The Invasion - A West Bank journal - Part III - April 3, 2002

Bethlehem - The nicest thing about the morning of April 3 was the discovery that electricity existed again. This meant working television. Television meant news. News meant information from outside the confines of the Bethlehem Star Hotel. This information meant, well, the only channel in English in my hotel
room: CNN World. So as the sunlight struggled through the dark clouds outside, and the clank of tank treads through the window reminded me of my predicament, I was treated to an interview with CBS's Dan Rather by Larry King. Larry insisted on reminding me what a remarkable journalist Dan was. Dan opted to inform me about what a warlike situation Israeli controlled Jerusalem was in. Dan noted a car that exploded at a West Jerusalem checkpoint, qualifying him as a war correspondent. Dan! Why aren't you talking about the tanks crunching their way through my neighborhood? Dan had to know, if not, I would tell him.

While I didn?t have Dan?s phone number, I was able to find CBS News? bureau number in Tel Aviv. With a few quick phone calls it was arranged. CBS News would later on interview myself and my friend about being Americans trapped by an Israeli invasion in Bethlehem. Finally, Dan would know.

In the meantime the hotel was settling into its second day of occupation. I awoke too late for breakfast, but found no shame in eating scraps of bread, cheese and olives left behind on the plates of others. Word came in that a convoy of US Embassy vehicles, slated to rescue willing foreigners still had yet to receive Israeli permission to proceed. The International Solidarity Movement members chatted to friends still stranded in Dehiesheh and other refugee camps or sat reading. The journalists still struggled to make forays towards Manger Square without being shot at by the Israelis. On the television in the lounge, Al Jezeera was interviewing one of the female hotel workers about the situation over a satellite feed. I saw the hotel lobby being broadcast internationally and back into the lobby. We looked bored. Indeed, one of the more frequent videotapings by the host of reporters and a couple amateur filmmakers seemed to be capturing the routines of those trapped in the hotel.

While settling back into the routine of card games, I observed some of the reporters talking about contacting CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Their interest was in filing a protest petition to the Israeli authorities concerning the frequency with which the Israelis were shooting at journalists. This had been evident elsewhere, as CNN's broadcasts from outside Ramallah confirmed the same thing happening to them there. Every organization represented in the hotel, from the US, UK, France, Italy, Norway and elsewhere signed on. From what I could make of the phone call they placed to Amanpour, CNN had already filed similar complaints. Only slowly did it begin to sink in that if no one knew what was happening in any of these cities, the Israelis must be hiding some horrible things.