Posted on 05/10/2002 1:01:06 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The overwhelming stench of urine was the first thing to hit visitors who entered the shrine in Bethlehem revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
The standoff between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army at the Church of the Nativity, which came to an end on Friday after nearly 40 days and nights of high drama, had left one of Christianity's holiest places in a shocking mess.
Garbage bags, lemon peels, gas canisters, petrol cans and electric hotplates were scattered throughout the church off Manger Square. A Reuters correspondent saw altars, the sacred focus of Christian worship, covered with food scraps.
"It's not a church any more, it's a place filled with beds and trash," said Sandy Shahin, a local teenager who rushed into the church minutes after the end of the siege on Friday.
"The smell is too bad. The floor is too bad. I'm filled with fear," Shahin, a Roman Catholic, said between sobs.
It seemed almost a small miracle that the Grotto of the Nativity, where a silver star installed by the Catholics in 1717 is set in white marble over the exact spot where Christians believe Jesus was born, was immaculate.
A Reuters correspondent saw dusty mattresses, flak jackets and helmets, left behind by the Palestinian militants holed up in the church and scattered across the floor.
Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations share the fourth-century shrine, where areas of worship appeared to have escaped major damage in the standoff that included exchanges of gunfire between Israeli troops and the gunmen.
But the second floor of the Franciscan order's parish building in the complex looked like a war zone. Walls were pockmarked by bullet holes and scarred by smoke stains.
"I couldn't imagine something like this," said Manal Deik, a local banker, standing next to a bullet-riddled church wall which was also marked with graffiti scrawled in Arabic.
"We will repair it because the damage is not outside, it's inside and we can do something about that," said the 25-year-old Catholic.
Greek Orthodox priest Father Kariton, standing in the basilica near a pile of discarded gasmasks, added: "The most important things are okay, but the museum is a little damaged."
BICKERING
Soon after the militants left, priests from the often bickering denominations argued over whether to allow Israeli army bomb disposal experts in to make sure no explosives were left behind. The clergymen decided in favor of a sweep.
"We have found 40 explosive devices and five rifles hidden there and the IDF is dismantling them now," an army spokeswoman said.
Earlier, 13 men on Israel's most-wanted list left the church and were quickly flown on a British aircraft to Cyprus, the first stop in an exile abroad which will take them to third countries under a European Union-brokered deal.
Twenty-six others considered less serious offenders by Israel were expelled from the West Bank and taken to Gaza.
Some 200 people -- Palestinian militants, police, civilians, priests and nuns took refuge in the sanctuary to evade Israeli troops and tanks that swept into Bethlehem on April 2 in a West Bank offensive triggered by suicide bombings.
CROWD CHEERS
Outside the church on Friday, crowds of Palestinians cheered after Israeli armored personnel carriers pulled out of Manger Square. Church bells rang and cries of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Greater" rang out from the loudspeakers of mosques.
Some of the 85 civilians, who returned to normal life in Bethlehem after undergoing an Israeli security check in a nearby army compound, were overjoyed at the prospect of simply taking a shower and eating a full meal for the first time in weeks.
After hugging and kissing emotional relatives who greeted them at Beit Jala Hospital near Bethlehem, the men said they asked themselves difficult questions during the standoff -- such as when Israeli snipers would fire next or food would run out.
"The Israelis had this tower with a remote control electronic device that fired on us whenever we were exposed. When we went outside we had to run away from it," said Naji Abu Obeid, a 19-year-old Palestinian policeman.
"We each had a safe spot in the church where we would hide such as behind columns," added Obeid, who said he used his AK-47 assault rifle to defend himself and others.
Israel, which engaged in lengthy negotiations with the Vatican and other interested parties over the church, strenuously denied firing into the shrine and said it did all it could to avoid damaging the Church of the Nativity.
Two Palestinian men were killed by gunfire in the church compound last month and another was later wounded.
NO STRANGER TO CONFLICT
A lemon tree stood in the Franciscan compound, its branches bare after those who had been holed up inside the shrine ate its leaves.
