Posted on 04/04/2002 3:00:34 PM PST by RCW2001
During the first chilly nights Abed Abu Surour spent inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, he huddled with 30 young men in the tiny stone grotto revered as the spot where Jesus was born.
And on his final full day at the church, the hungry 16-year-old Muslim youth slipped into a church garden to pick green beans, only to be chased off by Israeli army fire.
Abu Surour, a lively, talkative kid, was among nine youths to emerge from the church on Thursday. On April 2, the day the standoff began, he was heading to Bethlehem's market to meet friends when Israeli troops advancing into Bethlehem began battling Palestinian gunmen, forcing him to seek cover.
He followed others through the 1.5-meter-high doorway into the church, one of the holiest sites in Christendom. The Palestinians, almost all of them Muslims, took refuge in the church, believing it was the safest place from Israeli fire - even more secure than the mosque at the other end of Manger Square.
Israel says it is only interested in the gunmen, and the others inside are free to come out at any time. And while some Palestinians have trickled out, most have stayed put, citing various reasons.
Most priests and monks, totaling about 40, have said they want to stay to protect the church. Several nuns - the only women in the church - have also remained. One is a trained nurse who has patched up Palestinians shot by the Israelis.
Four Palestinian policemen came out on Friday. However, more than 100 policemen are still inside, along with about 50 civilians, including 10 youths, who Abu Surour said are there to support fellow Palestinians.
"It was a personal decision to leave the church. Those inside accepted that we were leaving," Abu Surour said.
"I felt the need to show solidarity, but I also felt I couldn't stay any longer."
After the nine youths emerged Thursday - the largest single group to come out so far - the Israelis interrogated them about the gunmen.
"We told them we don't know all the people inside," said Mohammed Najar, 16. "The situation is extremely difficult. There isn't food, there isn't medicine, and there isn't enough water. The injured people are in very bad condition and must get medical treatment soon."
Conditions were rough from the very first night.
As the group looked for a place to sleep in the cold, cavernous church, they opted for the warmest spot they could find - the small cave believed to be the site of Jesus's birth, located down a series of steps from the basilica.
Up to 30 people, most of them youths, gathered there the first few nights, before later moving upstairs to the basilica, where they conducted Muslim prayers, Abu Surour said.
In the long days filled with boredom and punctuated with occasional bursts of gunfire, the darkest moments came when two Palestinian policemen were shot dead.
In the first instance, a policeman had helped extinguish a fire in the Franciscan part of the compound, caused by Israeli stun grenades. As the policeman was crossing a yard to return to the basilica, he was shot in the head, Abu Surour said.
In the second death, a policeman ran an electrical extension cord into the adjacent Casanova Hotel, which was subsequently used to charge 14 cell phones. But after making the connection, the policemen was shot in the chest by an Israeli sniper, Abu Surour added.
The policeman staggered back to the basilica, shouting, "I don't want to die." But he collapsed minutes later.
As the standoff has dragged on, conditions have grown increasingly desperate. Abu Surour said that like most, he wore the same clothes throughout, and couldn't wash, aside from splashing water on his face.
Food, which came from the monks' cupboards, was rationed from the beginning. Palestinians and the priests have been eating only one meal a day - rice or spaghetti. Surour said he would also eat onions and drink as much water as possible to keep hunger pangs at bay.
"You didn't waste anything," said Abu Surour, a slim youth who said he lost 13 kilograms. "If you dropped a grain of rice, you picked it up."
Both Sides Blame the Other for Fire in Monastery of the Nativity
But Franciscans Insist Israelis and Palestinians Are at Fault Together
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, MAY 2, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Palestinians and Israelis blamed each other for the shooting that caused the blaze at the Shrine of the Nativity around midnight Wednesday.
The General Curia of the Friars Minor explained in a statement to ZENIT that the shooting "lasted about an hour, and resulted also in a fire engulfing the parish hall and parish offices, which are part of the Franciscan monastery within the sacred zone of the Nativity."
"As usual, the Palestinians and the Israelis accuse each other of having started the shooting and caused the fire," the Franciscans add.
A Palestinian militiaman was killed today by Israeli shots in the interior of the Basilica of the Nativity, and another was wounded, according to international agencies.
"This exceptionally grave incident highlights once more the explosive nature of the entire situation, where the armed Palestinians who have occupied the basilica, and the Israeli army which has laid siege to it are facing each other for a month now," the friars said.
"The parties, the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, are responsible, jointly and severally, for this continuing intolerable and increasingly dangerous situation," the statement continued. "The parties are likewise jointly and severally obligated to resolve it."
"As has been said repeatedly, a peaceful resolution is not only obligatory, it is also possible, easily and speedily," the Franciscans stressed.
There are now 19 Franciscan friars, four nuns, two Greek-Orthodox monks, and two Armenian monks in the buildings next to the basilica.
"It is impossible to justify the protracted stand-off and its consequences," the Franciscans insisted.
The friars appealed once again to both sides "to let good sense, but also generosity, magnanimity and farsightedness, prevail over the primitive urge to humiliate the adversary and to win at all costs."
"A gesture of good will toward the Church would win the parties´ appreciation that would more than make up for whatever puny tactical objective might be given up in the process," the Franciscans´ statement concluded.
Friends,
We succeeded to get foodstuffs and "international protection" into the
Church of the Nativity! If you haven't yet seen the reports, please see
below.
The 13 of us that were detained after the action have just been
released for a few hours, I think. We were 8 guys and 5 ladies. After
over 7 hours of being detained and questioned by the Israeli military,
we were finally hand-cuffed and escorted out of Bethlehem. At the
Bethlehem checkpoint, the guys and girls were divided. The five ladies
were pushed into the floor of a police jeep and our legs were bound.
The Israeli police officers drove around for a while then stopped and
pulled one girl out - Ida Fasten, from Sweden, cut her loose and left
her, in the middle of we don't know where, by herself. We were
horrified! They had taken all of our phones and identification, and it
was 2am. When I protested leaving a foreign woman out in the middle of
unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night, with no phone and no
ID, I was physically assaulted -- slapped hard in the face by one of
the officers. Both officers in the jeep refused to give us their names
and badge numbers, despite repeated requests.
When we realized that the officers were going to leave each one of us
in a different place, the four of us left in the jeep agreed on a
meeting place. Four of us are now safe in a hotel in Jerusalem, but we
still don't know where Ida is. We don't know what happened to the guys.
Again, none of us have our phones. We were told to report to a certain
location, 24 Hillel, at 9am - in 4 hours. I pray Ida is there and that
the guys are also safe.
We don't know whether we face arrest or deportation; what we do know is
that the presence of the international civilians now inside the Church
of the Nativity is probably a lifesaver. We brought in food and are
offering international presence as protection for the civilians inside
the church from the indiscriminate shooting of the Israeli Army. We are
international civilians upholding international law. Please contact
your governments and ask them to do the same.
In solidarity & struggle,
Huwaida
After Quasimodo’s death, the bishop of the Cathedral of Notre Dame sent word through the streets of Paris that a new bell ringer was needed. The bishop decided that he would conduct the interviews personally and went up into the belfry to begin the screening process.
After observing several applicants demonstrate their skills, he had decided to call it a day when an armless man approached him and announced that he was there to apply for the bell ringer’s job.
The bishop was incredulous: “You have no arms!”
“No matter.” said the man, “Observe!” And he began striking the bells with his face, producing a beautiful melody on the carillon.
The bishop listened in astonishment, convinced he had finally found a suitable replacement for Quasimodo. But suddenly, rushing forward to strike a bell, the armless man tripped and plunged headlong out of the belfry window to his death in the street below. The stunned bishop rushed to his side.
When he reached the street, a crowd had gathered around the fallen figure, drawn by the beautiful music they had heard only moments before. As they silently parted to let the bishop through, one of them asked, “Bishop, who was this man?”
“I don’t know his name,” the bishop sadly replied, “but his face rings a bell.”
The following day, despite the sadness that weighed heavily on his heart due to the unfortunate death of the armless campanologist, the bishop continued his interviews for a new bell ringer of Notre Dame.
The first man to approach him said;
"Your Excellency, I am the brother of the poor armless wretch who fell to his death from this very belfry yesterday. I pray that you honor his life by allowing me to replace him in this duty."
The bishop agreed to give the man an audition, and, as the armless man's brother stooped to pick up a mallet to strike the first bell, he groaned, clutched at his chest, and died on the spot. Two monks, hearing the bishop's cries of grief at this second tragedy, rushed up the stairs to his side.
"What has happened? Who is this man?", the first monk asked breathlessly.
"I don't know his name . . . but he's a dead ringer for his brother."
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