In rare unity, clergy from different denominations pray at Jesus' birth grotto
By Ibrahim Hazboun
The Associated Press

BETHLEHEM - Clergy from rival Christian denominations held hands Saturday at the traditional site of Jesus' birth, intoning the Lord's Prayer in a rare display of unity as they reclaimed the shrine after a 39-day siege by Israeli occupation troops. Throughout the day, black-robed monks and local volunteers scrubbed the Church of the Nativity, clearing out trash left behind by more than 200 Palestinians besieged inside for nearly six weeks.

The siege was lifted Friday, after 13 resistane activists were deported to Cyprus and another 26 sent to the Gaza Strip. The end to the standoff was followed by an Israeli troop withdrawal from Bethlehem, where residents had been confined to their homes under round-the-clock curfews since April 2.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, visited the church Saturday. In the grotto, a few steps down from the basilica, Sabbah knelt and kissed a silver star on the marble floor, revered by Christians as the spot of Jesus' birth.

Sabbah and senior clergymen from other denominations, including Greek Orthodox and Syrian, held hands in the grotto and spoke the Lord's Prayer in Arabic.

It was a rare display of unity at the shrine where different denominations jealously guard their turf; the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Orthodox each control different areas of the 4th century basilica.

In one incident in the mid-1980s, monks from different sects fought with broomsticks over who had the right to clean a small section of the wall. In Saturday's cleanup, each group concentrated on its area, but in a spirit of togetherness. Three Greek-Orthodox monks wearing latex gloves carried a rolled up carpet across the stone floor. Another monk wiped an icon with a yellow rag and others wiped smudges from the walls with sponges.

A special service was planned for Sunday, to be led by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a Vatican envoy who had been involved in negotiations to end the standoff. It will be a service of "praise, redemption and reconciliation," bringing the benediction of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said in a statement issued in Rome.

On Friday, after the end of the siege, the basilica had reeked of urine. The stone floor was covered with dirty blankets and mattresses, lighters, sunglasses, a toothpaste tube, a bottle of aftershave, plastic bags, cigarette butts, a comb and large cooking pots. A stove and gas canisters for cooking stood to one side of the central aisle. Leftover food covered an altar in the Armenian section.

Those inside the church had complained the Israelis occasionally cut the water supply and water was scarce during the siege. There were no toilets inside the basilica and to get to facilities elsewhere required crossing an open courtyard, with the risk of Israeli sniper fire.

Yet the basilica emerged with little permanent damage.The panes of several arched windows near the ceiling were broken. A 12th-century mosaic near the ceiling, which one priest had said was hit by bullets, appeared in good condition. Several rooms in the Greek Orthodox section and Franciscan study hall next to the church were gutted by fire; Israel and the Palestinians accused each other of sparking the flames. A statue of the Virgin Mary in the courtyard took a bullet in the shoulder. One priest complained the foreign peace activisits, who arrived at the church a few days ago to prevent bloodshed, had desecrated the church by smoking and drinking alcohol. A Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, 18-year-old Sandy Shaheen, was in tears as she looked at the interior of the basilica Friday "This is the place where Jesus was born. I can't believe this is the house of God - just look at it," said Shaheen, who worships at the Church of the Nativity every Sunday.

Father Nicholas, a Franciscan priest from Mexico, denied Israeli claims the several dozen nuns and priests who stayed in the compound during the standoff were hostages. "We were there by choice," Nicholas said. Priests and nuns have said they remained to protect the site. Father Nicholas said the resistance activists kept their weapons with them at all times, and in the first days took candelabras, icons, candles and "anything that looked like gold." Some of the valuables were later returned, he said. Israeli bomb experts swept the church and found 40 explosive devices. Experts neutralised 25 devices and an American bomb squad with sniffer dogs disarmed the rest, according to a military source.

The Jordan Times -- Sunday - May 12, 2002