Palestinian police arrest three Israelis in Bethlehem

Saturday December 29, 2007 11:43 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

The Palestinian police arrested three Israelis who were in Manger square just outside the Nativity church located in the center of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday morning.

Manager square during Christmas 2007 – Photo by: IMEMC's Fadi Tanass

Security sources told IMEMC that the three Israelis were armed but wearing civilian clothes. The sources added that the three were arrested by the police forces that were guarding the church of Nativity then were handed over to the Israeli army at an Israeli military checkpoint at the western entrance to Bethlehem.

The city of Bethlehem is surrounded: from the north by the illegal Israeli wall and from the west and east with Israeli military checkpoints and Israeli illegal settlements.

At all Israeli army checkpoints surrounding all Palestinian major cities including Bethlehem there are signs by the Israeli army written in Arabic, English and Hebrew that says that those cities are Palestinian cities and it's illegal by the Israeli law for Israelis to enter those areas.

When Palestinians, usually trying to get to work, enter Israel without a permit, they are abducted, sent to detention and then fined a massive amount of money.

In the city of Bethlehem, Israeli peace activists come and join the villagers and the residents of the city in the weekly nonviolent actions against the illegal Israeli wall built around the city. None of them are ever harmed by the local Palestinians but they are often attacked by the Israeli army or settlers.

bethlehem | holy sites | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org