Hebron Update: August 14 - 21
Friday, August 14 -- CPTers Joanne Kaufman, Natasha Krahn and Dianne Roe
accompanied a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) delegation of five Native
people from the U.S. and Canada to visit the Al Atrash family. Yussef
Al-Atrash showed a video and told the story of the demolitions of his
family's home. A Lakota woman from Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota
responded by sharing the history of the Lakota people's continuing
resistance to the U.S. government's theft and appropriation of their land
in the Black Hills and elsewhere. A Hunkpapa Lakota man working with MCC in
South Dakota said, "We are a people who listen with our hearts. Your story
has touched our hearts, and we will carry your story to our homes." Manal
Al Atrash said, "You seem like family to me -- perhaps we ARE family." When
we left, the family seemed in better spirits than they had the previous week.
Saturday, August 15 -- The team went to Anata, east of Jerusalem, to help
the Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions clear away rubble of the
Shawamreh family's house which was destroyed two weeks ago for the second time.
Team members celebrated the news that the Israeli high court has overturned
the demolition orders for several Palestinian families including those
matched with the Philippi Church (Philippi, WV) and Southside Fellowship
(Elkhart, IN) through CPT's Campaign for Secure Dwellings.
Monday, August 17 -- Ata Jabber reported that the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF) took more water pipes belonging to Palestinian farmers from the
Baqa'a Valley.
Tuesday, August 18 -- Team members helped make Japanese peace lanterns and
English language signs for a children's peace march at Al-Watan Center, a
nonviolence organization in Hebron. Later, Mark Frey went with Abdel Hadi
Hantash of the Hebron Land Defense Committee to see the land where settlers
uprooted 10 dunams of olive trees northwest of Tzurif village in Hebron
District. The settlers harvested the 15-18-year-old trees with the roots
intact and loaded them onto trucks to transport them to the Kfar Etzion
settlement.
Wednesday, August 19 -- The Ata Jabber home in the Baqa'a Valley east of
Hebron was bulldozed. (See CPTnet release, )
In the evening, Kaufman, Krahn and Roe attended the children's peace march,
along with the Al Atrash family and Japanese guests to commemorate 53 years
since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 50 years of Al
Nakba, the Palestinian "Catastrophe" caused by the founding of the Israeli
state. Frey spent the night with the Jabber family.
Thursday, August 20 -- The Jabber family decided to rebuild a two-room home
just north of the demolished home; 40 Palestinians came to help rebuild the
home. Roe and Krahn stayed overnight with the family.
At 1:30 a.m. Friday morning, Frey was awakened by commotion outside the CPT
apartment. He looked out to see three young settler women trying to enter
the market. When they saw him, they hurled a bottle and stones at the windows.
Friday, August 21 -- The team learned that Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, who lived
in Tel Rumeida settlement, was killed by an intruder Thursday night. Curfew
was imposed on Israeli-controlled areas of Hebron following the murder.
During curfew, Palestinians are not allowed to leave their homes. In the
evening, team members saw seven soldiers detain a young Palestinian man
outside the apartment. The boy's mother pleaded with the soldiers to
release him, insisting she had just sent the young man out for bread, but
the soldiers refused.
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Christian Peacemaker Teams has maintained a violence-reduction presence in
the West Bank city of Hebron since June of 1995 at the invitation of the
Hebron Municipality.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an initiative among Mennonite and
Brethren congregations and Friends meetings who support violence-reduction
teams around the world. Contact CPT at P.O. Box 6508; Chicago, IL 60680;
Tel: 312-455-1199; Fax: 312-666-2677; e-mail: cpt@igc.org;