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One of the 13 Palestinians exiled after the Nativity standoff. |
DUBLIN,
Aug 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Two Palestinian exiles in
Ireland said they were determined to return to their West Bank city of
Bethlehem, despite their fears of being killed by Israeli forces. They
also stressed they would rather be back to the hell of living under
occupation than stay in the luxury villa in a Dublin suburb, a British
daily reported Saturday, August 17, 2002.
Outside
the well-appointed villa in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, schoolboys
played football and joggers ran past the neat lawns. Inside, hidden
behind drawn curtains in this most unlikely of settings, sat two
Palestinians. The men, described by Israel as “senior terrorists”,
are two of the 13 Palestinians exiled in May to seven countries after
the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
“The
Israelis will try and kill us if we go back - which they will try and
prevent anyway,” Rami Kamel, 22, said, nervously fingering his empty
sleeve, according to The Times.
Kamel,
suspected of many attacks on Jews in the West Bank, had his right hand
blown off last October by a booby-trapped gun bought from an Israeli
arms dealer.
He
said, “We prefer to go back to the hell of our country rather than
remain in the heaven of another that is not our own, even one like this
where the people treat us so well.”
Alongside
sat his fellow exile, Jihad Jaara, 31, a senior fighter in the Tanzim
resistance militia, linked to Palestinian President Yassir Arafat’s
Fatah faction.
The
men are looked after by an Irish maid, who cooks them three meals a day.
“We
are 100 per cent happy with our Irish guards, they make us feel safe and
drive us everywhere,” Kamel said, his eyes still red from crying
earlier as he spoke to his 18-year old sister getting married in
Bethlehem. “They even teach us English - they are our friends. But the
food is horrendous, like living 24 hours a day in McDonald’s.”
Jaara,
a former PLO bodyguard later trained briefly by the CIA under the Oslo
peace accords, complained mainly about “never seeing the sun”, after
enduring the worst Irish summer in memory.
Much
of the men’s time is spent idling about their house, an hour’s drive
from Dublin city center, provided by Ireland’s Department of Justice.
Occasional trips are arranged in unmarked Special Branch cars, including
a recent sea-bathing expedition. Both have mobile phones, monitored by
the Garda. They pay for calls from the €118 (£75.50) they receive
weekly from the Irish authorities.
The
Irish police shadow the two Palestinians around the clock, fearful
of an attack by Mossad agents or pro-Israeli loyalist gunmen from
Ulster.
When
Dublin reluctantly accepted the men under an EU-brokered deal to end the
siege of the Church of the Nativity, there were fears that the Middle
East conflict could spill over to the Irish capital.
Fears
intensified as both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland have begun
to take sides in the Middle East conflict. Belfast loyalist
paramilitaries have started to identify with the Israelis and fly the
Star of David alongside the Red Hand of Ulster in their ghettos.
Republicans hoist the Palestinian flag over pro-IRA streets near by.
Such
is the fear of potential murder that The Times was not allowed to take
photographs or know their address.
Unsuspecting
neighbors expressed surprise when told about the Palestinians in their
midst. “I take the Palestinian side over what’s going on there, but,
with the IRA, I think we already have enough violent men in our country
without bringing in more,” a middle-aged jogger said about the
Palestinian duo.
In
Italy, stringent precautions against a Mossad attack included giving the
three Palestinians exiled there new identities by the same Italian squad
which normally deals with the protection of Mafia turncoats.
In
Spain, three Palestinians have been sent to a remote hunting lodge once
built for General Franco, where every vehicle entering is swept for
bombs with an explosives detector.
