The New York Times · 3 May 2002

CP-2002-108

A Death and a Breach by Activists as Bethlehem Siege Persists

By C. J. CHIVERS

Scan 1004 × 1130 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, May 2 — On a day of more fatal gunfire, and a scramble by foreign peace activists carrying food into the Church of the Nativity, Palestinian negotiators offered a compromise to end the monthlong standoff between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen inside.

The proposal by the Palestinians, modeled after an American-brokered agreement that freed Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, from house arrest in Ramallah, would end the siege here by transferring men wanted by Israel as terrorists from inside the church to a Palestinian jail guarded by foreign wardens.

“In principle, this is something we could accept here at the church,” said Hanna Nasser, the mayor of Bethlehem and a member of the Palestinian negotiating team. “We say that a third party should step in now and handle this situation.” Although six men accused of terrorism were transferred from Mr.

Arafat’s compound on Wednesday in a similar arrangement, ending the siege there, no formal negotiations were held between the two sides today on the impasse in Bethlehem, and Israel sent mixed signals through the news media on the Palestinian suggestion.

One military official, who is working closely with Israel’s negotiating team, said the proposal probably offered a way toward an eventual solution. “We cannot ignore what happened in Ramallah, and this option is now in discussion,” he said.

But a high-ranking defense official said it was unlikely the proposal would be accepted because Israel classifies about 25 men inside the church as the most dangerous of terrorists — who must be either tried in Israel or exiled upon their exit. “Why should we compromise on an issue where we are really 100 percent correct?” the official said.

“These are really murderers.” There was no public sign of active United States diplomacy on the Bethlehem siege, and Western and Israeli officials in Jerusalem said the Ramallah siege had been a higher priority for Washington because it involved Mr. Arafat.

The Palestinian proposal came as Israel faced the added complication of having 11 foreigners — 10 activists and a photographer — inside the compound.

A group of 23 activists appeared in Bethlehem’s narrow stone alleys about 5:50 p.m. today, then picked their way through the barbed wire barricade about 200 yards from the church and walked quickly across Manger Square. Several had food in their backpacks: rice, flour, lentils, canned goods, salt, cigarettes and sugar.

The Palestinians inside say they have been living on boiled grass for two weeks.

How this transcription was made

Transcribed from the slide scan by a reader working off magnified crops, not by optical character recognition. The newspaper is printed on the page, in the lower photograph’s credit line “Tyler Hicks/The New York Times”; the upper photograph is credited Agence France-Presse. There is no masthead and no folio on this page fragment; the date is derived from the printed dateline, “BETHLEHEM, West Bank, May 2”, and the caption’s statement that the peace activists made their dash “yesterday”, with the year fixed by the monthlong Church of the Nativity siege and by Arafat’s release from house arrest that week. Slide 28 labels both of its images with this same date and they are two different pages of the one issue, which is why this record and ob20020503nyt-a share a date.

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