The Hindu : Siege of Bethlehem church ends

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 11, 2002

International

International

Siege of Bethlehem church ends

By Kesava Menon

Manama (Bahrain) May 10. The 38-day-long siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was lifted today after all the126 people trapped inside came out and headed for different destinations.

Among those who left the church were 13 Palestinians on Israel's wanted list who were driven off in an Israeli military truck to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport from where they were flown to Cyprus en route to different destinations. Twenty-six other Palestinian militants were taken to the Gaza Strip where they will be put in a Palestinian Authority prison. Ten left-wing activists from the U.S. who had stayed in the church to express solidarity with the Palestinians were led away by Israeli police.

Disputes over the fate of the 13 men flown to Cyprus on Friday had delayed the resolution of the stand-off and derailed several near-agreements. Israel wanted these men to be jailed in an Israeli prison or exiled while the Palestinian Authority insisted that they alone had the right to keep these men in detention. Eventually, it was agreed that they would be sent off to a third country and it was initially announced that Italy would be their destination. This deal, if there was such a deal, fell through when the Italian Foreign Ministry announced that it had not been consulted and had, therefore, not given their consent to having these men in the country.

Under the deal eventually struck in the early hours of Friday or late on Thursday, the 13 men were to be flown to Cyprus, the Government of this island republic having agreed to house them as a temporary measure. A British Air Force plane was despatched from an air base on the island, the men were picked up and taken to Larnaca. They are currently under tight police supervision in Cyprus and are expected to take off for their final destinations soon.

Italy and Spain have agreed to take some of the 13 and Austria, Greece, Luxembourg, Ireland and Canada are expected to take the rest. There are uncertainties about the term for which these men will have to stay in exile. The Palestinian Authority wants that they be allowed to return as and when a final peace is signed with Israel but no decision has been arrived at. It is expected that their families will be allowed to join them.

Ironically, the last to leave were the U.S. left-wing activists who refused to come out of the church for hours after the others had left.

The Israeli authorities had wanted to arrest them for having illegally entered a closed military area. But the activists insisted that they should be allowed to go free.

Israeli web-sites had speculated that the activists would be handed over to the civil authorities after their surrender to the military and that they would then be deported.While the activists were escorted away by the Israeli army after they came out of the church on Friday afternoon, it is not clear what will be done with them.

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