- Take the case of Khalil Nawawreh who "was involved in the February 2001 murder of Tzahi Sasson in a series of shootings at cars on the Jerusalem-Gush Etzion (tunnel) road. Before he and his friends were deported, Nawawreh served as an aide to Ibrahim Abayat, the head of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Bethlehem." He went to Belgium and soon after Bethlehem deportee held for robbery in Belgium (12/19/2003): "One of 13 Palestinians deported from Bethlehem following the siege of the Church of the Nativity in May 2002 has been arrested along with seven others during a police raid in Belgium on Tuesday. Khalil Nawawreh, 27, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in two armed robberies of post offices in Brakel and Court-Saint-Etienne in February, in which the thieves managed to escape with 213,000. Nawawreh had been working in Belgium as a mason. He was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of participating in a number of armed robberies of local post offices. [...]".
Khalil Nawawreh had complained about his life in Belgium: Exiled Nativity Church gunman in Belgium lonely and bored.
- Exiled Palestinian militants ran two-year reign of terror.
The Times of Israel reports:
British Jewry is bracing itself for attacks on Israel ahead of the month-long national tour of a new play by the Freedom Theatre of Palestine called “The Siege.”
The theater company, based in the West Bank
town of Jenin, structured the play around the April 2002 siege of the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The company, whose mission is
“generating cultural resistance,” is bringing the play to the United
Kingdom in May and is set to perform in a number of locales with large
Jewish communities. According to the theater’s website, “The Siege” is
supported by the EU, the British Council and the Roddick Foundation.
It will open in Manchester at Salford’s Lowry
Theatre on May 13 and 14, and will then tour Britain, with performances
at London’s Battersea Arts Centre and major stages in Leeds, Birmingham,
Nottingham and Glasgow, as well as some smaller venues.
The background story: Back in 2002 during the
height of the Second Intifada, in an attempt to stem terror attacks, the
Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Defensive Shield and occupied
parts of the West Bank, including Bethlehem. During a 39-day
standoff, scores of suspected Palestinian gunmen holed up in the
Bethlehem church, taking as human shields or hostages around 200
Christian clergy and civilians. By the siege’s end, eight Palestinians
had been killed.
“The Siege” has not yet been performed, but
some clues as to its probable content can be seen on the Freedom
Theatre’s website: “A group of armed men seek sanctuary in one of the
world’s holiest sites as the Israeli army closes in with helicopters,
tanks and snipers. Along with the fighters are some 200 priests, nuns
and civilians. The siege lasts for 39 days, paralysing the centre of
Bethlehem and keeping tens of thousands under curfew… two dead bodies
are decomposing in a cave below the church. While the world is watching,
the fighters are faced with the question of whether to struggle to the
end or to surrender. No matter what they choose, they will have to leave
their families and their homeland behind forever.”
According to most contemporary reports, the
Christian clergy and civilians were the hostages of the Palestinian
gunmen. An eventual deal to conclude the siege sent the Palestinian
terrorists into exile in Europe. Reports indicated that the gunmen used
Bibles as toilet paper and placed 40 bombs across the chapel area of the
church, considered by Christians to be one of the holiest places in
Israel. More.
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