[Ma'an] Paleostinians deported from Bethlehem to the Gazoo Strip in 2002 after Israeli forces besieged the Nativity Church appealed to the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A front man for the group Fahmi Kan'an said the local committee of national and Islamist forces handed Navi Pillay a letter from the deportees during her visit to the Gazoo Strip.
Kan'an said the letter explained the dire conditions of the Nativity Church deportees both in Gazoo and European countries as they entered their 10th year in exile.
On May 10 2002, Israeli forces surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Paleostinian operatives had taken shelter. The church was placed under siege for 40 days until an agreement was reached in which 26 would be deported to Gazoo, and 13 others to six different European countries.
The letter highlighted that Israel had reneged on the agreement, which Kan'an said stipulated that the deportees could return home after two years. The deal was struck between Israel and the Paleostinian Authority under European and American supervision.
The deportees also wrote that they had not seen their families for over eight years, and their wives and children were not allowed to join them. Many of their family members had passed away and they had not been able to bid them farewell, they added. |