Jerusalem enjoys busiest Easter for years

Many pilgrims retraced the final steps of Jesus Christ on the Via Dolorosa through the narrow streets of the walled Old City to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, said to be the site of his burial.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the Vatican's chief representative in the Holy Land, presided over the traditional Easter Day service in the Holy Sepulchre where he prayed for peace among people of all faiths.

"For all the inhabitants of this land -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Druze -- we ask God that the grace of the Resurrection may become a blessing and a source of peace, of protection against all oppression, and of courage to face all the challenges of our difficult life here in this Holy Land," said Sabbah during a mass attended by several thousand worshippers.

"To the Jewish people who are celebrating Passover, we pray that this feast will be for you and for everyone in this land a source of peace, justice, and reconciliation."

As Sabbah presided over the mass for Catholic worshippers, followers of the Greek Orthodox church also converged on the Holy Sepulchre as part of their celebrations for Palm Sunday.

Among the pilgrims who were also marking Palm Sunday were around 2,000 Egyptian Copts who had been allowed to travel to Israel for the first time since the eruption of the uprising in September 2000.

The Orthodox church marks Easter Sunday a week on from the Catholic faith.

Members of the Anglican Church celebrated the dawn of Easter Day with a ceremony at the Garden Tomb just outside the Old City, which is believed by some to be the site where Jesus was laid after his crucifixion and then ascended into heaven.

The Easter week coincides with the Jewish Passover festival, making it one of the busiest times on the tourist calendar for many years.

A spokesman for the Israeli tourism ministry said around 90,000 foreign visitors had arrived in the country in the last week.

"It's a 20 percent rise on the numbers from last year and more than we have had in the last five years," she said.

Copyright AFP 2005, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium