The Palestinian Siege on the Church of the Nativity The overwhelming smell of urine was the first thing to hit visitors to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity after the dramatic and bloody 39-day siege of the compound by the Islamists in 2002. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem reeked of urine and was strewn with dirty pots and pans, leftover food and mattresses after the Islamist siege in 2002. A Franciscan study hall next to the church which had been gutted by a fire. Pots, pans, blankets, wrappers and filth was strewn around the ancient floor of the historic...