Coloradans act as 'human shields'
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post International Affairs Writer
Wednesday, April 03, 2002 - Denver schoolteacher Nancy Stohlman was holed up Tuesday with a wounded Japanese woman in a darkened Bethlehem hotel room, wanting to talk with her 3-year-old son back home.
The two women were among hundreds of foreign "human shields" determined to protect Palestinians as Israel seized control of Bethlehem in an expanded offensive Tuesday. They believe they can deter Israeli troops.
But outside the hotel, tank-mounted machine guns rattled. Helicopter gunships hovered over Bethlehem's central Manger Square, where Palestinian gunmen hid.
"We need to quit being so apathetic, sitting and watching television, thinking we can't do anything," Stohlman, 28, said, her cellphone battery fading. "I'm scared, but that's sort of self-indulgent at this point."
Israel has given no indication of easing up on the military campaign to stop a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. On Monday, soldiers fired on a group of the unarmed foreign activists, injuring eight, including the Japanese woman with Stohlman. Foreign peace activists are barred from "military closed areas," said Meirav Shahar, spokeswoman at Israel's consulate in Los Angeles. Yet Israeli forces will "make a special effort" to avoid killing them, Shahar said.
The Denver-based Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, which is sponsoring Stohlman and other activists, sent a letter asking U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer to guarantee the safety of Coloradans in Israel. Denver civil engineer Gary Anderson, who witnessed the shooting Monday, called for help getting out.
U.S. State Department officials said diplomats dispatched to help Americans in Bethlehem "haven't been able to get there" and urged would-be human shields to heed a warning against traveling in Israel.
"We can't take responsibility for people who decide against that advice to travel there," U.S. consular affairs spokesman Edward Dickens said in Washington, D.C. "Of course, we will do everything within our power to aid Americans in distress - even if they have traveled against our advice."
More peace activists planned to leave Denver this week.
"People can look back in history and say, "How could such a tragic event have happened?' with different events like the Holocaust," said Beth Daoud, 35, an independent in-home nurse for the elderly in Denver who arrived in Jerusalem on Monday. "What is difficult is to realize that a tragic event is taking place right now and to do something about it. As a human being, I have to do something about this."
Shortly after dawn Tuesday, Daoud slipped through an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem where other foreign activists had been turned back. Israeli guards appeared to be busy in a building, Daoud said, so she was able to head toward Manger Square, where tradition says Jesus was born.
Tank gunfire pounded ahead.
Italian nuns took her into a seminary, where she spent the night. She planned to go early today with supplies for Stohlman, Anderson and others at the Bethlehem Star Hotel, just off the square.
She is "absolutely" certain she's willing to be hit by a bullet, she said. "This is another Holocaust that's being covered up by the Israelis and partly our government. Someone has to put themselves between the Israelis and the Palestinians."
Back in Denver, Eric Blair, 29, prepared to travel today. Current U.S. diplomatic efforts are just a charade "to placate the Arab populations that are destabilizing the Arab regimes, which the United States needs," Blair said. His friend Brian Wood, 27, planned to leave Saturday.
In Bethlehem, Stohlman planned to serve as a human shield for another 10 days. She's been moving daily from Bethlehem to a Palestinian refugee camp where she believes international activists can save lives. "I believe I am setting an example for my son," she said.
In Colorado, her husband, Brett, left Denver for the mountains with 3-year-old Van.
Van's godmother, Daphne Webb, said she'd been thinking of going to Israel, too. "If thousands of Americans would go there, it would make a difference." But now the violence is too much. "I wouldn't want to die for this."
Among others vexed back in Denver was Marsha Perez, 56, Beth Daoud's mother. The thought of her approaching the manger in Bethlehem "scares me to death," Perez said. "I don't want to lose my daughter."
She tried to persuade her not to go, she said. "But she gets upset at me. She says, "I really believe in this. If we don't stand up for them, who is? I am one small person in the United States. We have all the comforts. The Palestinians don't.' "
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