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>From http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4386297,00.html
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Under fire in Bethlehem
Nicholas Blincoe
Wednesday April 3, 2002
The Guardian
I was unlucky to be in Bethlehem when history was being made. Anyone coming
fresh to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories must feel bewildered by
competing versions of events. It is useful to have facts. This is one: on Monday, live
ammunition was used against international protesters for the first time by Israel's
armed forces.
I was climbing to the summit of Beit Jala, a small Christian Arab town stretched
across two hillsides, overlooking Bethlehem. The illegal settlement of Gilo is visible
everywhere here. Because of its position, Beit Jala was the favoured route when
Israeli forces invaded Bethlehem last month. No house in the town is without its
bullet holes or shell holes.
The reason I was climbing Beit Jala, among 150 foreign protesters, is that Israeli
tanks had taken up position there again, signalling their imminent invasion. Our non-
violent action was intended to show that Bethlehem was filled with peaceful foreign
nationals. A second aim was to visit families cut off by the Israeli advance.
When we reached the first of two Israeli armoured personnel vehicles, we stopped
and our negotiators stepped forward. Both are British nationals: the writer Lilian
Pizzichini and a Glaswegian technology consultant named Kunle Ibidun. They were
unable to state our intentions because the soldier in the vehicle's turret opened fire
with his rifle.
His shots were aimed in front of us. They could be called warning shots. But the
bullets fractured on impact and his first five bullets injured four people: Kunle
himself,
a young Japanese woman from Bradford, an Australian woman from Hebden Bridge
and Chris Dunham, a Londoner. As we backed down the hill, an elderly Englishman
received shrapnel fragments in his face and an American was wounded in the leg.
As I write, the Australian is still in hospital and the Japanese woman is returning
home for treatment.
I came to Bethlehem to accompany my wife as she made a documentary about the
West Bank-based International Solidarity Movement. The ISM has become well
known in recent days, after the Canadian Jewish activist Neta Golan and others
succeeded in entering Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. But its purpose is to
support non-violent direct action in the occupied territories. Palestinians face
extreme
violence when they demonstrate. It comes not just from Israeli soldiers, who are fairly
disciplined and can be expected to operate under direct orders (the soldier who fired
at us appeared to be listening to instructions on his radio headset). There are also
the notoriously violent Israeli Border Police and the settlers' movement. This is why
internationals are needed: to increase the chances of successful non-violent actions
and lessen the risk of violence against the Palestinians.
It would be preferable if the Palestinians could pursue non-violent direct action. In
whose interest is an increase in violence? I write this, listening to the Israeli tanks
shelling the Deheisha refugee camp 400m away, watching news reports of the
burning mosque in Manger Square and an attack on a local priest. I am unable to
leave the house. My fellow protesters are split between two refugee camps and a
local hotel. The hotel has had its power cut off: presumably an attempt to drive away
the foreign media, who are also there. The press and TV are banned from Ramallah
and my wife's cameraman and a BBC crew received the worst of the live fire in
yesterday's demonstration (although none, fortunately, was wounded). The
overwhelming impression is that the Israeli army wishes to behave in any way it
chooses, unseen by outsiders.
I was in Bethlehem once before when history was being made: Christmas 1995,
when Yasser Arafat gave a speech from the roof of the Nativity Church in Manger
Square. The agreement he had signed with Yitzhak Rabin was then termed the
"peace of the brave". At that time, Ariel Sharon was already on record as saying he
would rip up this agreement.
The Palestinians long ago recognised Israel's right to exist within the international
borders it had in 1949. The Likud party, now led by Sharon, has never made a
reciprocal statement. The Palestinians believe Sharon will do everything in his power
to make sure that the door is left open for an Israel that stretches to the Jordan
River. I now believe this, too. Members of his coalition argue openly for the forcible
expulsion of the Palestinians. Perhaps the first candidate will be Arafat himself.
Nicholas Blincoe is a novelist and screenwriter.
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Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
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