March 30, 2002

Israeli Soldiers Return to Bethlehem

[West Bank, Palestine] The Israeli soldiers are back again. They're happily residing in Beit Jala. They rolled through Bethlehem, and they are building up forces in Beit Sahour. I called Sandra Olewine this morning, and there were tanks outside her home earlier in the day. The checkpoints were closed, so no one was to go in or out.

I really wanted to go to sunrise service in Jerusalem tomorrow, but that's impossible. Easter service on the Mount of Olives -- it's like the high point of Christian pilgrimage. Sandra advised me to try to leave today if I expected to make it. But I had other duties -- teaching an early evening class, briefly faxing and paging the media, and participating in a peace march to Beit Jala.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has two weeks of peace protests scheduled. This was planned months ahead of time, but it happened to coincide with the Israeli re-invasion of Bethlehem. Unfortunately some of the key organizers are stuck in Ramallah, where the situation is very bad. The entire city has been taken over again, so they could not get out to lead activities here. This morning the group of about 60 marched from the Bethlehem Star Hotel to the Israeli soldiers in Beit Jala.

We walked up the hill into Beit Jala where we were met by two Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). Soldiers crouched with their rifles, and I remembered all the journalists and internationals who have been killed recently. The group shouted slogans and kept walking. The group stopped in front of the APC and held up signs. Someone may have read a statement. One of the soldiers dropped a sound bomb that startled us a bit, then all of the soldiers ran back into the carrier. Up the hill a bit from us another APC fired half a dozen rounds in our vicinity and rumbled down the hill. We waited there a while and slowly walked back home.

Photos of the Peace March to Invaded Beit Jala