The Palestinian Prisoners Club stressed the necessity of returning the deportees of the Church of the Nativity to their homes after 20 years of deportation.
The club explained in a statement on Tuesday that “the agreement with the occupation at that time was made in very complicated and obligatory circumstances and it was supposed to be for only two years but it lasted for 20 years.”
It added “After the steadfastness recorded by the heroes of our people during the siege of the Church of the Nativity in 2002 internal and international contacts led to the deportation of 39 Palestinian militants (13 of them abroad and 26 to Gaza) so we must all seriously adopt this issue to end this crime. “.
The deportees of the Church of the Nativity sent a brief message on this anniversary in which they said: “The time has come after 20 years of exile and severe suffering to put an end to our suffering!”
The siege of the Church of the Nativity was imposed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Palestinian activists inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and lasted from April 2 until May 10 2002.
After 39 days an agreement was reached according to which the militants surrendered themselves to the IOF which forcibly exiled them to Europe and Gaza Strip.
