Governor of Bethlehem rejects IDF request to visit city

Governor Bethlehem says that if the IDF and its officers want to visit, they could enter the city 'with tanks and armored vehicles.'

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem 370 (photo credit: Michael Omer-Man)
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem 370
(photo credit: Michael Omer-Man)
The Palestinian Authority governor of Bethlehem, Abdel Fattah Hamayel, claimed Sunday that he has rejected IDF officers’ request to visit his city.
Hamayel claimed that IDF Central Command Maj.-Gen. Alon Nitzan had asked to visit Bethlehem on Sunday night.
“The Israeli side has requested a visit to Bethlehem by the commander of the central region in the occupation army together with a group of IDF officers in civilian clothes,” Hamayel said in a statement. “They are unwelcome because of the continued crimes of the occupation army against Bethlehem.”
The governor said that if the IDF and its officers want to visit Bethlehem, they could enter the city “with tanks and armored vehicles.”
Hamayel said that neither the PA nor the Palestinian leadership in Bethlehem welcomed such a visit.
The Popular Resistance Committees in Bethlehem also announced their opposition to the visit of the top IDF officer to the city.
The group, which consists of dozens of Palestinian political activists, said it would foil the visit when and if it takes place.