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CNN Live Today

More Shooting Outside Church of Nativity

Aired April 24, 2002 - 11:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First let's get started with a jump to the Middle East where attention today is focused on the investigation at Jenin, also the standoff at the Church of the Nativity.

Our Jerrold Kessel is in Jerusalem with the latest.

Jerrold, good morning once again or good afternoon to you in Jerusalem.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning. It is good afternoon, good morning to you.

And we're getting reports now of shooting outside the Church of the Nativity where there -- that standoff now into its fourth week. And according to -- from the Israeli side, one of their soldiers has been wounded. According to Palestinians, just getting reports of two people inside the church being wounded. The Israelis accusing Palestinians of opening gunfire.

Palestinians said the Israelis shot first, but the Israelis saying the Palestinians opened the fire just as negotiators were getting into the nearby somewhat en congruously named Peace Center to begin a third round of talks to try to end this standoff. But we understand now just in the last few minutes checking in with people on the two sides there that those talks are underway in an attempt to resolve this desperate standoff there and those talks now taking place in ever more difficult circumstances.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KESSEL (voice-over): A very opaque window of opportunity, but talks at last about how to end the bitter struggle around the beleaguered basilica of the Nativity, a siege that's now stretched into a fourth week. The talks in the now ineptly named Peace Center, on the walls posters lauding Palestinian fighters who led and died in the intifada uprising.

No breakthrough yet, but at least there are handshakes. They're even listening to each other, they say. But it's now a double barreled battle of wills around one of Christendom's holiest sites and at the table.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a negotiation where one is in negotiation with two sides. You must listen what they have to say. So we'll listen. They listen. And I hope it will be a good or positive solution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am talking convictions now and faith. Peace is inevitable, whether they like it, we like it or not. It is our fate to live together as neighbors. In spite of the bitterness of the present moment, there should be people who could see the sun behind the clouds.

KESSEL: The Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to starve the wanted men out. The Israeli Army says dozens of young Palestinian boys are essentially hostage to the gunmen. So, too, 30 odd clergymen, monks and nuns. Yet, could the medieval style siege outlast the talks? Could the besieged gunmen outlast their hunger?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can. They can. Sometimes when we were in prison we were on hunger strike for 20 days. They can.

KESSEL: How long will Israel persist?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the time.

(on camera): Is how much time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All time is all time needed in order to solve this crisis peacefully. Because the main point is to solve this crisis peacefully. It's complicated but it's the best alternative among the other ones.

KESSEL: It's true that both sides seem to have done their best not to escalate this crisis in a way that would damage the church itself. And when this conflict is resolved here, it will be on political principles, a political deal not based on religious considerations.

(voice-over): And now, though, the most basic issues must still be addressed. The abbot of the Armenian monastery, Father Rasmig (ph), is among the church men and women, custodians of the holy site who are caught in the middle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let them think we've (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want some food.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's bread. It's bread. It's bread. Just bread. Just bread. Just bread.

KESSEL: Father Rasmig takes the parcel and disappears back into his monastery to confront further tests of his faith on the edge of a square where faith in the other is in short supply, very short supply.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KESSEL: And really, Daryn, when we were down there late yesterday in Manger Square, one of the first two crews -- camera crews that have been in that area for -- off -- during the three and -- now three-and-a-half week standoff and siege, you got the impression very little was moving in that area. It really did have the sense of a medieval siege around that old basilica. And at the same time, there was a distinct sense that perhaps there was a momentum towards a resolution at last, but now one's bound to say, as the shooting breaks out again near the Church of the Nativity, perhaps, only perhaps it is a momentum towards a resolution -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jerrold, one can only hope. You shared with us that this abbot who you were able to speak with, that he also told the Israeli soldiers that he's diabetic. Any effort to get more than just that token piece of bread and some medicine into some, especially the folks that are stuck in the middle in this conflict?

KESSEL: They really are. The church people that he -- he told us that he and only an 88-year-old colleague were left and that the six other members of his -- of his monastery had gotten out. They had left. They had been ill. Some went out at the beginning. He was left alone. Apparently he does have sufficient medicine.

What he -- what he was able to say that he was really very angry with both sides as he came out, spoke briefly and his anger was directed, it seemed, against the Palestinian gunmen. He said they were stealing things from within the convent. He said they had broken his crucifix.

At the same time, he was very angry with the Israeli soldiers. He said you're not helping, you're not helping. Why don't you resolve this? And he also accused them, which Israel has admitted, that it mistakenly shot the deacon of these community. He was seriously hurt. He is out of danger. But that -- the abbot was really very, very angry and rather a forlorn figure as he had to go in and really to be tested in his faith.

But it is an awful situation for those -- for the church people who say they are there and they won't leave because they say they're the custodians of this holy place, they need to stay as long as this siege goes on. It's interesting to have heard the Pope today saying it's an inhuman situation, it must come to an end. It seems as if both sides do want it to come to an end, but they're not, at this stage, closer to accepting each other's terms and that remains very much the sticking point -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Not badly enough.

Well, Jerrold, thank you to you and to our CNN crew for braving that danger there and going up so close and putting a face on what we've been pretty much watching from the outside of buildings and from the church for the last three weeks, appreciate it. Thank you.

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