Dear Friends

 20 internationals marched to Manger Square removed the barbed wire blocking the entrance to the narrow street and walked into the square followed by the media. Some snipers shouted to them to stop. They kept walking right past the Peace Centre where recent negotiations have been taking place and reached the door of the Nativity carrying food and water. By this time about 40 soldiers were on the scene very surprised that 20 peace activists had walked right past them. They immediately threw smoke bombs so that the press could not see what was happening.  The activists went to church the door with their hands in the air. A tank drove right up to them and the soldiers started dragging off the protestors. An attempt was made to arrest some of the protestors, and the soldiers insisted that they go and take away the food ; the activists refused . A spokesperson for the peace activists said; ‘we are very concerned about the situation of the people inside the church They are dying slowly from lack of food and they need medicine. We will continue to protest and do actions about inhuman situation”.

Leader of the Christian community and Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah and Fr. Attallah Hanna have both stated categorically that no one inside the church is being held hostage.

Mary Kelly a peace activist from Ireland said ‘ I have spoken with one of the people inside, Anton Salmon, a lawyer who entered the church with the Governor of Bethlehem 3 days AFTER the siege began at the request of Chairman Arafat because of Israeli reports that the civilians inside were being held hostage by resistance fighters. Mr. Salman and the Governor have stated many times that this is not the case. They themselves have also been unable to leave the church because the area is under constant attack by snipers. There are 250 heavy military machines here in Bethlehem, 150 of them are tanks. The district surrounding Manger Square is under almost constant curfew there is no food and medicines getting into the area. The religious members inside the church are being ignored by Christian community in this very extreme situation where they have no basic rights, no clean water and no security  which is contrary to everything that faith stands for. We wanted to get inside the Church today and show solidarity with all of the people under siege.

I am very shocked that the religious authority and wider community are not using their considerable power in this situation  to speak out for the people”