Huwaida Arraf (left) and Thom Saffold (center) at a rally after afternoon prayers in Ramallah, Friday, April 26. The ISM acted as human shields as hundreds of Palestinians tried to demonstrate peacefully near the Presidential Compound, but were attacked by tear gas, concussion grenades and live fire. Photo by Dedrick Muhammad

compiled by Thom Saffold

At 5:45 PM Thursday, a group of 24 international activists slipped past Israeli Defense Force roadblocks to enter Bethlehem’s Manger Square. Led by ISM coordinator Huwaida Arraf, thirteen acted as decoys and drew many Israeli soldiers to them, making it possible for eleven others to enter the besieged Church of the Nativity. They brought as much food as possible to the 160 Palestinians remaining in the church, trapped for almost a month. The Israeli army has denied the Palestinians, besieged since April 1, 2002, sufficient amounts of food. Several of the Palestinians had been killed or gave up in previous days.

Israeli Defense Force troops caught and detained the other 13 activists.

It was actually the group’s second attempt in a week. On Sunday, April 28, another group of International Solidarity Movement volunteers, also led by Huwaida Arraf, carried food supplies to the main door of the Church, but were caught by soldiers when the people inside could not get to the door in time to open it for the ISM volunteers.

Kristen Schurr, of New York City, says the activists wanted to enter the church to deliver food to the trapped Palestinians, many of whom are sick and starving. They also wanted to call international attention to the fact that, while the Israeli government has restored some freedom of movement to Palestinian Authority President Yassir Arafat, the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity continues. She said the activists plan to remain in the church—one of the oldest and most important Christian shrines—until the Palestinians are allowed to leave without being arrested by the Israelis.

The effects of fierce fighting at the church were apparent when the activists entered, Schurr says. Fires are still burning, and the dead bodies of two Palestinians, killed by IDF gunfire that morning, remain in the church. However, the trapped Palestinians cheered the internationals when they entered. "People were excited, and happy to see us," says Schurr.

"When we got in we were given blankets and all the food and water are being equally shared," said Coloradan Larry Hales. "Unfortunately the situation inside is much worse than we anticipated. Most of the people are literally starving, having not eaten anything in the last five days, except for a few boiled leaves from a tree in the courtyard." Hales called upon Americans to pressure politicians and Catholic church leaders and call upon them to get food, medicine into the Church of the Nativity.

This action constitutes the latest in a series of successes by the ISM in defying the Israeli occupation and in demonstrating to the world that the international community takes a firm stance against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. In light of the failure for the international community, namely the United States and the United Nations to act to help protect the Palestinian people and secure their universal rights, the ISM has had to operate on its own. Prior to this, the ISM has twice circumvented Israeli occupation forces to place activists inside of President Arafat’s compound in Ramallah.

The American news media and official Israeli sources have portrayed the stand-off as a hostage-taking situation, in which the clergy were being held as hostages by "Palestinian gunmen." The news media largely ignored ISM pleas to speak with the clergy inside, who said that most of the Palestinians were either completely innocent or had been trying to defend their neighborhoods against the Israeli incursion at the beginning of April.

They had taken all of our phones and identification, and it was 2 AM. 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.

Saturday, May 4, 2002—8:00 PM
Inside the Church of the Nativity
Phone Conversation with Larry Hales

A Palestinian, Khalaf Najajrah, was killed by an Israeli sniper in the church—a bullet in the lung. Attempts to treat him were in vain. Mary said if they had an IV set and first aid drugs, they could have saved him.

Mary also received a call from a Ha’aretz Israeli newspaper journalist, and Mary said they are prisoners of the Israeli army and not held hostage by Palestinians. In fact, the "Palestinian gunmen" were kind to them, and were worried about internationals’ lives more than their own.

If people, schools, associations could arrange for direct public communications/conferences with people in the church, to have a clearer idea about what is going on, better in the morning because there is a lot of disturbance to mobile phone communications by Israelis, that would probably awake the remaining of those who still ask themselves: whose fault is it what happens in the holiest Christian place?

Sunday, May 5, 9 AM
James Hanna, in the process of being deported

We just received a phone call from James Hanna, an American ISM who was at Ben Gurion Airport in the process of being deported. James had spent two days working in the Aida refugee camp with Mary Kelly (Irish ISM). James was one of the decoy group who were arrested with the others, and Mary was one of the ones who entered the Church. James was only able to speak a few words because the police were pushing him to finish the phone call. So we don’t know if he is alone or with the other four who were with him in the jail.

We need people to begin contacting their respective embassies/ consulates in order to protest the ongoing treatment of detainees by the Israeli govt. Detainees are being denied legal consul and are not being told what their ultimate fate is or when it will be carried out. Currently the men are being held at an illegal settlement in Hebron. Huwaida, Jo, and Trever are refusing food and water in protest of this illegal treatment. You all know that if this was happening to citizens of a western country in any other country in the region it would be cause for massive protest, but since Israel is doing it there seems to be apathy on the part of our respective governments. Anything you can do, from calling, emailing, showing up in front of the locations, etc. will be helpful in pressuring these governments to do something and take action to resolve the situation in a positive manner.