We walked right in to Manger Square--"right
through the front door." The writer in me wants to create
some suspense, but I am ecstatic--my heart continues to beat at
the rate it was when we were walking through.
We were planning the night before and were
planning around another demonstration led by clergy. Our plan
was to walk to the checkpoint before Bethlehem and protest. This
morning we decided to participate in this action but to also continue
on if the participants of it were stopped.
Well, we were stopped and the clergy weren't
so much interested in pushing through as they were in just challenging
the checkpoint.
After this action, which lasted only about
30 minutes we decided to take a route through a monastery. No
one expected us to get through this way either because the soldiers
were very close, and if they were looking, would be able to see
us. But, they didn't and we continued on into Bethlehem.
The city was a ghost town, it was on curfew
and it was almost completely quiet--at first. As we walked on,
people began appearing at their windows and cheering us on. It
was very powerful to see these people looking out and throwing
up peace signs, children and elderly people. Our presence gave
them hope and as we continued we began to see more and more people,
mostly children coming out of their homes. They wouldn't come
out on the streets but they were coming out.
We stopped after having walked for quite
awhile, and we began to plan for the march on the Church of the
Nativity. No one thought that we would have gotten as far as we
did. We planned and planned and waited and planned; finally, some
of us decided to talk to some families that had gathered just
in front of their homes, a few of them were fluent in English.
They were entirely full of gratitude--they
let us into their homes and served us coffee--these people are
resilient. Their lives are being put on hold by an occupying force;
they can't go to work; their children can't go to school, yet,
they were so willing to share with us. Some even invited me to
stay with them.
Time began to get short; so, we had to
go with the plan we had, which was for five of us to cross the
barricade with water and food but we didn't think that we would
get through; and so, we were considering that the action would
be symbolic at best. We waited some more and finally set on our
way with a box of water and a bag of rice--meant to be symbolic
of course because in the church there is barely any water, let
alone a way of cooking the rice.
People began coming out more. I guess the
word had gotten out. There was a group of Palestinians just before
the barricade and some walked to it with us, holding down the
barbed wire so that we could walk over it.
When we saw Manger Square we thought the
siege had ended. It was empty except for an M1 Abrams tank. We
walked on and at the halfway point, Israelis began yelling for
us to stop. These soldiers doing the yelling didn't have on their
Kevlar helmets or their rifles--they were caught off guard.
We continued on through the yelling and
made it to the door of the Church. When there we were instructed
to sit by Huwaida. We did and the soldiers threw smoke canisters
to block the press from seeing us. We knocked at the door and
yelled that we had food; the soldiers looked on, the smoke rising.
The tank moved so as to scare us. The media began moving so the
smoke wouldn't block their view. We held our hands up while yelling
at the people inside to open the door, then, the soldiers moved
towards us started pulling us up and throwing the food away from
the door.
They were attempting to hold us but we
were leading them more than them us. They tried to confiscate
cameras, but we refused and they capitulated. However, they did
drag some people. The soldier holding me was telling me how he
didn't agree with what was going on but that it was his job. He
seemed to be a good man.
We were put in one area and Ted Koppel
came over and interviewed Huwaida. He got the entire incident,
all the cameras did despite the smoke. When he finished we came
to the conclusion to walk out. The soldiers weren't prepared for
this. They tried to stop us but we defied them and kept on walking
'til we were clear of them.
The action was one of the most spectacular
things I have ever seen, and the people I was with are some of
the most brave people I have ever known. Tomorrow we will begin
to try and get some people in Hebron and the Gaza Strip. I will
be going to Hebron. More to come.
* Larry Hales is one of two members of the Colorado
Campaign for Middle East Peace who have joined many
internationals in Palestine to nonviolent resist Israel's illegal
military occupation of Palestine.
