CPT expects to continue its Haiti work with a new violence reduction project later this summer with a mobile team that will be available for rapid deployment to situations where violence threatens. Since 1992 CPT has had a permanent team in Haiti working on three successive projects that have emphasized human rights, support of local violence reduction workers, training and documentation.
"Recently Israeli authorities have announced the planned demolition of 60 homes in Hebron, between the settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha Harsina. The demolitions are postponed (although only temporarily), however, due to heavy international and internal pressure against the demolitions."
Your letters, faxes, e-mail messages and prayers in response to a recent urgent action on housing demolitions have made a major difference. Please continue the pressure from churches and community groups.
HEBRON, WEST BANK -- A settler man was stabbed in the marketplace today at 10 am and was seriously wounded. Following the attack, settlers ransacked the market, attacking Palestinian vendors and journalists.
Christian Peacemaker Team member Bob Naiman went into the market soon after the attack. When he arrived, he saw the settler lying on the ground with a knife still in his back. The victim was then taken away by ambulance.
In a different section of the marketplace, about 60 settlers, according to witnesses, entered the marketplace. Many kicked and hit Palestinian vendors and journalists and overturned tables. This area stands directly across from an Israeli soldier checkpoint.
Naiman joined Palestinian journalists who went to film the incident. Settler youth tried to attack the journalists; Naiman stood in front of the youth blocking their path and attempted to attract the attention of nearby Israeli soldiers. One settler teenage girl, standing several feet away from Naiman, threw a stone at him which struck him in the leg.
Eventually, Israeli police arrived and moved the Palestinian journalists and Naiman away from the market. One journalist pointed to Israeli camera operators who were allowed to film the incident. He told a police officer, "You are here to uphold the law. The Israeli journalists are allowed to film, why aren't we?" The police officer replied, "There is no law here."
When CPT members Anne Montgomery, Wendy Lehman, Kathleen Kern and Dianne Roe arrived, the marketplace was filled with scattered vegetables and broken children's toys. They learned that four Palestinians were arrested, but no settlers were taken into custody.
Naiman said, "Maybe if there were one rule of law here that applied equally to all people, both Israelis and Palestinians would be more secure." Partial redeployment of the Israeli army in Hebron, which was scheduled for March 28 according to the Oslo 2 peace accords signed by Israel and the PLO, was rescheduled to occur sometime before Israeli elections on May 28.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is helping the Columbia Heights area of Washington DC host the Peace Factory this weekend. Pray that this culturally diverse neighborhood will discover new options for reducing violence and that seeds are planted for peace.
On Sunday morning, April 28, Israeli Radio reported that Shimon Peres told Yassar Arafat in a private meeting he was canceling the demolition orders for sixty homes in the Hebron area. CPT Hebron welcomes this announcement; however, sources in Peace Now, an Israeli peace group which has been working to stop the demolitions, fear this cancellation may only be temporary and may not apply to all homes in Hebron threatened with demolition. Therefore, the international community should continue to petition the Israeli government to permanently end its policy of home demolitions in the Occupied Territories.
The IDF has demolished 51 homes (11 of them in Hebron) built without permits in the West Bank in 1996 alone. Seven other homeowners destroyed their houses after receiving pressure from the IDF. Hundreds of children have already been left homeless due to these violations of international law and the peace agreements between Israel and the PLO. Although the homes in the Hebron area were built on the owners' land, they were unable to obtain permits because their land lies adjacent to Israeli settlements.
Please fax or send e-mail messages to the following numbers asking for a permanent end to house demolitions in the Hebron area. International pressure has no doubt been a major factor in Peres's decision. Your discussions of these matters and prayers in local congregations are appreciated.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR URGENT ACTION APPEAL
STOP HOUSE DEMOLITIONS
For generations Palestinian families have farmed the fertile land around their villages. In the summer they lived in stone houses so they could be near their fields. In 1967 when Israel first occupied the West Bank, confiscation of Palestinian land was limited. Most families could still farm and live on the land without fearing that it would be taken from them. In 1977, however, when the Likud party came to power, they escalated land confiscation for military purposes. In 1979, using a loophole found in the Ottoman Land Law, and ignoring the international laws which superseded the Ottoman Law, a land confiscation infrastructure was put in place and Israeli settlements were developed in strategic locations in the West Bank. These settlements, illegal under international law, became "facts on the ground" that required more security considerations, and thus led the way for more land confiscations for military purposes. Israeli settlements established on confiscated, abandoned or purchased land, were encouraged to expand and a massive campaign that included generous financial incentives was adopted to encourage Israeli immigration to the settlements.
