Posted on 04/21/2002 12:48:36 PM PDT by Democrats are liars
Five Palestinians who had been holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for over two weeks gave themselves Sunday afternoon to Israel Defense Forces troops.
Around 5.00 P.M., IDF soldiers spotted a number of young Palestinians waving a white flag close to the church's gates. A special negotiating team was sent in and the five left the church a short time later.
The five are not among the wanted Palestinians who have spent almost three weeks barricaded inside the church. At this stage though, it is still unclear whether they are militants or hostages the Palestinian gunmen have been holding inside the building, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
Palestinians however said that the five escaped with the help of the IDF which put a ladder under a window of the church. They also alleged that the five were collaborators with Israel.
The IDF said Sunday that that it had learned that the gunmen were holding 50 Palestinian children and youths in the church basement, and were not allowing them out, even for a short time.
A 20-year-old Palestinian, Taher Manasra, who was shot in the leg, possibly by an IDF sniper, when he went to pick herbs, told the army that he had been held in the basement and that there was little food and water provided.
Manasra, currently being treated at Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, told the IDF that some 50 youths were holed up in the church, along with 200 adults, including clergymen.
Earlier Sunday, Pope John Paul called for an end to the standoff between Palestinians and Israelis at the church, saying it was marked by "blackmail and an intolerable exchange of accusations."
The 81-year-old Pope made another appeal for peace in the Middle East during his Sunday address, decrying the violence seen in an unending stream of news and images.
"These are pictures that have more force than any appeal and push us not to leave any attempt untried, at any level, so that that land, blessed by God, can emerge soon from the spiral of hate and violence," he said.
His appeal was centered on the standoff at the Church of the Nativity. "For almost 20 days, the basilica and its adjacent buildings have been a theatre of conflicts, blackmail and an intolerable exchange of accusations," he said.
The IDF ringed the church on April 3 in a bid to arrest 30 wanted Palestinian militants sheltering there and has repeatedly said it would not storm or damage the church. It has denied Palestinian accusations that soldiers have wantonly targeted the 1,700-year-old building, revered by Christians around the world.
Attempts by churchmen to negotiate an end to the standoff have failed, with both the Israelis and the Palestinians accusing each other of intransigence.
In his address, the Pope said the Bethlehem church and all the holy sites should "quickly be restored to prayer and pilgrims, to God and man."
He asked for prayers so that both sides could find "the courage of peace."
"May Israelis and Palestinians learn to live together and may the Holy Land finally return to being a sacred land and a land of peace," the pontiff said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that IDF troops will not lift the siege on the church until the wanted men are either arrested by Israel or deported.
Gaza Palestinians protest Bethlehem church siege
Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin joined a rally of Christians and Muslims in Gaza on Sunday to support Palestinians holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
Around 1,000 people from different Palestinian factions marched from Gaza City's old mosque to the Latin church, chanting: "Death to the silent world. We need protection."
"I need to send a message to the Palestinians inside the church. Our victory will come with patience. We should maintain resistance until we reach victory," said Yassin, speaking from the church courtyard.
"We cannot hang out the white flag because our resistance and our patience, until victory, is our message to the silence of the world and to the United States," the cleric said.
"This is the last message from the Palestinian people to the world - the wolves are eating us and if there is no peace in Palestine it will mean there will no peace in the whole world," the head of Gaza's Latin church, Father Immanuel Musalam, said.
"Occupation is terrorism and peace will come with [Israel's] withdrawal from our land," Musalam said in his speech to the crowds, before embracing Yassin.
And then we have the useful idiots around here who suck up their lies non-stop. What do you think the morons who keep believing these pathological liars?
Those who want to surrender are immediately labeled "collaborators", and will no doubt be shot by the radical Palestinians if released by the Israelis back to a Palestinian-controlled area.
In the West Bank: Be a radical or die, or don't be a radical and die. Not much of a choice for young men.
As a Christian, that building doesn't mean a thing to me. The man who was born there about two millennia ago and his message does.
"Occupation is terrorism and peace will come with [Israel's] withdrawal from our land," Musalam said in his speech to the crowds, before embracing Yassin.
Great. Now the Pali Christians are threatening and inciting global terrorism.
And don't think there aren't plenty of rabid Jew-hating Christians in the Middle East. In fact there was an article posted here several months ago that I haven't been able to relocate. It talked bout "replacement theology" in some of the Christian groups in the territories and elsewhere, and also anti-semitism among British clerics (which leads me to believe it was probably from a British publication). Anybody else know what the article I am thinking of and have a link?
More "collaborators with Israel"? I hope they're not Arab Christians, because the terrorists will probably shoot them and blame it on the IDF.
"The IDF ringed the church on April 3 in a bid to arrest 30 wanted Palestinian militants sheltering there and has repeatedly said it would not storm or damage the church. It has denied Palestinian accusations that soldiers have wantonly targeted the 1,700-year-old building, revered by Christians around the world."
Could that be because the "Palestinian allegations" are lies, as usual, but well on their way to becoming another urban legend in the PA propaganda war?
Egads, these people make me sick.
The "Israeli occupation" is to the Palestinians what the VRWC is to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I hope the IDF got this scum spiritualdeath leader.
OK, I don't.
But I do think you are projecting a lot of rabid hatred and latent bigotry.
Your very own!
Shalom! Shalom!
Brian
This is still good news.
Only for the purpose of perverted priestly sexual gratification.
Howabout considering that the church and the priesthood may well have been invaded by perverted homosexuals and pedophiles for the sexual gratification of only perverted homosexuals and pedophiles?
Or shall we hold all of the Holocaust's Victims -- and Survivors -- responsible for the actions of the few kapos?
"Occupation is terrorism and peace will come with [Israel's] withdrawal from our land," . . .Problem is that "their" land starts at the river and ends at the sea, and the only way for Israel to stop the "occupation" is to start building a lot of boats.
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