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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020405/ap_wo_en_ge/italy_bethlehem_franciscans_1http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020405/ap_wo_en_ge/italy_bethlehem_franciscans_1
Priest in Rome says Franciscans willing to mediate
standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinians in
Bethlehem Nativity church complex
Fri Apr 5, 7:32 AM ET
By PETER W. MAYER, Associated Press Writer
ROME - Franciscan officials in Rome have offered to mediate in the standoff between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians
holed up since Tuesday inside the Bethlehem basilica built on the traditional site of Christ's birth.
The troops have been calling on the 240 gunmen to surrender, but the men continued to resist on Friday.
The situation at the complex, which includes the Church of the Nativity, was "very grave," the minister-general of the
Franciscans, the Rev. Giacomo Bini, told reporters. "We have 40 brothers and over 200 armed Palestinians. The brothers
have shared their food but it is now running out, and we appeal to be allowed to leave the church to go and get supplies."
Bini said the Franciscans' top representative in the Holy Land, the Rev. Giovanni Battistelli, is willing, together with other
local religious leaders, to "mediate talks between the two groups -- the Israeli soldiers besieging the exterior of the basilica
of the Nativity and the over 200 Palestinians who have taken shelter in the monastery."
He also said that he had written to U.S. President George Bush "to ask him to ask Sharon to stop and to start a dialogue."
"We need people to lay down their arms but those in the church will not lay down their arms if they see those outside still
have guns," Bini said.
Asked if the Israelis had destroyed a door to the courtyard, as gumen and others inside the church had said, Bini replied:
"They did destroy the door the same way the Palestinians destroyed a door trying to get in."
The Israeli military has denied the claim, saying soldiers did not make a move on the shrine.
Bini said there had been shots fired into the courtyard but no Israelis had entered the complex.
The standoff began on Tuesday when the fighters, who had been battling advancing Israeli troops, dashed to the church for
refuge.
Besides the 40 Franciscan brothers, in the basilica complex there are four nuns and some 30 Orthodox and Armenian
monks.
"Our brothers are tired psychologically and physically," Bini said, stressing, however that the Franciscans are not
abandoning the place.
Before the violence in the last months which has bloodied much of the Holy Land, Bethlehem was a popular pilgrimage
town. One of the most famous pilgrims was Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II, who celebrated Mass in Manger Square,
just outside the basilica, two years ago. He called Bethlehem "the heart of my pilgrimage."
On Thursday, a top Vatican (news - web sites) official, Archbishop John P. Foley, said the violent developments in
Bethlehem "must break (the pope's) heart."
Five Italian journalists, who were inside the complex when the Palestinians poured inside, were evacuated on Wednesday in
a convoy of armored cars with diplomatic plates.
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