MIDDLE EAST: While a dozen Palestinians exiled by Israel settle into new lives in six European countries, the 13th man remains temporarily in Nicosia, waiting for an invitation to move on to a more permanent place of asylum.
"It will be arranged in a few days or a few weeks," Mr Abdullah Daoud told The Irish Times. As the most senior deportee from the Church of the Nativity, Mr Daoud chose to stay on here because he felt he could cope better than younger men with the uncertainty of not knowing his immediate fate. Born in 1962 in the Balata refugee camp near the city of Nablus, Mr Daoud was first arrested for resisting the Israeli occupation in 1978. Thereafter he was jailed for three years and had numerous periods of detention without trial. This is his second deportation.
When Israel chose the 13 it would send into exile, Mr Daoud topped the list even though, as Bethlehem intelligence chief, he attended meetings with Israeli security officials.
He observed that Israel demanded so many deportees "to justify its siege of the church". The invasion of Bethlehem was expected. It was natural for 100 policemen and security agents to take refuge in the church, as they were based at the Peace Centre on Manger Square.
During the 39-day siege the Israelis shot into the church and set fire to several rooms in the compound, killed eight Palestinians and wounded 25.
The eighth man to die was shot after the nurse from west Cork, Ms Mary Kelly, entered the church on May 2nd with nine other peace activists bearing food and medicines. Ms Kelly tried but failed to save his life. Of Ms Kelly, Mr Daoud said: "I believe that Mary is not only a strong person but also a great person. She understood what was going on and tried to convey a correct impression of the situation. She is a positive neutral."
The ordeal of the 250 inmates of the church was harsh on both the material and spiritual levels, he continued. "We suffered from a lack of food, electricity, potable water, toilets. We had to sleep on the floor." Although the monks and nuns provided blankets "there were not enough to go around". These material privations had an impact on the spiritual well-being of those in the church.
He praised the clerics highly. "Both the Catholics and the Orthodox played a very constructive role. 'This is our church and we will not leave' was the stand of the priests."
On one issue Mr Daoud wanted to set the record straight. He insisted that President Yasser Arafat did not support the US-brokered deal for the lifting of the siege of the church in exchange for the deportation of Palestinians. "We appealed to the president to accept this arrangement for two reasons," Mr Daoud said.
"First, the church is a holy place. Failure to lift the siege could have meant its destruction. Second, because of the siege of the church, 140,000 Palestinians living in the Bethlehem governorate were subjected to the same siege."