The church is no stranger to conflict. Samaritans destroyed much of the original church during a revolt in 529. Christian Crusader and Muslim armies fought over it for many years.
The church was rebuilt during the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian in about 530 AD. Crusaders redecorated it and over the centuries it has been renovated and expanded with the addition of other chapels and monasteries around it.
If they have modern plumbing, then when the Israelis cut off the water, they eliminated the ability to flush the toilets. This would have been intentional on the part of the IDF to make conditions inside so bad it would affect the terrorists morale.
Seems like some here are making an outrage out of a necessity. They seem to think all the Palis should walk out the front door and take a leak while dodging bullets from IDF snipers. I bet the Alamo or Khe Sang didnt smell any better at the end of the battle.
My first thoughts too. Decades ago I tried to think of a future intance that would bring that to pass. . .but thought it pertained to the 'holy of holies' in the re-built temple, which, at the time, seemed unlikely. A striking parallel, at any rate. Perhaps a metaphor.
Shiptar ("ethnic Albanian") muslim savages DEMOLISHED (with explosives) over 100 Christian churches in Kosovo! For their "Palestinian" co-religionists to do the same to the Church of the Nativity would be NOTHING AT ALL to them!!!!
Besides that, these SAVAGES want to turn the Church into a muslim "martyr" shrine, because of the terorists who died there. Demolishing it would make it that much easierto do so!!
So's your house. You want a horde of gun-toting strangers to hole up there and take dumps on the rug?
Dont forget the UN making room for the Hebs to begin with. In '47 there werent many people living in the what the British called Palestine although more were arab than Jew.
As far as your idea of a Christian nation, why dont YOU and your friends form a private army and go take the Temple Mount. After all, that is where the Ark of the Covenant sat and where God lived in His Temple meeting with the Chief Priest once a year, that is where Jesus beamed up following his resurrection, as well as the location from which Mohammed is also supposed to have beamed up when his worldly life came to an end. Seems like the perfect spot for you. Maybe you can beam up too.
Don't forget that Arabs/Muslims themselves would shit and piss anywhere... it's part of their so called "culture", so they wouldn't mind the IDF soldiers doing that. This peculiarity exonerates to some extend what they'd done in the Bethlehem Church: they didn't know better.
Dear Dave!
I just love your idea so much that I'm ready to forgive you all the bullshit you'd posted on this thread before.
I've been saying that my dogs are more civilized than the Pali/islamists (based on their treatment of their puppies vis-a-vis the Palis convincing their young that blowing themselves up is the proper thing to do). Now you've given me article two of my theory that canines are a higher life form than Palis.
But by the way, assuming they had toilets, really intelligent savages would have figured out that they could use buckets of urine to flush crap down the toilet, in the absence of running water. But I forgot--we're talking about the Palestinians.
Thank you, mate. As a non-native English speaker I do cherish your linguistic tuition. I also tremendously enjoyed your historic and cultural analysis of this orthographic problem, and please allow me to confess that I thoroughly share your views on the subject.
These people are not only fascist, murdering, pigs -- but they hate the west (and "its" religion) with a virulent and irrational passion.
This is just a little, juvenile, sign of what is in their hearts.
You obviously are not expressing the proper indignation
You have to grow a beard, bend over 3 times a day facing Mecca in close proximity to some some other subhuman muslims butt and shout out heretical nonsense in a ridiculous guttural language, for starters.
When your brain rebels after a couple of years of this nonsense, strapping C-4 to your body and pulling the trigger will seem like a great relief.
We are better than them. (Meant to post it.., not email it)
What's not funny is your distortion of the facts - it was a wall outside Arafat's HQ in Ramallah. That's why it was humorous. If it had been a "mosque" we wouldn't have though it was funny then or now.
Your lie exposes itself in the telling.
One of those whacked-out, so-called peace activists from Canada who was inside talked by phone with Fox News' Linda Vester yesterday afternoon. She denied there was any stench, claimed she had a good sleep in a bed the night before, and blamed the "international community" for turning its back on the hungry people inside.
Vester did something I could never have done--kept her cool and gently pointed out the inconsistencies in the peace freak's story.
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