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| Middle East |
| Church thugs pledge to return home |
| 2002-05-23 |
| Two Palestinians exiled in the deal to end the siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity vowed to return home someday despite Israel's insistence they will face arrest. Mamdouh al Wardian, 22, and Mohammed Muhanna, 21, were part of a group of 13 Palestinians exiled from Israel and distributed among six European Union nations and Cyprus as part of the accord that ended the standoff on May 10. Greece took two. "We are certain we will go back," Muhanna said, while Wardian added that EU negotiators had promised their exile would be temporary. "We insist on our right to return home." Sure hope the Mossad is preparing some attractively priced cars for them to rent about now... The comments draw attention to the vague status of the militants in the EU, which has accepted to host them "on a temporary basis." Most countries have said they will grant the men one-year residence permits, but it is unclear what will happen after that time. Oh, they'll probably have skipped well before then... Dressed casually and wearing black-and-white checkered Palestinian scarves around their necks, the two appeared for a press conference at the Palestinian Authority's diplomatic mission. The other 11 Palestinians, distributed Wednesday among Belgium, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus, were swept off to secret locations, with some governments refusing to identify which individuals they were hosting. "We were not at all happy about the fact that we were forced to leave our country," Wardian said. "But we accepted it as a solution in order to contribute to the lifting of the siege of the church." Take comfort in the fact that the IDF wasn't happy to see you go... Israel, which considers all 13 men to be terrorists, has said their exile is permanent and that they would be arrested if they ever attempted to return. The Israeli Defense Force identifies Muhanna as a member of the Palestinian intelligence service in Bethlehem, and Wardian as a senior member of the Islamic militant group Hamas. Wardian, who said he was "very surprised" to see his name on the list of those to be exiled, would not directly comment on whether he was a Hamas member. But he insisted he had been unarmed when about 200 Palestinians, including several dozen gunmen, ran into the church on April 2 to flee advancing Israeli troops. What happened? He dropped his gun? Was it one of those scenes like in the movies, when the bad guy runs out of bullets and throws his gun? Muhanna said he worked as a bodyguard for the Palestinian Authority, and admitted he had been fighting on that day. "These boys don't consider themselves heroes, but they are not terrorists either," said Palestinian envoy to Athens Abdallah Abdallah. "They are patriots willing to defend the lives of their people and the freedom of their country." Jes' a coupla clean-cut country boys... Speaking about the conditions under which they would stay in Greece, Abdallah said the state was responsible for their security, and that they would be granted residence and work permits. He said their families would be allowed to visit them, and added the two were free to leave the country if they wished, "but they will lose the hospitality of Greece if they do." All they've got to do is get on a plane. Boy, that agreement sure did a lot of good, didn't it? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |