CPTnet
2 December 2005
HEBRON UPDATE: 8 - 15 November 2005
Team members during this period were Kristin Anderson, Maureen Jack, Diane
Janzen, Mary Lawrence, Cathy McLean, Rich Meyer, Anne Montgomery and Kathie
Uhler.
REGULAR PATROLS AND EVENTS
During this period school patrol occurred every day except Friday, 11
November (schools are closed on Fridays). Each day the soldiers allowed
children and teachers to pass round the outside of the metal detectors at
the Ibrahimiya Boys' School checkpoint.
The team made regular visits to Wadi Nasara (Worshippers' Way) to check that
the Israeli settler youth had not reinstated the former outpost there. The
site was clear of settlers but a small green tarpaulin structure remained in
place and green tarpaulin sheeting remained on the Palestinian building that
the settlers had formerly occupied. On 10 November soldiers stopped to tell
Jack and Meyer that it was dangerous for them there. They confirmed that
settlers had put up the green tarpaulin and said that the military had no
plans to remove it.
Team members carried out several checkpoint patrols throughout each day from
morning to early evening to the Beit Romano checkpoint (beside the yeshiva),
the Ibrahimiya checkpoint near the schools, and three checkpoints in the
area of the Ibrahimi Mosque. They also made frequent visits to the Dubboya
checkpoint on the way up to Tel Rumeida.
In the tunnel leading to the checkpoint at Gates 4 and 5 (beside the Avraham
Avinu settlement near the Ibrahimi Mosque), CPTers documented the setting up
of a light, camera and loudspeaker system.
Twice during the week (12 and 14 November) CPTers attended seminars in
nonviolence conducted at the Al-Watan Centre by Nayef Hashlamoun. A group
of young men and women, university students, are attending these seminars.
Wednesday 9 November
Because of an electricity cut the metal detectors at the Ibrahimiya
checkpoint were not working, so a soldier was using a wand on people passing
into the Old City. He made many schoolboys (as young as nine) open their
bags for him to inspect. Jack took some photos and a soldier told
Montgomery that in Israel it is illegal to take photographs of soldiers.
The CPTers asserted that it was not illegal. Just along from the Ibrahimiya
checkpoint, other soldiers were checking IDs and bags of people coming from
the direction of Gates 4/5; they had not done so previously.
Three Palestinians whom soldiers were holding for ID checks told TIPH
(Temporary International Presence in Hebron) that soldiers detain them every
day.
On their way to the Ibrahimi Mosque to meet a group, Jack and McLean saw
some boys unloading a handcart at the turnstile gate and struggling to carry
the goods through piecemeal.
In the late afternoon, shortly after Meyer had heard loud banging, Jack and
Lawrence followed a group of soldiers from the glassmakers' mosque below the
CPT apartment to Beit Romano. One soldier had a large mallet and another a
crowbar. As the CPTers returned to the apartment two Palestinian men
informed them that the soldiers had damaged the municipal observers'
building just across from the mosque. Soldiers had forced open the outer
door, breaking off the lock in the process. They had also damaged the lock
of an inner door. They had not removed anything.
Two young Palestinian men who are involved with the Enlist for Peace
Organisation joined the team for supper. They spoke of their work and
beliefs and invited CPTers to join their meetings.
Thursday 10 November
As they returned through Gates 4/5 at 12.45pm Jack and Meyer saw soldiers
holding five teenagers. A soldier that Jack had spoken to a few days before
started to tell them that the boys had been spitting and throwing stones at
settlers but another soldier told him to say nothing to the CPTers.
Friday 11 November
Shortly after lunch Jack, Lawrence and McLean responded to a request to
accompany a Palestinian family picking olives on their land in Tel Rumeida.
The Israeli military had occupied the family's house for seven months. The
soldiers had moved out a few days before and so this time was the family's
first opportunity to pick their olives. When the CPTers arrived, another
international told them that Israeli settlers had been throwing stones.
After an hour's picking, settlers came onto the property. One claimed he had
authority because he was in the military but he was not in uniform. He made
a telephone call. Jack heard the words "Palestinians" and "Nazis." After
some minutes, three soldiers arrived. They told the Palestinians, CPTers
and other internationals to move off the land. Jack asked the commander
whether he would make everyone leave, including the settlers. He said that
once everyone else had moved away he would move the settlers. However,
despite the fact that everyone else followed the soldier's order, he took no
action against settlers who remained on the land.
Israeli soldiers and police arrived. A policeman took the passports from
the three CPTers; after holding them for a while and noting their details,
he told the CPTers to leave the area. Meanwhile, police had told the owner
of the land that they were arresting him. After checking with the landowner
what he wished them to do the CPTers returned home. The Israeli police
later released the landowner after holding him for a few hours.
While Meyer and Uhler were on their way out to the Yatta area to visit, they
came upon an incident at the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint. Soldiers had
arrested a Palestinian woman for carrying a large knife. Bystanders said
that she was attempting to escape from an unhappy domestic situation. After
ten minutes she was released.
Saturday, 12 November
During school patrol Jack at first received many responses of "Shabbat
shalom," but one settler responded to her greeting with, "Provocateurs get
out." She said, "I agree, but we are not provocateurs."
Because of the difficulties the previous day Jack, Meyer and Montgomery went
up to the same area of Tel Rumeida. They picked olives with a family in the
neighbouring grove. A settler came onto the land from which soldiers had
evicted the pickers the previous day, and then went away without incident.
At the Ibrahimiya checkpoint, first Anderson and Janzen, later relieved by
Meyer and Uhler, waited while soldiers were detaining a Palestinian taxi
driver. The man's father arrived and told the CPTers that soldiers had
confiscated the keys to his son's taxi. After eighty minutes they released
the man. His father said that they would have to go to military
headquarters to reclaim the keys.
A squad of soldiers arrived at the team apartment and insisted on going up
to the roof, saying they had to investigate something. They looked over all
the walls. Apparently satisfied, they left without explanation.
Jack and Montgomery arrived at the Ibrahimi Mosque Gate just as a police
jeep came to take away a boy. Onlookers said that he was twelve or fourteen
years of age. The police alleged that he had threatened a soldier with a
knife. The CPTers reported the jeep number and boy's name to TIPH.
Monday 14 November
In Jerusalem Meyer met with an organiser from Peace Now (an Israeli peace
organisation.) The organisation is calling for the evacuation of all
post-Oslo outposts, and of those settlements that, in the organiser's words,
"We all know in the end they won't be under Israeli control." (Israeli
Prime Minister Sharon used this language to describe the Gaza settlements.
The organisation sees the settlements in Hebron as coming into the latter
category.
Tuesday 15 November
In the evening, Anderson, Jack, Lawrence, Meyer and Uhler attended a 21st
birthday party for a Palestinian friend in Al Sendas.
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