At siege's end, exile is a controversial solution

As the 36-day siege of the Church of the Nativity was nearing a close Tuesday, Palestinians here were fearful that the deal exiling 13 gunmen could set a dangerous precedent.

"Israel, with Palestinian approval, has implemented a policy of transfer" of Palestinians out of their homeland, lamented Manuel Hassassian, an adviser to the Palestinian Authority. "That has very negative implications for the future."

The long siege of one of the most sacred sites in Christendom, where Jesus is said to have been born, symbolizes the way the elemental nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict compels world attention.

Nearly 200 people have been trapped in the 4th-century basilica, reduced to eating herbs out of hunger. Five have been killed by Israeli snipers.

It also underscores the value of outside intervention, as the United States becomes more deeply involved in solving the larger conflict.

A deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to send 13 men wanted by Israel to Italy hung in the balance at press time, as the Italian government complained that it had not been properly consulted.

In Bethlehem, all was ready for an end to the siege under an agreement brokered by the United States and the European Union to send 13 men to Italy, another 26 to the Gaza Strip, and to free the rest.

Palestinian negotiators had long rejected Israel's demands that the men it holds responsible for planning suicide bomb attacks and other violence against Israelis should be sent abroad.

Mr. Arafat's decision to face down popular discontent and to permit exile as a solution to the crisis has met with almost universal condemnation from Palestinian factions both inside and outside the Palestine Liberation Organization that he heads.

Some relatives of the men to be sent away were also furious yesterday, and not only because they were not to be allowed to see their loved ones before they left. "It is a cheap sellout" says Nyasa Kamel, the mother of one of the men to be exiled. "Unfortunately President Arafat did not deliver what he was supposed to deliver."

"This deal is against our interests," adds her daughter Abir. "They are taking the best fighters who resisted the occupation."

The men sought refuge in the Church of the Nativity on April 2, when they were beaten back by invading Israeli forces.

The nature of the deal stuck in the throats of many other Palestinians, too. Since occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war, Israel has deported hundreds of Palestinian leaders, most recently a group of Islamic activists belonging to Hamas who were forcibly transported to the other side of the Lebanese border in 1993.

"Tomorrow, whenever we face situations like this, Israel will resort to this policy," predicts Dr. Hassassian, the rector of Bethlehem University.

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