Bethlehem | UN-Truth

Israeli human rights group wants criminial investigation into Bethlehem deaths

Haaretz reported today that “The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has requested a criminal investigation into the deaths of four wanted Palestinian militants in Bethlehem on March 12, saying that the deaths during the Israel Defense Forces raid appeared to have been an execution. In a letter to the attorney general and the IDF Military Advocate General, the group says that its own investigation raised serious suspicions that the wanted men had not been killed during an exchange of fire or while trying to escape, as intimated by the IDF. B’Tselem said that if the men were in fact executed, the IDF is guilty of severely violating a High Court ruling stating that the state is prohibited from intentionally killing Palestinians if less harmful means of maintaining security are available, meaning arrest and due process … B’Tselem also maintained that their probe revealed that not only were the four victims needlessly executed, the troops also continued to shoot to ensure that they were dead. The rights group’s letter stated that once three of the men who were sitting in a parked vehicle had been shot to death, an IDF man approached the car and shot each of them again at close range. This man also shot the driver, who was lying wounded and unarmed outside the car, the letter said”.
The full text can be read here .

On the same subject, a YNet report had this sub-headline: “Human rights group asks attorney general, chief military advocate general to investigate killing of Muhammad Shahade, three other terror suspects in Bethlehem earlier March, claiming they were killed without resisting arrest, should have been brought to trial”. The text of the report says that “The men in question are Muhammad Shahade, Ahmad Balbul, Imad al-Kamal and Issa Marzouk Zawahara. According to the IDF, the four, who were killed in a raid on March 12, have been involved in planning and perpetrating terror attacks against Israel. B’Tselem claims that the IDF acted in violation of a High Court ruling, which states that suspects must not be killed when it is possible to arrest them and bring them to trial. The group requested that Mazuz and Mandelblit also examine the involvement of the chief of staff, the Central Command chief and commander of the Judea and Samaria Division in planning and authorizing the operation. An inquiry conducted by the group revealed that during the raid in Bethlehem, soldiers used automatic fire against the suspects, although the latter did not attempt to escape or respond with fire. The inquiry further indicated that after three of the suspects had already been shot, a soldier approached the vehicle in which they were sitting and shot each one of them at point-blank range. The driver, al-Kamal, had reportedly been shot while lying wounded and unarmed near the car. In its letter to Mazuz and Mandelblit, B’Tselem also brings the testimonies of Shahade’s wife and children, who claim that several days prior to his death, security forces demolished his house, an act the group says ‘raises heavy suspicion of retaliatory action and severe abuse of the family members’. B’Tselem asked that these claims would be looked into as well. The IDF has yet to respond to the allegations”. The YNet story is posted here .

He wants another checkpoint?

Dr. Samir Hazboun, Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Bethlehem — the city where Jesus is believed to have been born, which is now locked in behind a massive Wall constructed by the Israeli Military — recently suggested adding another checkpoint into the town, for tourists. The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Hazboun suggested: “If we give tourists a special checkpoint it will make things easier for them and the tourism will be of mutual benefit to both sides [the PA and Israel]”.

Main checkpoint into Bethlehem - photo by Rev. Julie Rowe

Photo by Reverend Julie Rowe

The JPost added that “Some Bethlehem residents have accused Israel of discouraging tourists from entering the city, but Rafi Ben-Hur, senior deputy director-general of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, insists this is not true. ‘While the situation is safe we are actively encouraging Christian tourists, through travel agents, to go and visit the town. We see Christians as a bridge for peace between our two communities’, he says. The ministry has also recently opened a tourism office at Rachel’s Crossing, near Rachel’s Tomb, the aim of which is to quicken the passage of tour coaches through the checkpoint by exempting them from searches. It has even introduced a policy of handing out candy to Christian pilgrims”.

The JPost continues: “Tourists choose to travel with tour companies rather than wander the town individually for several reasons. The pilgrims often travel in groups along with a pastor, so that they can pray together. And the town is still commonly perceived to be unsafe and tour companies claim to provide people with protection. That tourists can easily feel intimidated is understandable. Outside Giacaman’s shop, in full view of tourists, a commotion breaks out as armed Fatah security men, some masked, others beating the sides of their jeeps with batons, try to push their way through traffic. But Giacaman says that the tour companies take advantage of people’s fears by strictly controlling where they can and cannot go, including where they can eat and shop, thus depriving small businesses like his of a fair share of the profit. Taxi drivers have also been feeling the pinch. At Rachel’s Crossing, drivers anxiously wait to take visitors down into the city. When a foreign face approaches from the turnstile, a throng of five or six drivers gather round, angling for a deal. Tourists present good income potential as they are normally willing to pay as much as double the local rate for a ride. But such opportunities are few and far between” … This JPost article about Bethlehem and tourism is here.