On the other hand, Palestinians who still lived on the land that their parents and grandparents had cultivated, found themselves under increasingly stringent regulations. From 1979 on "it was decided to actively prevent any further expansion of Palestinian towns and villages. From then on any building permits granted would be for construction within the municipal boundaries of these communities only" (Israeli Settlement in the West Bank, Past, Present and Future. Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem. June 1995, page 9).
It was this policy, arbitrarily established in 1979, that now is devastating scores of families, especially in the areas near settlements. House demolitions are proceeding at a record pace. While some of these demolitions are for the construction of bypass roads (which Palestinians do not have access to), most of them serve no purpose other than to humiliate and further subjugate the native population. The sole reason given by the military for these demolitions is that the houses were built without a permit.
HEBRON, WEST BANK -- Last night at 8:30 pm, 50 Israeli settler youth and adults protested the IDF's (Israel Defense Forces) installation of a gate near settlements in the old city. Carrying Israeli flags, settlers sat in front of and on the flatbed truck transporting the gate. Although the demonstration was primarily nonviolent, some settler youth who wandered from the protest threw stones at Palestinian journalists and Christian Peacemaker Team members. Soldiers also prevented Palestinian journalists from filming. Throughout the evening the Israeli police and military showed great restraint in dealing with the protest of the settlers. In contrast, when Palestinian students had a sit-in protesting the closure of Hebron University, they were attacked and beaten by Israeli soldiers; seven were arrested and several went to the hospital due to the severity of the beating. The following is a time line of events that occurred last night.
8:45 pm -- CPT members hear children shouting outside their apartment in the old city. When they go to investigate, they discover the demonstration. Israeli police officers ineffectually attempt to clear the area, which they have declared a closed military zone.
9:15 pm -- Hisham Sharabati, camera operator for WTN British Television, attempts to film the demonstration. Although one officer tells him he can film, other soldiers prevent his passage to the site. He tries to approach from a different direction, through the market, with CPT members. As they all walk toward the CPTers' apartment, five soldiers step in front of the group and block their path in a covered alleyway. Although CPTers explain they live just 20 feet away, the soldiers will not let them pass for several minutes. After some debate, one of the soldiers calls his officer. The soldier reports that the CPTers can pass, but not Sharabati.
9:30 pm -- CPTers Dianne Roe, Anne Montgomery and Wendy Lehman accompany Sharabati back through the market. He then attempts to film the site from a distance. Several soldiers at a checkpoint approach him and one grabs his camera. The CPTers and Sharabati protest, saying they have no right to confiscate his camera. One soldier tells him, "We'll show you we have a right" and threatens Sharabati. The police officers standing nearby intervene and his camera is returned. Several times, soldiers attempt to grab him or push him. CPTers intervene by standing between the soldiers and Sharabati and by removing their hands from his arm.
9:45 pm -- Lehman asks one of the police officers, "Is this a closed area?"
A nearby soldier responds, "Yes."
"Then why are settlers freely moving through the area?"
"Because they live here," says the soldier.
"We live here too, but we are not allowed to go in. So it's a closed area,
but it's an open area as well?"
"This is not your problem," says the soldier, "We will deal with the
situation."
10 pm -- Other Palestinian journalists arrive and film from near the CPT apartment. Settler children crowd around them, trying to prevent them from filming. One journalist stops the hand of a boy trying to hit him. An IDF officer tells the journalist, "Don't touch them, I'll remove them." The officer then leaves the area. CPTers Kathleen Kern and Lehman are not permitted to go near the journalists, who are still being harassed by the settlers. One soldier tells Lehman, "I am the army here. If you come any closer, I will have to arrest you."
