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4/8/2002 (20:14) |
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Israeli Forces Inflict Widespread Damage in Bethlehem
Residents Describe Operation As Driven by Hatred, Revenge
An Israeli soldier takes cover behind a truck in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (AFP)
_____Special Report_____
• War and Peace in the Mideast
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 8, 2002; Page A10
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, April 7 -- When Israeli troops banged on the door of the Christmas Lutheran Church and International Center compound, the Rev. Mitri Raheb, the pastor and noted theologian, was confronted with a dilemma many Palestinians face each day: leave his residential quarters to talk to the troops and risk being arrested, or worse, stay huddled inside with his family and allow the soldiers to ransack his office.
He took what he called the 'calculated risk' and went out -- to find the soldiers bashing in the door. 'I have all the keys!' he shouted at them in Hebrew, then English. 'You can ask me as gentlemen, and I will open all the doors!'
Instead, he said, the soldiers bashed in 31 doors and smashed 57 windows in the three-story compound as they searched for gunmen and weapons. In one office, he said, they ripped out a computer hard drive and demolished a refrigerator, tearing out its wiring. They broke windows in a ceramics workshop and a small gift shop. They left bullet holes in sinks.
'They are not searching for people or ammunition,' said Raheb, a German-trained scholar and native of Bethlehem. 'They hate to see any positive sign of life in our town. . . . They want to see us as the underdog. They don't want to see us as equal to them.'
'It's this evil power of revenge,' he said. 'I think it's hatred. They entered, and their aim was to destroy as much as possible.'
The extent of the destruction in Bethlehem became apparent today as reporters were able to wander through the city, which Israel has declared a closed military zone, to the edge of Manger Square. About 200 Palestinians, including armed fighters, and 60 clergy members are hunkered down in the adjacent Church of the Nativity, the site where Jesus is believed to have been born.
[Palestinians inside the compound said that fighting erupted around the church early Monday, sparking a fire in the office of the Latin Patriarch, which is separated from the church by a wall. The Palestinians said the fire burned for nearly 30 minutes before Israeli forces allowed firefighters access to extinguish it. There were also reports that a Palestinian policeman inside the compound was killed by an Israeli sniper.]
Bethlehem, which was spruced up with $200 million in foreign donations for the millennium celebrations, now has many shops with broken windows and doors ripped from hinges. Cars have been crushed by tanks, or their windshields have been shattered.
Late Saturday, Israeli soldiers blew up at least nine cars parked at Bethlehem's farmers' market. The blast collapsed the market's roof and the ensuing blaze damaged some nearby shops. The area, littered with incinerated shells of cars, was still smoldering today. The Israeli military said Palestinians had rigged cars to explode as soldiers passed by.
A stone monument from Cologne, Germany, erected at the entrance to Bethlehem's Old City for the 2000 millennium celebrations, was reduced to rubble, apparently crushed by a tank, residents said. Treads from tanks and armored personnel carriers have ripped up the pavement and broken open pipes, leaving water gushing into the streets.
'All this destruction! These people don't fear God!' an elderly woman wailed as she walked through the marketplace.
William Hazbooun, a 47-year-old engineer, runs a small secondhand appliance shop adjacent to the farmers' market that was badly damaged by the fire. He said that when Israeli troops moved into Bethlehem in 1967, during the war, there was minimal damage and barely a shot fired. 'Nothing happened in '67,' he said. 'They just came here walking.'
Talal Hamdan's shop was demolished by a tank shell that brought the roof down. 'I lost 60,000 shekels [about $13,000] worth of merchandise,' he said.
Raed Jaber, 27, inherited a small clothing shop from his father. He lives in Hebron, about 12 miles south of Bethlehem, but has been trapped in his shop with three others for five days because of a curfew enforced by the Israeli military. 'These are just acts of revenge,' he said of the Israeli soldiers' actions. 'Their intention is to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihood. But we won't leave. We'll stay here.'
Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, said that the soldiers were operating under strict orders to limit damage to civilian property, but that 'a certain amount of disruption may occur.'
'You're dealing with a war in an urban setting,' he said. 'It's very difficult. There's no way this can be without any damage.'
Jessica Montell, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said property destruction was a serious problem made worse because the soldiers in Palestinian territories can operate with impunity. 'There's no accountability. There's no investigation,' she said. 'It's like boys with no supervision who go crazy. There's no sense that these are human beings like them, who are victims. It's hard to find any security justification for what appears to be vandalism and wanton destruction.'
Along with the destruction, Palestinians here spoke of what they considered unnecessary humiliation by the Israeli troops, despite President Bush's call Thursday for the Israeli army to show 'compassion' and 'concern about the dignity of the Palestinian people.'
Raheb, the Lutheran pastor, said some of the Israeli soldiers searching his compound heard him speaking in Arabic on his telephone, and shouted 'Dirty Arab!' and 'Why are you speaking Arabic? It's an ugly language.'
Maher Abu Aker, 24, said that he was detained for 24 hours by Israeli troops who blindfolded him and bound his wrists with tight cuffs. He said he was not fed for 24 hours, and had to sleep with 35 others in a small room on a concrete floor.
He said a soldier brought blankets for the group because of the nighttime cold but then poured water over the blankets. 'After the blankets were wet, we could not use them,' Abu Aker said. 'We just put them aside' and slept on the floor.
Abu Aker, who works in his father's mechanics shop, said he was ordered to chant vulgar slogans about the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, but refused. He said he was slapped on the head and kicked in the legs while being interrogated. He said he was then released because he has never been a gunman and never been in trouble.
'I was really humiliated,' he said. 'It wouldn't have felt as bad if I were a fighter. They arrested me two or three times before. It seems they don't learn, they just keep doing this. We had old people, doctors in our group -- we all received the same treatment.'
The B'Tselem group went to Israel's High Court today seeking an order granting Palestinian detainees access to lawyers and an end to alleged torture of detainees. B'Tselem and three other human rights groups that joined the case said Palestinians at the Ofer detention camp had their toes broken during interrogation.
The High Court rejected their petition, saying the torture allegations could not be proven because they were too general and there were no Palestinian witnesses to back up the allegations. Also, the Israeli military recently issued an order allowing troops to hold Palestinians for 18 days without access to a lawyer. Israel has denied using torture.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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