praying that his successor will follow in his footsteps and pursue peace and understanding between Muslims, Christians and Jews.”

Salman said he still savors the memory of meeting the Pope in Bethlehem in 2000. “I had my holy Communion from his hands,” he said. “I have a picture of that moment.”

Standing in the parking lot in front of the Nativity church on an unseasonably blustery day, Mohammed Murad, a photographer who takes pictures of pilgrims visiting the town, said that he and his fellow Muslims are “very deeply sorry at the death of the Pope. He was one of the best friends of the Palestinian people.”

Murad, 55, lauded John Paul for appointing Michel Sabbah, a Palestinian, to the position of Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, a title traditionally held by a foreigner. He also credited the Pope for visiting Bethlehem’s squalid Dehaishe refugee camp, where thousands of the Palestinians who lost their homes in what is now Israel have lived for decades.

 “Most Muslim leaders who visit here don’t visit refugee camps,” Murad said pointedly. Even the Pope’s decision, back in 2000, to interrupt his speech in

Manger Square

when the Muslim muezzin began to call his faithful to prayer touched Murad in a positive way.

Said Murad, “He respected people of all religions. He was a great man.”

Michele Chabin writes

from Jerusalem.