Eventually the journalists retreat behind the gate blocking the marketplace. Lehman and Nasser Sheyokhi, a reporter for Associated Press, stay in the market while the rest of the group goes to the CPT apartment. As Lehman and Sheyokhi talk with an AP correspondent in Jerusalem, about a dozen settler children throw stones at them through and over the gate. The soldiers do not intervene.
2 am -- The settler protest eventually winds down and the soldiers install the gate.
April 30 During the evening night patrol, CPTers Anne Montgomery and Lehman are approached by a soldier.
"Aren't you the friend of Hebron?" the soldier asks Lehman. During the five house demolitions on April 11, a group of soldiers were laughing and joking. One soldier asked Lehman who she was, and she gave this quick description.
"Yeah, you were at those house demolitions," Lehman says.
"I wanted to ask," the soldier went on, "Where are the families living now?"
Montgomery explains that some are staying in the homes of relatives and some have rented apartments.
The soldier nods, seems uncomfortable for a moment, then rejoins the other soldiers at the checkpoint.
May 1 An Israeli settler is stabbed in the marketplace. Settlers retaliate by raiding the market and overturning vegetable carts. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) declares the market a closed military zone.
At the site later, Lehman and Montgomery talk with a reporter for the _Jerusalem Post_ about why they are in Hebron. The discussion focuses primarily on their pacifist beliefs and how they believe active nonviolence can lead to social change. Later, the same reporter visits the team at their apartment.
Several hours after the attacks, CPTer Bob Naiman goes to do some shopping. On the way back, an IDF soldier stops him in the market, saying that it is a closed military zone. Naiman tries to take a different route back to the house and another soldier stops him.
"I live here; I have to go through here to get home," Naiman explains.
The soldier still does not permit him to pass. They continue to debate until the soldier tells Naiman to stand against the wall, spread eagle. Naiman complies and the soldier takes his passport.
A reporter for the BBC walks up and asks the soldier why Naiman is being detained. The soldier answers her. She hesitates for a moment, then asks, "Well, I'm with the BBC, can I go through?"
The soldier lets her pass. After several minutes he returns Naiman's passport and lets him continue on his way.
May 2 CPTers speak with local Palestinians about the stabbing victim, Nissim Gedawi (age 72). According to Palestinians and to the press release issued by the Hebron settlers, he is a resident of Kiryat Arba settlement who often shops, unarmed, in the Palestinian market. Palestinians express surprise and regret concerning the attack. Gedawi, from Yemen, speaks Arabic fluently and is on good terms with many Palestinian shop keepers. One Palestinian said he sometimes spoke out against Hebron settler violence toward Palestinians.
CPTers discuss what response to make, weighing the feeling of needing to do something against the desire not to do anything inappropriate. Finally, they decide to send flowers to Gedawi and his family at the hospital, with a note saying, "We are praying for your quick recovery."
May 4-6 CPTers read in the Friday, May 3rd Jerusalem Post that Gedawi is upgraded from serious to moderate-to-serious condition.
They also discover that the Palestinian Authority arrested and tried a man from Bethlehem for the attack, sentencing him to 12 years in prison.
"While we do have several of the letters that were written on behalf of the families, we only have two responses that counter-indicate the demolitions. The first was written from an Israeli consulate and said the Israeli government has decided NOT to demolish. The second one which we received yesterday (written to John Stoner) said, "the demolition may not happen," and there has been "no official ruling." Did other people receive the assurances that were implied in the first letter? It is worrisome that the tone of the two letters changed so dramatically in about a week. (These letters came from the same source and the bodies of the letters were unchanged except for the weakened assertions that the demolitions wouldn't happen). We think it would be good to get more letters like the first one. Thanks. CPT Hebron
The overriding concern of the Haitians with whom CPT has lived are the arms that continue to be hidden and remain a threat to peace. The weapons were distributed by the defunct Haitian military and were made in the USA. Pray that people of peace in Haiti including CPT find ways to disarm these weapons that threaten life.
