CAIRO, May 12: Arab film-makers are in pre-production preparations for a film on the 38-day Israeli siege on Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the semi-official Egyptian al-Akhbar reported on Sunday.

The paper said that the film’s script will be penned by Egyptian writer Youssri al-Guindi, who plans to travel in the coming few days to Bethlehem and Gaza to interview witnesses in order to determine what exactly happened during the siege.

It added that leading actors and actresses from all over the Arab world will participate in the planned film, which was expected to be produced jointly by a number of Arab satellite television channels.

According to al-Akhbar, the film will attempt to highlight the “steadfastness” of the Palestinians who sought refugee inside the Church and remained there until the conclusion of a deal that ended the standoff.

Under the deal brought about with the help of international mediation, 13 Palestinian militants wanted by Israel, out of a total of the 123 Palestinians remaining in the Church, agreed to go into exile.

A further 26 Palestinians, some of them members of Palestinian security organisations, were evacuated to Gaza, while 84 others were allowed to return to their families.

Al-Guindi told al-Akhbar that he expected the would-be film to be marketed throughout the Arab world and in other countries including, the United States and France, as there will be copies with English and French subtitles.

The Egyptian writer has twice before written scripts for plays on the Palestinian cause and the conflict with Israel. His first was in 1968 following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The second was in 1988.

Other Egyptian artists are also in the process of putting together various works dealing with the subject of the 19-month Palestinian Intifada and the Arab-Israeli conflict, including films, plays, songs and drawings.—dpa