Deal Ends Standoff in Bethlehem

A siege at the Church of the Nativity that commanded world attention for five weeks ended early this morning as more than 120 Palestinians began trudging out, one by one, tired and hungry, some waving and signaling victory, others kneeling to pray.

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Nearby, church bells pealed as the 13 Palestinians considered by Israel to be the most dangerous of the group started leaving the 4th century compound, passing through a metal detector on their way to waiting buses. They were scheduled to be flown to Cyprus and then to various other European countries.

“As long as they are out of the country, we’re happy,” said Capt. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli military spokeswoman.

Relatives of those being exiled called their names, waved and shouted, “Goodbye, my love!” and “God is great!” from a rooftop several hundred yards away as the men were guided onto the buses.

The first person to leave the church was Abdallah Daud Kader, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service in Bethlehem. Sporting a heavy beard and a black-and-white checked kaffiyeh, he had to pass several times through the metal detector, take off his jacket and then his belt before he was allowed to continue.

Daud, 41, is accused by Israel of smuggling weapons and supplying militants with explosives for attacks on Israelis.

Ibrahim Abeiyat, the Bethlehem commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement that has carried out numerous deadly attacks on Israelis, was among the next to emerge. A notorious chain-smoker, he puffed on a cigarette as he crossed Manger Square.

The last of the 13 Palestinians, who had been shot in the leg earlier in the siege, was carried out on a stretcher and was to be taken to an Israeli hospital before being deported with the rest, Feingold said.

The Israeli military said it would leave Bethlehem soon, a move that should end the citywide curfew that has been in place since April 2 when the Palestinians took shelter in the church as the Israeli military advanced.

“I don’t want to say it was a great success,” Israeli Brig. Gen. Eival Gilady said of the standoff.

“I wish we had never had to be here,” he said, but added that security considerations made it necessary.

The agreement releasing the men mirrored earlier proposals announced over the last several weeks. The problem has been the details of the implementation, as mediators tried at each succeeding round to make the agreement more specific. .

After the 13 most wanted men left the compound, the remainder of the Palestinians and others who had been stuck inside were to be taken to the Gush Etzion military base in the West Bank for processing under U.S. and European supervision.

Twenty-six of those Palestinians, whom Israel views as more moderate threats, were to go by bus to the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip. About 80 civilians and Palestinian security force members were to be released after questioning.

It is likely that 10 members of the nongovernmental group International Solidarity Movement, who spent a week in the compound, would be deported, Feingold said. They had crossed barriers surrounding the complex and entered the church last week carrying food to the besieged Palestinians. The activists were accompanied by Times photographer Carolyn Cole.

Nearly four hours after the evacuation began, Cole left the church, but the activists remained inside.

In the last 48 hours, negotiators say, Europeans played a major role in bringing the distrustful parties back to the table and finding ways around nettlesome problems, backed by U.S. promises of help to make sure terms of the agreement are met.

A major key to the success this time was finding countries willing to take the 13 men considered by Israel to be the most dangerous. The job was made more complicated by Tuesday’s suicide bombing near Tel Aviv that killed 15 Israelis, as potential host countries worried that they were inviting political and security trouble by taking in the militants.

A plan to leave the 13 men in the church until arrangements could be finalized also proved a deal-breaker after the Israelis refused to allow a European observer to stay with the men until a place could be found for them.

“That would leave them under the protection of the church,” which would have no practical ability to ensure their safety, said Anton Salman, a Catholic lawyer representing the Church of the Nativity in negotiations.

There were also apparent communication missteps. Canada issued a statement saying that it had not been consulted and was not willing to take the men, even though Ottawa’s willingness had been widely reported. Members of the Italian government also balked early on, despite strong Vatican pressure to accept some or all of the 13 men, and reports naming it the most likely landing spot.

Even as the world welcomed the news of the end to this particularly Mideast crisis, the final days of the standoff underscored anew how quickly a deal just inches from delivery can unravel in this part of the world--and how difficult it can be to put the pieces back together.

Early Thursday, just 24 hours before the men started emerging from the church, the same buses had lined up, those inside the church were all packed and ready to go and had bid their final farewells.

Signs were similarly positive on the outside. Food was waiting for the hungry siege victims, halogen lights illuminated Manger Square, and the global media had been called to record the historic moment from a nearby roof.

But soon, word spread of a minor hitch. Just a wrinkle or two, a few lingering questions about how Americans would guarantee security for the exile-bound Palestinians and whether a European observer could remain in the church with the 13 exiled men until a host country could be found.

Hitches in this part of the world, however, are rarely minor.

With progress at the negotiating table evaporating, it was only a matter of minutes before external signs of cooperation were erased, lest they be misconstrued as weakness.

Vehicles lined up to evacuate those inside the church were quickly driven away. Israeli military weaponry was trained back on the church. The lines of journalists were pulled back, and sniper weapons were trained back on this small bit of sacred real estate that has riveted international attention.

By Thursday afternoon, even the blimp that Israel maintained over the church to spy on its inhabitants was flying again, a sort of unofficial emblem of the standoff. And the weapon-laden crane used by the Israelis to kill Palestinians in the church by remote control was back in the square.

Ostensibly, the impasse had involved a few hundred people holed up in an old building. But in fact, Bethlehem’s sacred character and the beliefs of its various inhabitants guaranteed that the siege would quickly morph into a series of far larger power games involving a host of American, European, Israeli, Palestinian and religious players maneuvering in the wings.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.