Hebron, West Bank - On Friday, May 10, Dianne Roe and Anne Montgomery, Christian Peacemaker Teams workers accompanied Mosallam Ali Shreateh, his brothers, and their families from Yatta to his wheat fields next to the Israeli settlement of Susia. The settlers had previously seized a section of this land to plant trees, had poisoned another section, grazed sheep on the growing wheat, and threatened those attempting to work in their own fields.
When we reached the field adjacent to the trees, a group of settlers approached, filmed us, and were soon followed by two soldiers who, after a lengthy argument, informed the brothers that the plot of land now belonged to the settlement. When the family began harvesting the wheat next to it, two other soldiers arrived and shouted at the Palestinians, threatening to shoot us all if we did not leave in five minutes. We moved to a field farther from the settlement. Shortly the same two soldiers reappeared and repeated their five-minute warning which was ignored. They retreated to the side of the road and finally departed to be replaced by a cruising settler van. For the next two hours rows of men, women and children gathered as much wheat as possible to save it from the burning sun.
This incident capsulizes both a way of life and its gradual destruction under occupation. The spreading settlements gobble land farmed for generations by the same families. These families life in tight-knit villages whose livelihood depends on those surrounding orchards, grapevines, and wheat fields. Whole extended families use holidays and sometimes even schooldays to harvest the precious crops, often by hand. To eat loaves baked from family wheat is to taste the love binding its members to each other and to the threatened soil of Palestine.
Noel Amboise, leader of a community organization in Cite Soleil, (Port au Prince poor area) said, "We have a big problem of security [in Haiti] because the police don't have experience. We need the UN's help to disarm because the police are still new at the job." Amboise was referring in deaths of three Haitian National Police killed while off-duty in the last week of April.
Amboise's concern about Haiti's instability was reflected by President Rene Preval at the funeral of one of the murdered policemen last week.
UN operations in Haiti are estimated to cost $50 million from March 1 to June 30, the slated departure of the peacekeeping force. Dozens of Haitians have died of gun violence. Five police have died since March 8. The UN military peacekeeping force took over the peacekeeping operation from the forces which intervened in September 1994 to oust the Haitian military leaders of the coup d'etat.
The UN's primary work in Haiti now is focused on the training and assistance of the Haitian National Police (HNP), said Falt. A force of 300 civilian police from around the world accompany and educate HNP police on the job.
CPT has worked and talked with people in and from Tirivye and the Artibonite, Jeremie, Cap Haitian, and Port-au-Prince in the last 3 years. These people continue to maintain that the most important objective the UN could accomplish in Haiti would be to help the young HNP disarm the former attaches, military, macoutes, gangs, and other destabilizing forces in Haiti's society. There is deep concern in Haiti that with such large stockpiles of hidden weapons, a major disintegration of law and order could occur after international peacekeepers depart.
An overriding concern of so many Haitians with whom CPT connects, including Protestant leaders seeking to pastor a very poor and vulnerable church is the widespread presence of weapons in Haiti. At the urging these friends CPT developed the following appeal to the United Nations. The letter urges the U N to be more deliberate in supporting the collection of weapons.
__________________________
United Nations Mission in Haiti
May 10, 1996 c/o Eric Falt
Dear Mr. Falt and all of the UN team in Haiti:
Christian Peacemaker Teams respectfully greets the United Nations Mission in Haiti.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has maintained a presence with the Haitian people as representatives of North American peace churches since December 1992. CPT established a long-term presence in Jeremie as international human rights observers and was present during the multinational intervention in September 1994. CPT team members climbed mountains in the Artibonite Valley with peasants who continue to live under the threat of armed attack on their homes and land. CPT has been observing Haiti's struggling justice system through visits to prisons, police stations and courtrooms.
The overriding concern of the Haitians with whom CPT has lived and worked is that former military, attaches, FRAPH members, powerful macoutes, wealthy owners, bands of thieves, and gangs are still armed. According to Haitians in Port-au-Prince, Jeremie, the Artibonite, and in the North, a "secure and stable environment" cannot last after the UN leaves unless the powers that destabilize democracy by violent means are disarmed. The Haitian National Police members who face these forces each day do not have the means to complete this work alone.
