THE SIEGE AT THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY - The real story?
Melli
by Ghassan Andoni - a Christian who lives 100 meters from the Church - April
20, 2002
It is amazing how Israeli propaganda can twist facts. Even more amazing is
how much people can be influenced by twisted facts. Regarding the Church of
Nativity, there are two versions of the story.
The Israeli version: A large group of armed "terrorists" entered the Church
of the Nativity. They took dozens of civilians including Christian priests
and monks as hostages and are using them as human shields to launch attacks
on the Israeli army, which is surrounding the place. Therefore, Israel is
attempting to rescue the hostages and capture the "terrorists."
The Palestinian version: As the Israeli army invaded Bethlehem and Israeli
tanks approached Manger Square, around 240 Palestinians, including some
armed Palestinians, entered the Church seeking a safe shelter. Armed
Palestinians laid down their light weapons and are seeking the protection of
the Christian clergy inside the church.
Who are the people inside the church?
All sources from inside the church including Father Ibrahim Faltas,
Christian Lawyer Tony Salman, and the governor of Bethlehem Mohammad
Almadani confirmed repeatedly that the vast majority of the people inside
are innocent civilians who ran into the church to save their lives. The
armed Palestinians who entered the church were mostly members of Palestinian
Authority Tourism Police, policemen from the adjacent Palestinian police
station, and some Palestinians who decided to defend their city from the
Israeli invasion.
The Vatican has repeatedly announced that all people inside the church are
non-engaged and only seeking a shelter that the church is willing to
provide. The Vatican repeatedly affirmed that there is NO hostage-taking
situation.
As the siege of the church continued, Israel employed a continued pressure
to
force the people inside the church to surrender. The methods being used by
the Israeli army include:
- Preventing any supplies of food. Currently people inside the church are
starving.
- Preventing evacuation of dead bodies from inside the church. (Two corpses
are still inside)
- Preventing any medical help for scores of injured people (nuns are dealing
with the situation with primitive first aid means).
- Positioning snipers all over the place and shooting at any moving target.
So far two people were killed inside the church and two more wounded,
including an Armenian Priest.
- Shooting randomly inside the church. This random shooting resulted in a
fire that destroyed three rooms inside the church. A Palestinian was shot
dead by a sniper while attempting to extinguish the fire.
- Throwing rounds of sound grenades into and around the church, and
transmitting through loudspeakers into the church, sounds that are beyond
the threshold of pain. This is going on all day and especially at night, and
is resulting in the bleeding of ears.
- Attempted twice to burst into the church from its eastern entrance. In
one attempt they destroyed one of the church gates using explosives.
So far, and aside from the suffering of people inside the church,
considerable damage has been done to the church itself. With the little
protest and concern from the side of the Christians all over the world and
from the side of the international community, it is likely that Israel will
escalate its assault, inevitably resulting in more damage.
All attempts to negotiate a settlement to this situation have failed.
Israel insists on either complete surrender without conditions or a
deportation outside the country. They are refusing the involvement of any
third party in mediation efforts.
It is extremely worrying that with the increased pressure on Israel to leave
the PA areas, Israel might attack the church in an attempt to kill or
arrest people inside.
THIS COULD RESULT IN A MASSACRE IN THE CHURCH, AND MAY DESTROY THE CHURCH.
SOMETHING URGENT MUST BE DONE TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING!!
Kindly contact your government officials ASAP and demand that they do what
they can to intervene in this dangerous situation! It is EXTREMELY URGENT.
Source: The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People
http://www.rapprochement.org, via "Najam Saqib" - ism...@yahoo.com.
[Note: If you are in the US, go to
http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/whattodo.asp to find your representatives]
You are also referred to In The People of Israel We Trust, by Sterling D.
Allan, at http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=24184
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