25 April - 1 May 2002
Issue No.583
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 April - 1 May 2002 Issue No.583 |
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'Where are they all?'
A visit to Bethlehem was not an easy thing to do despite the Israeli army lifting the curfew. Michael Jansen visited Jesus's shattered birthplace
On the minibus journey to Bethlehem my fellow passengers were a Czech television team and peace activists from Denmark, the US and Japan who planned to deliver sacks of food to the 240 Palestinians besieged in the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus' birth. These days, the pilgrimage to Bethlehem, Christendom's second holiest site, is made only by peaceniks and journalists. They are obliged to enter the "little town" by the "back door," evading Israeli armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and tanks.
Violence has not been confined to the West Bank. A youth in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah (above) throws a petrol bomb during recent clashes with Israeli soldiers (photo:AFP)
At the traffic light that stands at the Beit Jala entrance to Bethlehem an APC paused in its patrol of the dusty streets. I waited until it departed before walking up the hill, through deserted streets, to the handsome stone house of Mayor Hanna Nasser. The last time we met was on Christmas Eve, in his office on Manger Square. He has not been there since Israel reoccupied the town on 1 April. The square and the streets leading down to it are off-limits to all but Israeli troops.
Since the reoccupation, the people of Bethlehem and the adjacent towns and refugee camps have been confined to their homes by the Israeli-imposed curfew, except for a three-hour respite twice a week.
In between taking telephone calls, the mayor observed, "There is a very serious shortage of food now in the church. Some people need medicine." He denied that the people involved in the stand- off with the Israeli army were, as the Israelis claim, "hostages."
"They are civilians and policemen and some armed men. I don't know how many armed men. They sought refuge out of fear... I myself took refuge in the church in 1967," Nasser said, referring to when Israel occupied the West Bank. Among the prisoners trapped within the church there are two 10-year-old boys, 50 teenagers and 40 members of the clergy.
The initial meeting to negotiate an end to the stand-off over the church was cancelled when Israel refused to permit Church and European Union representatives to take part alongside Israeli and US delegates. On Monday Palestinian President Yasser Arafat dropped his condition that churchmen and Europeans should participate in the negotiations.
Nasser observes, "(The Israelis) are stretching their legs. They're not in a hurry... It's unfair to keep the entire city under such severe conditions because of [the people] in the church." He has had no contact with the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canon Andrew White, who failed in his efforts to mediate a solution.
Mayor Nasser called on Pope Paul VI to come again to Bethlehem and end the ordeal of the priests, Palestinian civilians, policemen and gunmen in the 1,400-year-old church. The pope responded by demanding an end to the siege but his call was ignored by Israel. Now, prayers have not been held in the church for three successive Sundays, setting a historic precedent.
The lifting of the curfew at midday was hailed by a burst of machine- gun fire. "They do this to terrorise the people even when they are outside their homes... For the first time since the new occupation I am stepping out of my house. I am going round the
city to assess the damage," he asserted.
On the route to Manger Square, peace activists carrying placards confronted Israeli soldiers bearing M-16 rifles. The activists, including flak jacket-wearing Danish MP Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, sat on the cobblestones beside plastic bags of supplies for the people in the church. The soldiers loom over them, instructed to halt their progress without resorting to excessive force. Kristen Schurr, a PhD student from New York City, remarked, "I am really surprised they didn't shoot us... or hurt us like they did before. When we spoke to them, some even seemed to listen."
After an hour and a half the protesters took their leave, distributing the supplies they brought to the families who live along the street. Few accepted the food packages although they have been subjected to a total curfew since the reoccupation. Palestinian pride remains strong, even in such great adversity. Israeli soldiers pacing the battered street ordered curious children back indoors.
One soldier of Yemeni origin screamed, "Inside, inside," and brandished his weapon.
"Don't shout," I said, "don't shout." He glared at me, "If your brother was killed, you'd shout too!"
Outside the encircled church, the city had come alive. The square at the top of the street was filled with cars and people on foot. A crush of desperate men were collecting food at the Silesian Technical School. Pavement vendors sold fresh vegetables and crates of eggs at prices many families could not afford. So they did without.
In the street I met Brother Joseph Lowenstein, who has taught at Bethlehem University for 20 years. He said gravely, "The situation is far worse than it has ever been. This beautiful city was renovated for the 2000 celebrations. Although Jenin is far worse, this is also bad... The Palestinians will recuperate in time. But now there is so much hatred... so much to rebuild."
In a rubbish-strewn garden, behind a tightly shuttered stone villa, a huge rose bush was in full bloom, perfuming the air as strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" soared from an open window in the next-door block of flats. A bent old woman in a traditional Palestinian dress embroidered with a rose motif stood on the sidewalk berating passers-by, "Where is Fransa, where is Italia... Where is Amrika? Where are the Arabs? Where are they all?"
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