BETHLEHEM —When Israeli troops withdrew from the Palestinian town of Bethlehem earlier this month, few people were more relieved than the Catholic brothers who run Bethlehem University in the Holy Land.
The 12 brothers, members of the De La Salle order founded by Jean Baptiste de la Salle, were literally caught in the crossfire when, on Easter Monday, April 1, Israeli troops entered the campus.
At the time the university, whose 2,000 Christian and Muslim students hail mostly from Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Hebron on the West Bank, was closed for Holy Week.
The La Salle Brothers, on the other hand, reside on campus and were present during the military occupation.
“It was the evening of Easter Monday when we heard the helicopters, the F-16 fighter bombers, and then at 2:45 in the morning on April 2 about 30 Israeli soldiers came onto the campus,” recalled Brother David Scarpa two days after the university reopened for the first time in six weeks.
“The soldiers approached the brothers' house and one of us opened the door and was shot at,” Brother David said. “Four bullets missed him and went through the glass door. They hit the picture of our founder on the wall. The soldiers said the shooting had been a mistake.”
Although the university sustained extensive damage during another Israeli military action earlier in the year, Brother David stresses that, until Holy Week, Israeli soldiers had not set foot within the grounds. He insists that the university has never harbored militants, but acknowledges that armed militants sometimes lurk in the streets near the campus.
Said Brother David, “This time, one squad searched every room in the university. Another squad wanted to see every room in the brothers' residence. I accompanied an officer and another soldier. In both cases, they didn't find what they were looking for, the people they called terrorists.”
Brother David says that the soldiers broke into many rooms and painted the doors of those they examined with green paint, defacing the property.
“They stopped only after we offered to accompany them, opening the doors with keys,” he said.
Following the house-to-house search, the soldiers opened John Paul II Street Gate, one of the entryways into the campus, and brought in nine armored personnel carriers, each with about a dozen soldiers.
“They occupied the university for just over four days,” said Brother David. “During this time, the brothers were not permitted to leave the residence house, aside from the vice chancellor, who was allowed to go to his office. After some negotiating we were allowed to go to our offices one hour per day.”
Helping Others
On the third day, the army briefly lifted the tight curfew it had imposed on all Bethlehem residents.
“When we came out of the house, the soldiers pointed their guns at us,” Brother David said. “They demanded our ID cards and told us we must return within one-and-a-half hours. During this time we purchased food.”
The brothers shared this food with an extended family that had sought and received refuge at the university. Their home had been badly damaged during the first operation and they feared for their lives.
Brother David said that he and the other brothers spoke only briefly with the Israeli troops stationed on campus.
“They were anxious to justify their presence. We didn't convince them and they didn't convince us,” he said. When the soldiers left the university, he added, they left large amounts of food behind. “We were able to distribute it to people in need, who couldn't afford to buy any.”
Although the university sustained only minor damage during the most recent siege, much of the town of Bethlehem was not so fortunate.
“There was damage to the town, much of it gratuitous. Although tanks could fit on the main road, they struck down street lights,” Brother David said. “One thing that particularly saddened me was seeing the damage sustained by a monument incorporating part of the spire of Cologne, that was erected as part of the Bethlehem 2000 festivities. The tanks reduced the monument to rubble.”
Several of the university's students were detained by the Israeli army, then released. A few, however, remain in custody.
“How the students fared during the occupation depended on where they come from,” Brother David explained. “One student from Jerusalem told us he'd had a kind of holiday, going to the pictures several days a week. Another one, from the Dehaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem, who's usually very bright and cheerful, arrived emaciated. He had clearly been through a very traumatic experience. He didn't want to talk about it. One student, whose house was surrounded by Israeli tanks, told me that once he graduates he will leave the country.”
As Christian clergy, the brothers try to find the humanity in both sides of the conflict.
“For me, the suicide bomber has to be seen in the context of the occupation, the deprivations,” said Brother David. “Nonetheless, [such attacks] are extreme evil. There's no justification for blowing up young people out for an evening enjoying themselves.”
Back to Work
Since its inception in the mid-1970s, Bethlehem University has prided itself on being an oasis from the problems in the Middle East. Brother David describes it as “the least political university in the West Bank.”
“Our students and staff are gratified to be back,” said Brother David, his voice reflecting deep satisfaction that this crisis has passed. “It's time to get back to teaching and learning.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.