Phone Conversation with Larry Hales, a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace

May 4, 2002--8:00 PM (Palestine time)

Appeared at www.PalestineChronicle.com

CCMEP: Larry! How are you?

Larry Hales: We’re doing good! Our spirits are up. Our spirits had been down, they killed a man today.

CCMEP: A Palestinian man?

LH: Yeah. He was hanging some clothes up to dry that he had washed (the water here comes from a well), and they shot him in the back—from the side.

CCMEP: So he was outside of the church?

LH: Yeah.

CCMEP: Have you been able to get the body out?

LH: Yeah, we got him out. They patched him up, made him comfortable. It took forty-five minutes to get him out. You could kind of tell that he was going to die because he started turning really, really pale. It was crazy. He was really brave, he didn’t make a sound.

CCMEP: Did the internationals take him out?

LM: The monks here—the priests—they took him out. These guys are really something.

CCMEP: How is everybody in there? How are the internationals?

LM: We keep it light—we joke with people. We try to keep it as light as possible. Even the Palestinian guys, they don’t walk around with sour faces. They laugh, we joke with the ones who speak English.

CCMEP: How is the food situation?

LM: Well, there is no food. We ate the last of it today. (Muffled voices). Oh, I guess there’s something, a little bit of something. Most of it is light—like there are grape leaves, so people cook the grape leaves.

CCMEP: How are everyone’s spirits?

LM: We feel really good, we just wish that from the start we had told someone that we were going to be distributing food. We couldn’t bring all that much because we paid for it ourselves…We’re a good group--with each other we just sort of keep it going. If anyone gets down, other people try to lift them up.

CCMEP: Have you been able to contact anyone from the outside, other internationals or organizations?

LH: There are a couple people who didn’t get arrested--they contacted us. They’re hanging around in Bethlehem. We’ve been talking to a lot of media.

CCMEP: What are people’s speculations about what’s going to happen?

LH: A far as I know, it’s coming to a close. I guess Sharon is going to the States, and I guess one of his bargaining chips is that he’s going to pull out of here, so I’m thinking tonight or early tomorrow morning. I think within a matter of hours, actually.

CCMEP: What are the internationals planning on doing then?

LH: We’re going to wait behind, we’re not going to go out with the other people.

CCMEP: Are you getting any sleep?

LH: Yeah, they’re actually letting us sleep in the place where Jesus was supposedly born!

CCMEP: Are there any messages you want to send back home?

LH: Just tell everybody thank you for helping me get here, and for taking care of my girlfriend.

CCMEP: Anything else you want to say?

LH: Most of the people in here are civilians. They were people who were defending their homes. What they are fighting for is just—their cause is just. They’re not a bunch of suicide bombers, they were just defending their homes. I’m really disappointed and mad at the same time. It’s just not fair.

Larry Hales is one of four coloradans currently in Palestine, working with other internationals in the West Bank to end the illegal Israeli military Occupation. He is one of the ten internationals currently inside the Church of the Nativity. For more on their trip, go to www.ccmep.org