Bloodshed in Bethlehem
April 20 2003
|
IT WAS EARLY morning in Bethlehem. There was an extraordinary object in the sky above the birthplace of Jesus and the silence was broken by unfamiliar sounds. Yet, no star could be seen nor angel voices heard. The object was a white surveillance balloon and the sounds were bullets, flares and smoke bombs. It was 16 April 2002, and the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity was in its third week. Later that day, Pope John Paul II would speak by phone to Franciscans barricaded inside the church. Continue with courage to resist and guard the holy sites, he said.
Israeli tanks moved into Bethlehem on 2 April as part of a series of raids on cities in the West Bank, aimed at arresting Palestinian militants following devastating suicide bombings in Israel. At least 200 young Palestinians, some of them armed, others simply civilians who found themselves cut off from their homes, took refuge in the Church of the Nativity, believing that the Israeli army would not dare to shell or storm the sacred spot. Forty Franciscan brothers, four sisters and about 30 Orthodox and Armenian monks found themselves locked inside with them. They were not hostages, however. According to Fr. David Jaeger, a spokesman for the Franciscan friars and nuns inside the complex, the Franciscans chose to remain because, as traditional custodians of the Christian sites in the Holy Land, they felt it their duty to stay and protect the shrine’s sanctity.
At the heart of the hill town of Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem, the Nativity Church is the only major church in the Holy Land that survives intact from the early Christian period. Facing Manger Square, it was originally built in the early fourth century by the Emperor Constantine, over a spot identified in the second century as the site of Jesus’ birth. Two hundred years later the church was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Justinian. Its entrance is a low doorway, built this way, according to legend, to prevent horses being ridden into the nave. The fortress-like Byzantine exterior stands as a testament to its turbulent history. For centuries, the church was one of the most fought over holy places. It was seized and defended by a succession of armies, including Muslim and Crusader forces. Bethlehem itself has been under the control of the Palestinian authorities since December 1995.
Under the altar of the church is the tiny grotto of the Nativity, where Jesus is said to have been laid after he was born. The narrow steps down to it are from the 6th century, but there were no pilgrims going down those stairs in pilgrimage during April. Instead, the grotto became an infirmary for those injured in the siege. A Franciscan nun cared for wounded Palestinians just next to the altar marking the location of the manger.Within days of the beginning of the siege, food supplies had run out, the religious having shared what stocks they had with the 200 Palestinians. On 6 April, Israeli troops blocked a Red Cross vehicle carrying food supplies for those in the church. The supplies had been sent by the Sisters at Caritas Baby Hospital on the outskirts of Bethlehem. This is inhuman: it means they are involving and starving the Friars and nuns who are nothing to do with the conflict, said Fr. Jaeger. Yet, he was adamant that the religious would not evacuate the Holy Site, fearing that the Israeli military might then attack the church in order to reach the Palestinians. A military attack on this Holy Place would be a serious violation of binding agreements, norms of humanity and civilization, unthinkable, whatever the reason or pretext he added.
On Sunday 7 April, amidst the news of shooting in the vicinity of the Nativity complex, the Pope led prayers from Rome, involving Christians across the world, for peace in the Holy Land. In Bethlehem, the Nativity Church bells rang simultaneously for Angelus prayer. The Friar who rang them said he did so, to defy the noise of gunfire and to move the hearts of all who can and must do something to stop the conflict and bloodshed. The Franciscan friars and nuns meet for prayer several times each day of the siege.
In the early hours of 8 April, Israeli forces attacked the church, causing a fire to break out. The attack lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes and it provoked the indignation of the Franciscan community. Fr. Jaeger declared that the attack was a violation of the public and diplomatic guaranties explicitly and repeatedly given by Israel. That day, 23 year-old Khaled Syam was shot dead by Israeli soldiers as he tried to put out a fire in the parish office of the Franciscan monastery. The Franciscans could not secure permission for the body to be removed from the site, and so it was placed in the enormous, ancient transept, lined with pillars and frescoes, because it was a cool area. The following week, another Palestinian man was shot and seriously wounded when he went out into the garden of the Franciscan monastery to gather beans. Despite the situation, the Palestinians had already rejected as unacceptable an Israeli offer for those inside the church either to hand themselves over for trial in Israel or go into permanent exile abroad.
On 11 April, the Friars, now exhausted and starving after eleven days, and without electricity and water, said Mass by candlelight in the Grotto of the Nativity. Those inside the complex were almost out of water. They were reported to be eating plants and weeds growing in a few small courtyards, and drinking tea brewed from stagnant water collected in an ancient cistern. Israel, meanwhile, was keeping up the psychological pressure on those holed up inside the church, bombarding it with ear-splitting, shrieking noises which aimed to disorientate those inside. However, in the third week it did allow two wounded Palestinians to be transported to hospital in Jerusalem and medicine to be sent in for a Franciscan suffering from diabetes.
The stand-off provoked outrage from local church leaders and the Vatican, which accused Israel of reneging on its obligation to protect religious sites. Under growing pressure from the Vatican, Greek Orthodox and Anglican churches, and international political figures, Israel conceded that the stalemate in Manger Square would not be ended by the storming of the church. Israeli president, Moshe Katsav, assured the Pope that Israeli troops would, continue to refrain from taking actions that might harm the church or its clergy.Church leaders met with the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on 13 April, and asked him to use his influence to ensure that food and medicines were allowed into the church, particularly since some of the Palestinians were women and children. They proposed a three-day truce in which the Israeli army would withdraw from the church compound and the Palestinian Authority would collect the weapons from the armed men inside. The Palestinians had already issued an urgent appeal to the Pope and the United Nations to save them from what they called, a slow death. On 16 April, the enraged Mayor of Bethlehem, Hanna Nasser, said he intended to write to the Pope to invite him to the Holy Land and see the current condition of the mother of all Churches. He feared that the Church where Christ was born could soon become a pile of smoking rubble. A week ago a fire in the parish hall of the Franciscans, last night flames in a room of the dormitory of the Greek-Orthodox – what next? Do we have to wait until the cave where Jesus was born collapses? he said.
The Franciscan friars barricaded inside the Church of the Nativity repeatedly warned against any suggestion that they were aligned with one or the other side in the Palestinian-Israeli struggle. Their spokesman, Fr. Jaeger, commented that the Franciscans were acutely conscious of, a danger that both sides attempt to exploit what we say. The official stance of the Franciscans, Fr. Jaeger continued, was that, both sides have a grave responsibility to history and we invite them to meet this responsibility. Providing a witness for reconciliation and peace was a key theme too of the current Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and head of the Catholic church in the region, Michel Sabbah. He described the church’s basilica as a place of refuge for everyone. He added that this meant Israelis as well as Palestinians.
Updated on October 06 2016