Seth Freedman, who writes from Jerusalem for The Guardian’s Comment is Free, said in a recent article that “Britain’s former prime minister … announced four projects designed to kickstart the ailing Palestinian economy. One of the plans was to revive the tourism industry in Bethlehem, by easing the restrictions on entering the city and making the town centre more appealing to sightseers …
After making my way through the bottleneck of the checkpoint – where two long queues on either side of the border converged on one harassed-looking teenaged soldier – I headed for the dilapidated Aida refugee camp on the edge of the city. Once there, I went to meet Abdel Fattah Abu-Srour, the head of the Al-Rowwad Theatre Centre who had left such an indelible impression on me when I first interviewed him in May … He said that he was doubtful that any increase in tourism would have much effect on the Bethlehem economy, unless the fundamental way in which tourists visited the town changed significantly. ‘At present, the buses bring the groups in, they visit the Church [of the Nativity], jump back on their bus and are gone’, he said. ‘That means that they don’t sleep here, so the hotels are empty, as are the restaurants, and none of their tourist money filters down to the street. They just use Bethlehem as a passageway’. A Palestinian policeman I spoke to outside the Church of the Nativity was equally unenthusiastic about Blair’s proposals. Shivering in his bomber jacket and felt beret, he said that ‘I don’t know what it is he wants to do here, but I do know that you shouldn’t trust what you read in the media. We’ve heard nothing about spending on the tourist industry – they talk about putting money in, but the tourist policemen sleep with the mice’. He wasn’t exaggerating, he said – ‘we sleep in an underground building, with rats everywhere, and we don’t even have enough money for guns’, he complained, patting his waistband where his pistol was conspicuous by its absence. ‘We didn’t get our salaries for 15 months and even when we did finally get paid, they didn’t cover the debts we’d accumulated during that time’. Where did that leave him? ‘I’ve got five kids – and no cash’ he replied flatly … Whether or not Tony Blair’s tourism drive manages to inject life back into Bethlehem’s collapsed economy, the main obstacle to financial health is the far more significant problem of the wall and the checkpoints. ‘Most people can’t even leave their own cities anymore’, Abdel Fattah told me, ‘and that has a devastating effect on their ability to find work’. The prime minister of the Palestinian authority, Salam Fayyad, said the same thing when unveiling Blair’s plans, stating that the private sector wouldn’t recover until roadblocks were lifted to permit the passage of goods and people. And, until that happens, Tony Blair’s idealistic proposals seem like nothing more than window-dressing, given that the West Bank’s problems are far worse than a mere dearth of tourists in Bethlehem. ‘Peace be with you’ reads the cynically placed Israeli tourism ministry billboard where tour buses pass through the security wall to enter Bethlehem. But, until that very same wall is opened up just as freely to the Palestinian people, then the last thing that will be bestowed on the people is peace – and the situation will continue to deteriorate as steadily as before”. This article can be seen here.

Now, I’ve got to find the article in which I read recently of scams by taxi drivers in Bethlehem to intimidate tourists into spending more money — the taxi drivers pick the tourists up at the checkpoint and tell them it will cost 20 shekels ($5.00) to be driven to Manger Square at the center of town, where they can find the Church of the Nativity. But, instead, the taxi drivers take the tourists waaayy out of town, and tell them it will cost them 100 shekels to get back into town…

There is also a lot of aggressive panhandling in the center of town, and a lot of lousy cheap merchandise being forced on tourists — which some of them nevertheless seem happy to buy.

A whole re-think, and re-education of people working in the tourism business, might also help stimulate better and longer interactions between tourists and Bethlehem merchants and vendors…

Rice visits Jesus' birthplace – Bethlehem

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem this morning — reputed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

The visit was described as “a break from peacemaking” — but she must have whispered a prayer or two, to help her efforts to bring Israeli and Palestinian negotiators closer to agreement.

It was later reported that Rice lit a candle in the Church of the Nativity.