Christian Peacemaker Teams, representing North American Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers, calls on the United Nations Mission in Haiti to renew efforts to assist in disarming the powerful forces which continue to destabilize Haiti's fragile peace.
We present you with loaves of bread because bread is a staple of life which provides strength to carry out difficult tasks. Homemade bread represents the agrarian tradition of the peace churches and their link with Haiti's agrarian society. And finally, bread symbolizes the body of Christ which was broken to bring the hope of peace to a violent world. We present you these loaves with love.
In God's peace,
Joanne L. Kaufman
for Christian Peacemaker Teams
Columbia Heights, Washington, DC -- In a neighborhood that has seen 75 violent drug related crimes in the last 3 months, as well as over a dozen homicides, a peace factory seemed entirely appropriate, even if a little out of place. But last week it opened up for business at the University of the District of Columbia's (UDC) Harvard Street campus.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), in conjunction with Sojourners Neighborhood Center, University of the District of Columbia, the Mennonite Board of Missions Voluntary Service Program, and concerned citizens of Columbia Heights neighborhood teamed up to bring a Peace Fair to their crime-prone neighborhood. The Fair brought together interactive displays, food, music and most of all people: to meet, learn, and work together.
"This is a chance for communities to come together for celebration of diversity and to offer their energies towards realizing the vision of a violence-free neighborhood." said organizer Wes Hare.
Over 500 people attended the 7 days of events, including church, school and community groups.
Shiela Griffin, a teacher at Meyer Elementary said, "The Peace Fair was a very good presentation of alternatives to violence for the children. There were opportunities for the children to use their hands and their heads."
Highlights of the week's activities included 'The Peace Factory', designed by ,and previously set up in Philadelphia, PA last summer; as well as a 'Peace Troupe' training focusing on developing nonviolent techniques to cope and prosper in conflictive urban environments. Music from local talent, as well as food and fun served up by various community venues rounded out the week's festive events. Neighborhood youth designed and painted a mural of a street scene with the message, "Put down the guns!"
CPT has been active in the Columbia Heights Community since 1994, and has been instrumental in a number of steps taken by and with the community to improve their security and community participation. The closure of crack houses and encouragement of citizen community patrols are just two examples of their efforts. They hope that this fair will help continue to build bridges within and around the community, and offer a breath of fresh air, of fresh ideas, into a community that has often responded to growing violence by buying one more lock for their window or alarm for their car.
Give thanks that Israeli authorities have apparently responded to requests by Christian Peacemaker Teams and other internationals that Israel stop demolishing the homes of Palestinians in Hebron and other areas of the West Bank.
May 6 CPTers Kathleen Kern and Robert Naiman visit the Al-Watan Center in Hebron, which has many programs for educating young people and adults about nonviolence. They agree to coordinate closely in the future.
Later, Naiman speaks with Hebron University students (in halting Arabic) about the value of non-violent struggle, pointing out that governments like the US and Israel, which have an effective monopoly on the means of violence, actually prefer it that their opponents use violent means, since this is the arena where the governments are strong; when their opponents use nonviolent means of struggle, as Palestinians did in large numbers during the Intifada (uprising), the governments are relatively weaker. The students seem to resonate with this argument.
May 8 A group from Hartford Seminary visits Hebron and the CPT team shows them around; George Kuttab (father of the well-known Palestinian human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab) brings a group which includes folks from the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions.
May 11 CPTers Kathy Kern and Dianne Roe have a conversation in the street with an Israeli woman who lives in the settlement of Petah Tikva. She speaks of the fears of Israeli settlers in the West Bank but surprise Kern and Roe by telling them that they are probably doing God's work.
May 12 CPT member Tom Malthaner joins the Hebron team.
May 13 CPT Hebron says goodbye, for now, to Kathleen Kern and Dianne Roe, who are going back to the US the next day.
May 14 CPTers Wendy Lehman and Kern go to Jerusalem to testify in the case of an Israeli right-winger who attacked them on the streets in Hebron more than seven months ago. CPTer Anne Montgomery accompanies them.
