Please can you help me, I need some ideas urgently. Today we tried to get medical aid into the Church of the Nativity. The Tanks and soldiers stopped us by firing warning shots. One of our group who speaks Hebrew spoke to the soldiers with our request. A reply came from the commanding officer, that 'There are no wounded inside, and that they are all being looked after by the army'! We had brought food and water but we were not allowed give this either. We asked if 2 of our group could go and verify that there are no wounded. 'NO!' to that also, so we had to retreat, followed by threatening tanks and the most ferocious bulldozers. It was an exhausting experience, draining. I was meant to go out tonight on ambulance duty with the Red Crescent, the equivalent of the Red Cross, but they could not come and collect me from the hotel, as there are too many tanks around. So, since Mike told me on the phone that the media are saying that gunmen are holding the religious people hostage, I have been working non-stop to try and crack this bollox. There are 3 churches inside the nativity Church, the Greek Orthodox, the Catholic, and the Armenian. Its quite an amazing place, I was inside it the day before the invasion, very, very ancient, beautifully preserved. Supposedly where Jesus was born. There are about 250 people inside, over 40 religious, monks and nuns, many of the Palestinian Authority, the Tourist Police and Resistence fighters and civilians. The Patriarch , who is the Vatican representative in the Holy land made a statement saying that the EVERYBODY inside there is under the protection of the Vatican. He is the man who walked from Jerusalem the other day with many church people but was not let through the checkpoint. So I got the phone number of a lawyer who is inside there, and I spoke with him tonight. He said he and the Governer went in to check that everyone is ok and that nobody is held against their will. They cannot get out now, but he confirmed the true situation to me. Also I told him I had tried to reach there with medical aid today. He said that there are injured people there. The line went dead, and when I got through to him later the line was too bad to get any more info. I feel like staying up all night to try and crack this situation, I am so fed up of the Israelis being able to come out with so many lies. Some of our people are in the alternative Indymedia centre 2 streets away. I phoned them and suggested that they put out a press statement saying that 3 of the pinnacles of society, the Church, a lawyer and the Governer of Bethlehem are saying that they are NOT being held hostage. I think maybe I should start working on media stuff myself as I am experienced, and my medical efforts are blocked now. I just wanted to share this problem with all of you, maybe you could help with new ideas for us here?.
Tomorrow, Sunday, a religious procession will try and get to the Church to pray. There has been a large hemorrhages in our group as many have gone home, the UK and US embassies put so much pressure on us to evacuate. Will write about that another time. Some of the activists got a very heavy time on the plane journey home, getting called Nazis and fascists by the Israelis on the plane. They were recognized from the TV, and got a police escort at Heathrow. I do at least 4 interviews a day. I am now trying to reach the Irish population in the US and just did an interview for radio Free Eirinn, RSF, station which works with WBAI the only truthful station in N YORK. I had met the interviewers when I was in NY so that was great. I am appealing to the religious community, the medical and the legal profession to protest. I am well, please don't worry about me, just put any anxiety into writing letters. I have not had any access to my email, so I have not seen any mail for ages. Thank you all so much for supporting me and the resisitence we are making here against this invasion. The focus is now shifting to Jenin and Nablus, where there are no witnesses and few press. We heard that there are 200 more activists ready to come here . I hope it is true and that all of them get in. There is fairly constant shelling here. Apart from being shot at, I have had soldiers aim their guns at me through the hotel window.
We have changed the name of our affinity group from the 'Bethlehem Babes' to the
'Fucking hard Cores'! A famous UK comedien who was in our group has gone home, I
miss his jokes. He was with me the day 7 of our group were shot. He said that
the IDF ( Israeli Army ) make the RUC look like the Salvation Army! That's about
the size of it. There's a queue for this computer, so I will finish. This babe
is doing a lot of growing up here! Sorry about mistakes.
Love to you all, Mary