Reuters added, “The smell of incense wafted through the air of the hushed church as Rice visited the grotto revered as the birthplace of Jesus”.

Rice told journalists, according to a State Department transcript, that “being here at the birthplace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been a very special and moving experience. I was saying earlier that I think I could spell Bethlehem before I could spell my name because it was so often in the stories that children follow to learn about the life of Jesus Christ, and it all started here in Bethlehem. It is also, I think, personally for me a reminder that the Prince of Peace is still with us and still with me and with all of us, but that also these great monotheistic religions that have inhabited this land together have an opportunity to overcome differences, to put aside grievances, to make the power of religion a power of healing and a power of reconciliation rather than a power of division. And that is what these great holy sites remind us of is that the three great religions indeed share a common vision of peace and a common vision of our humanity. And that is what I ultimately take away from this trip“.

It was reported that Rice also exchanged words with Palestinian residents of Bethlehem, but details on that are still coming in.

Reuters observed that the route was apparently not lined with cheering spectators: “Residents of Bethlehem, in the West Bank just outside Jerusalem, looked on with seeming indifference as Rice’s motorcade swept into the city with sirens blaring … Unemployment in the town is estimated at about 65 percent. More than 3,000 Christians, about 10 percent of the community in Bethlehem, have left the city since 2000, according to United Nations statistics”.

Rice also had to pass, again, through The Wall. Reuters drily recorded that: ” ‘Peace Be With You’, read an Israeli Tourism Ministry sign on a high concrete wall section of the West Bank fence Israel has constructed near the entrance to the city of Jesus’s birth”. The Reuters report on Rice’s visit to Bethlehem is published in Haaretz here.

That enormous and grotesque sign is nearly the full height of The Wall, at least 25 feet high, at that place, and is painted in bright colors in three languages – Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

(Photo by Rev. Julie Rowe, a Lutheran Minister who lives and works in Jerusalem)

Continue reading Rice visits Jesus' birthplace – Bethlehem

UN SG BAN visits Palestinian Refugee Camp, sees the Wall, meets families of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, and denounces West Bank roadblocks — all firsts for the UN

Here are some excerpts from Associated Press news agency reports of UN SG BAN’s activities today in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) — all firsts for a UN leader:
“UN. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, arriving for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said his trip, including a tour of a Palestinian refugee camp earlier Sunday, strengthened his resolve to work for Mideast peace…Ban later met with parents of some of the more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and laid a wreath at the gave of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat”. AP’s report on BAN’s tour of a Palestinian refugee camp is here.

In his first trip to the Palestinian territories, Ban visited the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of the biblical town of Bethlehem, just south of the barrier. The UN chief went up on the roof of a UN-run girls’ school in the camp, and from there took a look at the barrier, which in some sections, including the one near Aida, is made up of towering cement blocks. ‘No wall will stop us’, read graffiti on the barrier in English. ‘I have deep admiration for these people, for the resilience of Palestinian people, to make their lives better’, Ban said. ‘This has strengthened my resolve and commitment to work for peace in the Middle East’. Ban was surrounded by bodyguards during the brief visit. Camp residents near the girls’ school unfurled large banners from their balconies, to remind Ban of the plight of the Palestinian refugees. ‘UN bodies and agencies should enable Palestinian refugees to exercise their right of return’, read one large sign in English…Senior UN officials and the Palestinian governor of Bethlehem, Salah Tameri, explained to Ban the difficulties caused by Israeli travel restrictions and the barrier. Israel says it built the barrier to keep out Palestinian militants who have killed hundreds of Israelis in bombing and shooting attacks in recent years. The Palestinians oppose the route of the barrier, which carves off some 10 percent of the West Bank Commenting on the barrier, Ban said it is ‘a very sad and tragic thing to see many suffering from the construction of this wall, depriving opportunities for basic living’.”
The AP report is on Ban’s visit to Aida refugee camp outside of Bethlehem is here.

Aida refugee camp is located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, near Rachel’s Tomb, a site that is sacred to Muslims and Jews, but in which a Jewish seminary and housing quarters have been built. Buses accompanied by gun-toting security agents carry religious Jews from Jerusalem to Rachel’s Tomb several times a day — the roads are cleared, and soldiers stationed inside Rachel’s Tomb are on high alert before the buses arrive. Israeli Defense Force patrols enter Aida camp regularly in the middle of the night, and carry out raids, waking and arresting people…but of course, this is only one of the many places that such raids happen.