CPT members Naiman and Malthaner attend a press conference at the Hebron Municipality for the "TIPH" (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) which is just arriving. At present the TIPH consists of 20 Norwegians. Many journalists attend the press conference.
One journalist, who seems to be Norwegian, presses Norway's foreign minister on the issue of human rights. Naiman asks the foreign minister, "If the observers come across Israeli soldiers beating a Palestinian, aren't they morally obligated to intervene?" The minister replies that the Norwegians are here to observe, not to intervene. After the press conference Naiman and Malthaner talk with TIPH members. They are from a Norwegian NGO, the Refugee Council. One was a military observer in Bosnia for a year and lost 9 colleagues there.
CPTers feel there is a cautious optimism here about the TIPH, or maybe it is a desperate optimism -- Palestinians seem to be looking for some kind of change, some kind of concrete result from the "peace process".
The TIPH is slow to deploy and as Naiman and Malthaner walk home through the market some people mistake them for the TIPH. "Intu il Norweji?" (Are you the Norwegians?) Naiman responds, "La, la, ihna Amercani, min il fariiq masihiye lisana' salaam, ihna hone min zaman" (No, we're Americans from the Christian Peacemaker Team, we've been here a long time) and points to the (new) CPT hats they are wearing.
May 15 Hebron settlers hang a banner outside Beit Hadassah, in Norwegian, English, and Hebrew: "THE JEWISH PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN LIVING IN HEBRON FOR 4000 YEARS WISH YOU A PLEASANT VISIT IN HEBRON AS TOURISTS, BUT NOT AS OBSERVERS!"
Issued by the Christian Peacemaker Team, Hebron
Today, dozens of Israeli and foreign activists joined Palestinian students and faculty from the Hebron University to protest the Israeli military closure of the school which began on March 5, 1995. The group entered school grounds although the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has declared the campus a closed military area. Despite the presence of dozens of military jeeps, the IDF did not order the group to leave. Following a 45-minute sit-in inside the university, the group dispersed of its own accord.
Today's action was part of a continuing nonviolent campaign to pressure the Israeli government to reopen the university. The closure, set for six months, costs the university an estimated $150,000 per month. University administrators are concerned that the school may not survive the closure. Students are meeting in scattered places throughout Hebron in an attempt to finish their studies, but large classrooms and technical equipment, such as computers, remain inaccessible on school grounds.
The school was closed following a wave of suicide bombings in Israel, despite the fact that the university has no institutional connections with Hamas or Islamic Jihad. In addition, no students were arrested in connection with the bombings. The closure is a form of collective punishment, in violation of international law.
Attempts made by the university to nonviolently protest the closure have met with harsh treatment from the Israeli military. More than one hundred students and faculty members joined together in a sit-in on April 9 and were subsequently attacked by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). People present witnessed groups of half a dozen soldiers beating up one student and smashing the students' heads into the ground. Several students were sent to the hospital and seven were arrested.
In light of this attack, today the students were joined by Hebrew University students and members of Hebron Solidarity Committee, Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) and Christian Peacemaker Teams. The university, Israeli peace groups and the CPT team are planning to continue the campaign to lift the school closure.
Please fax or e-mail the following numbers/addresses to encourage the Israeli government to lift the closure and stop the brutal treatment of students in accordance with international law and human rights.
Pray for the students and faculty of Hebron University which was closed by the Israeli government on March 5, 1996. The closure is a form of collective punishment for suicide bombings in Israel by others, and violates international law.
CPT supports a project called Voices in the Wilderness a campaign to end sanctions against Iraq. The campaign plans to send a second delegation to Iraq in the coming months to deliver medical supplies and develop personal connections with Iraqi people. Congregations are invited to help transport supplies, assist with expenses, or encourage people to participate in the delegation recognizing that transporting such supplies to Iraq may be a violation of the law.
