On Thursday October 18*, 2001 during the night, Israeli forces and tanks covered by helicopters invaded the City of Bethlehem from several cores and penetrated into the northern and southern areas of the City, the birth-place of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ and the descent place of the universal message of peace. The invasion came immediately after the Israeli tyrannical assassination of three members of Fatah movement in the district of Bethlehem by exploding the booby-trapped jeep they were driving.
Palestinian National Authority
Bethlehem Municipality
October 20th, 2001
His Beatitude
Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Your Beatitude,
On Thursday October 18*, 2001 during the night, Israeli forces and tanks covered by helicopters invaded the City of Bethlehem from several cores and penetrated into the northern and southern areas of the City, the birth-place of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ and the descent place of the universal message of peace. The invasion came immediately after the Israeli tyrannical assassination of three members of Fatah movement in the district of Bethlehem by exploding the booby-trapped jeep they were driving.
Until this minute the Israeli tanks continue to surround and occupy several neighborhoods in Bethlehem preventing any access to or from the town while they are shelling our houses and residential areas with heavy machine gun fire and tank artillery. Seven Palestinians are already killed and more than forty-five injured.
The aggressive seizure of Bethlehem has effectively paralyzed all aspects of the daily life of our people. In fact the situation we are living in Bethlehem at present is tragic and overshadowed with fear, frustration and lack of food supplies, medicine, water and fuel.
We consider these Israeli measures as a grave escalation added to the series of aggressions, closures and tightening the economical suffocation on our Palestinian people. They are an Israeli attempt to burry alive the international efforts seeking to vitalize the peace process in our region.
At this difficult lime we call upon you to urgently intervene with the Israeli Government to immediately terminate the occupation of Bethlehem and refrain from attacking our Palestinian people and Palestinian land. We sincerely urge you to pressure Israel to abide by the United Nations resolutions, by the international legitimacy and by the concluded agreements and to return to the negotiating table for the sake of a just and durable peace in our region.
With best regards from Bethlehem
Hanna Naser
Mayor of Bethlehem
