By Stuart Littlewood
Nineteen years ago, throughout April and into May, the
lunatic Israeli regime laid murderous siege to the
Church of the Nativity
In 2002 a young girl from a refugee camp triggered
events that led to a 40-day siege of the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem. This is probably the oldest
Christian church in the world, built by Constantine the
Great and dating from AD330. A member of the girl’s
family had been killed by Israeli occupation troops.
Grief-stricken, she took revenge by turning herself
into a suicide bomber.
The Israelis’ over-the-top response was to send 250
tanks and armoured personnel carriers, F-16 fighter
jets, Apache gunships and hundreds of soldiers into
West Bank towns like Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem late
at night. In Bethlehem they cut the electricity supply
and invaded the old township with helicopter gunships
and occupied all key points around Manger Square. Many
innocent Palestinians were killed by shelling and army
snipers, and the market and some shops were set on fire
as troops tried to hunt down suspected “fighters’.
Civilians tried desperately to hide from the troops and
a large number of people took refuge or arrived for
other reasons at the Church and found themselves
trapped, unable to leave.
I interviewed one of the survivors, who recalled:
248 took refuge there. They included one Islamic Jihad,
28 Hamas, 50 to 60 Al-Aqsa Martyrs. The remainder were
ordinary townsfolk and included 100 uniformed
Palestinian Authority workers, also 26 children and
eight to10 women and girls. The Israeli soldiers would
not allow them to leave, but they escaped in the first
week by a back door.
Priests and nuns – Armenian, Greek and Catholic – from
the adjoining monasteries brought the number to over
300 at the beginning. “Some of them went back to the
monasteries but some stayed with us every day for the
40 days,” the survivor said.
‘Armchair slaughter’
The Vatican was outraged. The Greek Orthodox Church of
Jerusalem called on Christians worldwide to make the
upcoming Sunday a “solidarity day” for the people in
the Church and the Church itself, and urged immediate
intervention to stop what it called the “inhuman
measures against the people and the stone of the
Church”.
The Israelis set up cranes on which were mounted
robotic machine-guns under video control. According to
eye-witnesses, eight defenders, including the bell-
ringer, were murdered, some by the armchair button-
pushers playing with their video joysticks and some by
regular snipers.
From the start, said my survivor, the Israeli troops
used psychological warfare methods – for example,
disorienting noise to deprive them of sleep, bright
lights and concussion grenades. They paraded the
families of the besieged in front of the Church to
pressure them to surrender. They also used illegal dum-
dum bullets which cause horrendous wounds and trauma.
“Most of those who were killed… it was because of the
dum-dums… so much bleeding, and it took so long to
arrange to send them to a hospital.”
He said the soldiers fired tracer rounds into two of
the monasteries and set the ancient fabric of the
buildings alight.
Fifteen days into the siege those inside managed to
recharge their cellphones using the mains that supplied
the Church towers and call for help. The Israelis had
overlooked the fact that this was a separate
electricity supply coming from the Bethlehem
municipality. Friends responded by sending food to the
medical centre. From there it went by ambulance, along
with authentic casualties, and was delivered to houses
near the Church. At night young girls carried the food
in plastic bags from house to house until supplies
reached the dwellings next-door to the Church. The bags
were then thrown from roof to roof. This went on for
six days until one girl dropped a bag, which the
soldiers found. The Israelis, now alerted, shot and
paralysed another young man. It put an end to the food
operation.
“Inside the Church we vowed not to harm the soldiers
unless they actually broke in. When soldiers did gain
access and killed one of the resisters, four of them
were shot.”
Those trapped inside the Church were surprised to
discover an old lady living within the complex. She had
a small horde of olives and wheat, with which they made
bread. So they managed to eke out the food for 28 days.
The governor of Bethlehem and the director of the
Catholic Society were among those holding out in the
Church. According to my survivor’s first-hand account,
those inside opened the door only if someone died or
was injured. He recalled watching through a peephole
and seeing people approaching across the forecourt.
“They were from the Peace Movement, 28 of them. By now
the world media were watching. Seventeen were arrested
but 11 took a big risk, managing to bluff their way in
and bringing food in their rucksacks, which lasted
another four days, and basic medicines.
The worst time, he said, was the final week – no food
and only dirty water from the well. They resorted to
boiling leaves and old chicken legs into a soup. He ate
only lemons and salt for five or six days. “Many were
so ill by this time that they were passing blood.”
Outside some 15 civilians had been indiscriminately
shot in the street or in their homes. The Israelis
refused to allow the dead in the Church to be removed
for decent burial. “In the end, the governor decided it
was better to be in jail than die. So we opened the
door and surrendered on the 40th day. One hundred and
forty eight had survived. We were promptly arrested and
interrogated.
America and the European Union get their hands dirty
“Thirteen were exiled to the EU, 26 were exiled to
Gaza, 26 were wounded, 26 had surrendered because they
were under-age. Eight were killed inside the Church,
and with Samir (the bellringer) makes nine. They shot
Samir in front of the Church as he came out to
surrender.” According to some reports, those exiled
were not even allowed to say goodbye to their loved
ones before being packed off. I hear they were not even
allowed to work or receive visits from their families.
The rest were sent home, including my survivor. “The
Israelis said to me, ‘Do you know why you are going
home? Because America wants it’.” The whole disgraceful
episode would no doubt have ended in more carnage if
the world’s media hadn’t tuned in and 10 international
activists, including members of the International
Solidarity Movement, hadn’t managed to enter the
Church. The adverse publicity had prodded the CIA and
EU into taking a hand in deciding the fate of the
survivors.
What exactly were they guilty of? Some may have been
Palestinian gunmen but the last time I checked it was
perfectly OK to put up armed resistance against an
illegal military occupation. Israel’s gunmen happen to
wear uniform and are equipped with the best weaponry
American tax dollars can buy. They are fond of saying,
“We have a right to defend ourselves.” So do the
Palestinians. Obviously.
So why did America and the EU lend themselves to this
shameful act of exiling, thereby helping boost Israel’s
ongoing programme of ethnic cleansing of the West Bank?
The Israeli press were soon issuing their usual
distortions and telling readers that “the terrorists
took shelter in the famous church, and used about 40
priests and nuns as a shield, knowing Israel would not
take a chance on inadvertently hurting priests and
nuns”. In reality, for Israel’s gunslingers it had been
open season on bellringers and other innocents.
And does anyone know if those exiled – for whatever
mysterious reason – have been allowed home in the 19
years years since Israel’s sick-minded outrage against
this most famous of Christian churches?
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Thank you....I haven't and this was happening also above Bethlehem in 2002 during the time of the siege:
Excerpt:
On May 5, Mars, Saturn, and Venus will form a small but striking triangle in the western sky at sunset. This awesome sight
will be visible almost everywhere on Earth. In Israel, planets representing the mythical Roman gods of war, wisdom, and love,
will hang directly above strife-torn Bethlehem.
More than 2,000 years ago, in 2 and 6 B.C., the same heavenly triangle was visible over that city. Some historians have
speculated that the unusual sight attracted the Magi to Bethlehem to seek the Christ child.
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