CPT believes that the efforts of Christians contributed toward persuading U.S. and U.N. authorities that the embargo against Iraq, targeted primarily against Iraqi civilians, is unacceptable. The May 21 NYT editorial, "A Good Oil Deal with Iraq," lauds the UN "food for oil" deal as the result of "tough-minded American bargaining... and six years of steadfastness by the United Nations." The editorial neglects to mention that the tough, steadfast U.S./UN policy makers sacrificed 567,000 children through their refusal to end sanctions.
The experience of sanctions teach us that this instrument of political pressure can be used as a weapon of economic mass destruction, inflicting collective punishment on innocent civilians. Similar policies used by Israel, with US support have contributed to major human suffering in the West Bank and Gaza.
The "food for oil" deal, Resolution 986, is a welcome step along the way toward completely lifting the embargo but falls short of meeting the needs of the Iraqi people. Under the new deal Iraq will be allowed to sell $4 billion of oil each year. From a year's proceeds of $4 billion 30% (about 1.2 billion) will go to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as war reparations; $0.2 billion, to UN organizations monitoring weapons in Iraq and to Turkey for use of the pipeline for oil; and $2.6 billion to humanitarian purposes in Iraq.
In the past two months more than 20,000 Iraqi people have died as a direct result of the sanctions. More than 10,000 of those who died in March and April were infants and children. Those children bore no responsibility to comply with U.S./UN demands upon Iraq.
In order for Iraq to have the sanctions lifted completely, it will have to prove that its weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed. Eliminating any nation's weapons of mass destruction is a noble goal. CPT looks forward to that principal being applied to all nations.
Iraqis urgently need a drug to cure Black Fever, sometimes called Sandfly Disease. The necessary medicine is Pentostam, sometimes produced under the trade name Tricostam. If you have suggestions or your congregation can help with this campaign please contact CPT.
Prepared by Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness in collaboration with CPT Staff.
Last Saturday night Bob Naiman and I, as Christian Peacemaker Team members stationed in Hebron, went on night patrol about 7:30 pm. We saw a young man about 20 years old being detained by the soldiers. The man had his hands up against the wall. Bob asked the soldiers, "Why is the man being detained?" The soldier said he couldn't tell us. Then Bob said that it was humiliating to stand like that, could he not sit down? No, said the soldier.
The soldier approached us and asked for our identification papers. I had mine, however, Bob didn't have his visa with him. It was back at the house. The soldier told Bob, "You must come to the police station."
We both went with the soldiers. At the police station the officer on duty lectured us, telling us not to talk with soldiers when they are doing their job or interfere with them in any way, nor talk to those detained.
We had a lively discussion with the officer, explaining our concern for human rights for all people and that our work requires us to find out what is going on. There is no way to find out why someone is being detained, we told the officer, without asking the soldiers.
The officer didn't like our response nor did we like what the military did, but I believe we did end the conversation in mutual respect for each other. We left the police station and to our surprise we found that the man was still being detained, but was now allowed to sit down. At this point we regrouped and went back to our apartment.
The other two people on the team, Wendy Lehman and Anne Montgomery, joined us and we all went to the scene. The soldiers were angry and would not talk to us. So Wendy and I decided to go back to the police and seek their assistance. We explained the situation to the police officer on duty (the officer we had talked to previously left) and he was receptive to the idea that the man had been detained an inordinate amount of time.
The police officer then talked to the soldier in charge of the detainment and after their conversation the officer said the soldier has agreed to let the man go.
Thinking it was all over Wendy and I returned to the scene where Bob and Anne were waiting. To our disbelief we saw that the man was still being held. Wendy and I went back to the police station and voiced our dismay to the same officer. He then took us in his police jeep back to the scene and confronted the soldiers. They reluctantly and finally released the detained man. Not surprisingly the soldiers were angry with us for interfering in "their business".
After some 20 minutes of "conversation" their anger dissipated to the point that we were able to depart with the shaking of hands. We got back home to our apartment at 11:15 PM exhausted by this four-hour ordeal.
Yes, I was exhausted after this encounter but also I felt a lot of hope. The hope of being able to talk to the so called "enemy", to start the process of understanding each other. The hope when we're able to touch each others' humanity. I sensed the police officer felt some compassion for the man detained. I think it took a lot of courage for him to confront the soldier. And the hope of respecting each others' human dignity. I felt respect of my person and I believe it was mutual with the police and soldiers. I hope this is a small step.
