gelatik
17.05.02, 00:13
The War:
• Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem shelled by Israeli forces
• Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem-
Israeli soldiers and youths throw stink bombs into the church Israelis
inappropriately
dressed entered the church; they smoked cigarettes; they littered the church;
they brought
dogs with them
• Church of the Nativity suffered some of the same desecrations as the Holy
Sepulchre
• Israeli forces shot up the Episcopal Cathedral just as they had done in 1948
• They smashed the Episcopal school for boys with their tanks
• Israeli army wrecked and looted the YMCA
• Israeli army wrecked the Lutheran Hospital, even though it was being used by
the UN
• The Lutheran center for cripples was also heavily damaged by the Israelis
• In Ramallah (a Christian city near Jerusalem) the Episcopal school for girls
was fired upon
by Israeli forces and some of the girls were killed
• The Reverend S.J. Mattar, warden of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, was
murdered in his
home by Israeli soldiers- without cause according to witnesses who were also
fired upon.
• The villages of Yalu, Beit Nuba and Emmaus were totally destroyed-
The Jewish writer Amos Kenan who was a soldier in the Israeli army gave this
account
to the Jewish magazine Haolem Hazeh:
The unit commander told us that it had been decided to blow up three villages
in our sector;
they were Beit-Nuba, Emmaus and Yalu. This was explained by strategic, tactical
and
security considerations. At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down
the first house
at the edge of the village. Within ten minutes the house was turned into
rubble. The olive
trees and cypresses were all uprooted. After the destruction of the three
houses the first
refugee column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. We told them to go to
Beit Sura.
They told us that they were driven out everywhere, forbidden to enter any
village, that they
were wandering like this for four days, without food, without water, some dying
on the road.
They asked to return to the village, and said we'd better kill them. Some had a
goat, a lamb,
a donkey or a camel. A father ground wheat by hand to feed his four children.
On the
horizon we could see the next group arriving.
The children cried. Some of our soldiers started to crying too. We went to
fetch them water.
We stopped a car with a major, two captains and a woman. We took a jerrican of
water
and distributed it to the refugees. We also handed out cigarettes and candy.
More soldiers
burst out crying. We asked the officers why are these refugees sent from one
place to
another and driven out everywhere. They told us this was good for them. Let
them go.
Moreover, said the officers, why do you care about the Arabs anyway. We drove
them out.
they go on wandering in the south like lost cattle. The weak die. In the
evening we found
out we had been deceived, for in Beit-Sura too, bulldozers commenced
destruction and
they were forbidden to enter. We found out that not only in our sector was the
border
straightened out for security reasons but in all sectors. Our unit was
outraged. At night
we were ordered to guard the bulldozers, but the unit was so enraged that no
soldier was
willing to carry out such duties. None of us understood how Jews could behave
like this. the
chickens and doves were buried in the rubble. the fields were turned into
wasteland in front
of our eyes. The children who went on crying on the road will be Fedayeen in 19
years, in
the next round. Thus have we lost on that day the victory.
