Conditions deteriorate under Bethlehem
siege
By MARGOT PATTERSON
Conditions inside the besieged Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
are growing increasingly desperate, sources inside and outside the church
report. Going into its third week, the standoff between the Israeli Defense
Force and the 250 Palestinians holed up inside the church along with 45 monks,
nuns and priests seemed at press time little closer to resolution than when it
began in early April.
The crisis is taking a toll on both those inside the church and
without. Bethlehem residents living near Manger Square, where the church is
located, continue to live under curfew. The Israeli army has said it will
continue its siege, which began April 3, until it captures about 30 men inside
the church whom the army says are wanted as terrorists.
Reached by telephone April 16, Franciscan Fr. Amjad Sabbara,
parish priest at St. Catherines Church, the Latin church that adjoins the
1,400-year-old Orthodox basilica enshrining Christs birthplace, said the
most serious problem for all those at the Church of the Nativity is water. The
Nativity complex, which includes Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian monasteries in
addition to the basilica, has one well. With some 250 more people now living
there, water is running low. So far, the Israelis have permitted the delivery
of a crate with 20 bottles of water, but no food. Sabbara reported that those
inside the church are living on one meal a day.
Fifteen days like this are very hard, Sabbara
said.
A youth who escaped from the Church of the Nativity April 15
provided a fuller picture of the squalid conditions inside the church. In an
article printed in The New York Times April 17, 16-year-old Jihad Abdul
Rahman said cold and the stench from rotting bodies and gangrenous wounds drove
him from the church. There was no water for washing and only one toilet for the
250 Palestinians taking shelter inside the church, Rahman said.
Dwindling supplies of food and water are not the only problems
those inside the church are contending with. The Israeli army is exerting
psychological pressure by blasting loud music and shrieking cries at night as
well as intermittent demands to those inside the church to give themselves
up.
Its the Noriega technique, said Bethlehem
resident Br. Kenneth Cardwell, referring to the tactics the U.S. government
adopted in its efforts to dislodge former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega
from the Vatican embassy in Panama City where he sought refuge in 1989.
They play really repulsive music very loudly.
Located a half-mile away at Bethlehem University and speaking with
machinegun fire in the background and a view of the Church of the Nativity in
front of him, Cardwell said he and other members of the Christian Brothers
community there remain under curfew and are kept awake by the frequent
disruptions staged by the Israeli army.
They broadcast loud commands to surrender in the middle of
night. They explode huge explosive charges and then lesser flash-bangs I call
them. Were a half-mile away and we wake up five, six times a night with
this racket. There are blimps with a cable below. Theres been a drone
flying overhead all day today. Yesterday colored gasses wafted across the
square, Cardwell said. He added that a box dangling from a large crane
the Israeli army has brought into or close by Manger Square gave a laser
light show the other night and that was pretty exciting.
As disruptive as the situation in Manger Square is to residents,
Br. David Scarpa, director of teaching development at Bethlehem University,
said most people in Bethlehem are probably more concerned about their own
situation.
Telephone wires are down, Scarpa said. The
breaks in curfew are uncertain. A lot of the water mains were broken.
Were in a semi-arid area, so water is extremely precious. Nobody is able
to get out to repair them. People who have mistakenly left their homes have
been shot. Theres been a lot of gratuitous damage.
On April 15, a consortium of five Christian organizations
delivered food to Bethlehem residents. Tom Zimmerman, assistant country
representative for Catholic Relief Services in Jerusalem, one of the
contributing Christian organizations, said the convoy was not allowed access to
the Church of the Nativity, though Zimmerman said its clear that those
inside the church are running out of food. A request by an outside party for
food to be delivered to the church was made to Catholic Relief Services two
days later but was then withdrawn several hours afterwards, said Zimmerman, who
added that the agency was willing to go to the church on a moments
notice.
The Christian relief effort is being directed throughout the West
Bank, where Zimmerman said conditions remain very difficult. He described
random shooting of civilians, including women and children, and said that
ambulances were still being prevented from evacuating the wounded. Palestinian
clinics and hospitals need medicines for patients, he said.
The Israeli Defense Force has given no indication of when it plans
to withdraw from Bethlehem. Scarpa said the problems would not be over when the
Israeli army leaves.
It will take a long, long time to recover. And at the same
time there will be very strict cordons around the town. This is the most
serious problem in terms of developing the economy according to the World Bank
and the United Nations, said Scarpa. With tight travel restrictions in
place, Scarpa said, staff worry that students may not be able to get to the
university even after Israeli troops leave. Were concerned about
what may happen to this university, Scarpa said.
Scarpa said all the computers of the Palestinian Authority in
Bethlehem have been destroyed in what he called a deliberate attempt by the
Israeli government to destroy the Palestinian economy and the Palestinian
Authority.
Yesterday in Ramallah, the central bureau of statistics, all
that data was destroyed. Theyve done the same in hospitals. We were quite
lucky not to have information destroyed here, Scarpa said.
The situation for Palestinians is far, far worse than before
the peace process started, he said. All of the Palestinian cities
and towns that have been given their autonomy are surrounded by checkpoints so
the Israelis have far more control of the Palestinian cities than they had when
they were in them. Most Palestinians feel theyve been tricked. They
expected freedom and security, and what has actually happened is that any
attempt to develop the economy has been prevented.
Cardwell said, We watch on TV the great support Israel is
receiving from the Jewish people in the United States. If they only knew what
this government is doing to the Palestinian people, they would repent in dust
and ashes. American Jewry has a very high sense of moral responsibility for the
widow, the stranger and the orphan, and they just are blind to what the Israeli
government is doing.
Margot Patterson, NCR senior writer, visited Bethlehem
in mid-March.
National Catholic Reporter, April 26,
2002
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