Jerusalem ? Mel Gibson’s controversial film “The Passion of the Christ” has been box-office boffo worldwide. But in the Holy Land, where the biblical epic is set — and where no distributor has picked it up for theatrical release — it has become an underground sensation.

Bootleg DVDs and videocassettes of Jesus’ final hours and crucifixion are selling briskly — from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and even in Israel, where the Aramaic dialog comes with Hebrew subtitles.

A pirated copy recently was screened for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who promptly pronounced the movie “historic and impressive.” In a statement hotly contested by Jewish critics, Arafat’s close aide Nabil Abu Rudeinah likened Jesus’ agony to “the kind of pain” Palestinians are still daily exposed to in their conflict with Israel.

A hotel in largely Arab East Jerusalem just finished a week of invitation-only, $5-a-head screenings for about 200 people, proceeds of which were donated to Christian charities for the elderly and orphans.

Vendors, who sell the film for $5 to $22 depending on format, say demand is high, particularly in the Palestinian territories, where 99 percent of the population is Muslim and prepared, after decades of conflict, to think ill of Jews.

“People are calling me from everywhere in the West Bank — from Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus — to ask for copies,” a Gaza City video shop owner who sells bootlegs of new releases said recently.

Debate over “The Passion,” which some Jewish organizations have called anti-Semitic, is highly sensitive in Israel.

In February, Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger urged Pope John Paul II to speak out against the film for fear it could set back decades of Jewish-Christian reconciliation since the Vatican in 1965 rejected the concept that Jews were collectively responsible for Jesus’ death.

Gibson is a traditionalist Roman Catholic who reportedly rejects the 1965 Vatican changes. Some members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, have been vocal in their opposition to the film.