This morning at 8:30 am CST Gene Stoltzfus received a call from Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli lawyer at the Society of St. Yves and member of the Hebron Solidarity Committee. She told Stoltzfus that the entire team in Hebron had been arrested for uprooting tree seedlings planted by Israeli settlers on Palestinian land near Susia settlement.
Susia lies approximately thirty minutes south of Hebron near the town of Yatta. The owner of the land has twice requested CPT help before- when settlers from Susia erected a fence around his newly planted wheat field and when it came time to harvest the wheat.
An American woman living in Hebron initiated the relationship between CPT and the Palestinian landowner. She called the police the day before the action and told them what the group planned to do. The police told her that the action was legal, since the Palestinian father of 13 had a legal title to the land.
Currently, Wendy Lehman (Kidron, OH) is in Ashkelon Prison and Robert Naiman (Chicago), Randy Bond (Grand Rapids, MI), and Tom Malthaner (Rochester, NY) are being held in the Hebron District prison.
Your prayers of support are needed. More later today on specific details and suggestions regarding an appropriate response.
Give thanks for the partial lifting of sanctions against Iraq. Christian Peacemaker Teams reports that Iraq urgently needs donations of the drug Pentostam to cure Black Fever, sometimes called Sandfly Disease.
More Prayer for Peacemakers, May 30, 1996
Pray for the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron all of whom have just been arrested for uprooting olive seedlings illegally planted by Jewish settlers on Palestinian land. The situation is confused and unstable in the aftermath of the Israeli election.
Earlier today, the entire CPT team in Hebron was arrested for helping remove olive tree seedlings that Israeli settlers had planted in a wheat field belonging to a Hebron University professor adjacent to the Susia settlement, approximately 30 minutes south of Hebron.
Members of CPT had been invited to help Palestinian professor Mosallam Ali Shreateh who owns the land on previous occasions. First, they helped remove a fence that settlers from Susia had erected in the professor's wheat field. Later, when Ali Shreateh's family was under threat by Israeli settlers and soldiers, CPTers helped harvest the wheat. On each occasion, Israeli police were notified that these actions were being taken. Their response both today and on the previous two occasions was that since the professor holds a title to the land recognized by Israeli courts, he is free to do what he wants with it.
Details of the unexpected arrests are difficult to obtain at this time since all four of the team members have been detained. The team's lawyer says they have been charged with destruction of property. Currently, Wendy Lehman (Kidron, OH) is being held in Ashkelon Prison and Randy Bond (Grand Rapids, MI), Tom Malthaner (Rochester, NY), and Robert Naiman (Chicago, IL) are being held in the Hebron District prison.
CPT's peacemaker presence in Hebron seeks to promote dialogue and peace based on justice. The peace process is violated when Israeli settlers expropriate Palestinian land without due process.
ACTION: Please write/fax the following ISRAELI OFFICIALS as soon as possible urging the release of the four Christian Peacemaker Team members. Emphasize that the land in question has been recognized by Israeli courts as legally belonging to the Palestinian professor and his family and that the police were notified prior to the event and said they would take no action.
U.S. Dept of State Middle East Desk
tel. 202-647-2268
U.S. citizens can also ask your CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES to intervene on CPTers behalf.
CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD: 202-224-3121
We will be interested in the responses that you receive.
CPT received word this afternoon that three of the four team members in Hebron have been released from prison. Tom Malthaner (Rochester, NY), has been transferred to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem where he remains in detention. He has been denied access to a lawyer and faces a $3000 fine or jail time until his visa expires.
All four team members were arrested without warning on Tuesday as they prepared to transplant olive trees, illegally planted by Israeli settlers in a Palestinian wheat field, to the adjacent property of the Susia settlement.
Your continued efforts to secure Tom's safe release are needed. Please contact the following:
U.S. citizens can ask your CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES and the State Department to intervene on Tom's behalf.
CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD: 202-224-3121
U.S. Dept of State Middle East Desk: 202-647-2268