CPTnet
27 December 2005
HEBRON UPDATE: 2-15 December 2005
Team members during the period were David Corcoran, Elizabeth Garcia, John
Lynes, Rich Meyer, Kathie Uhler, Diane Janzen, Kristin Anderson, Jenny
Elliott, Diane Zimmerman and Art Gish.
ONGOING ACTIVITIES
During this period all members took part in daily school patrols, and
their thoughts were with fellow CPTers currently being held in Iraq.
Friday 2 December
Rich Meyer took the B'nei Avraham tour of Hebron with a Peace Now
settlement study group. Israeli peace activist Yehuda Shaul led the tour,
and at the conclusion took the group to the top of the hill past the
Jewish cemetery near Tel Rumeida. There he gave his own testimony of his
time as a soldier in Hebron during 2001, with orders nightly for "punitive
fire" at Haret e-Sheikh. He read the testimony of other soldiers from the
"Breaking the Silence" project. His accounts throughout the tour closely
matched the testimonies of Palestinians and CPTers of the time. Team
members had frequent discussions with Shaul when he served in Hebron in
2001.
In the afternoon Meyer met with an official at the U.S. Consulate. The
consular representative was interested in all reports from Tuwani, and in
particular wanted to follow the stories of the school escort, settlement
expansion and farming/herding access to land.
Saturday 3 December
Meyer did an interview on Al Jazeera explaining the work of CPT.
The group of students gathered at the Yatta Road checkpoint, close to the
Ibrahimi Boys' School, was smaller than during the previous week. With
razor wire on both sides of the plastic barriers, the children had less
opportunity to protest against the metal-detector cabin. They
nevertheless chanted, kicked and pulled the wire, held up posters in
Arabic and Hebrew, and threw a few stones. Soldiers threatened Jenny
Elliott (visiting from the At-Tuwani team) with arrest when she intervened
protect the children. The children dispersed at 8:50 a.m.
Sunday 4 December
At the checkpoint close to the Ibrahimi Boys' School, teachers from the
Girls' School started to give lessons in the street. Some used the walls
of buildings and concrete barriers as chalkboards. Some of the boys also
went through the motions of a classroom, but none of their teachers was
present. The children dispersed at 8:30.
Monday 5 December
At the Ibrahimi checkpoint children repeatedly dragged the razor wire away
from the barrier, to the annoyance of the Israeli soldiers.
Tuesday 6 December
School patrol at the Ibrahimi checkpoint passed uneventfully. The Israeli
soldiers firmly refused to allow anyone through the barriers. None of the
girls or women teachers went through the metal detector. However about forty
of the boys did so.
At noon Corcoran, Lynes and Meyer, together with Kristin Anderson and
Diana Zimmerman from the At-Tuwani team, took part in a demonstration in
front of the Red Cross building in Hebron. The rally, organised by the
Hebron Society for Palestinian Prisoners, called for the release of
captives in Palestine and Iraq, including the four detained CPTers. Many
of the demonstrators came from Yatta. Out of At-Tuwani's population of
180, about one hundred arrived by bus. The event ended with a short
march. Some photographers and journalists were present, but no television
crews. The suicide bombing at Netanya on the previous day prevented the
attendance of many Palestinians from outside Hebron, including influential
Islamic speakers.
Wednesday 7 December
Meyer attended an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) press conference
in Nablus, and an ISM candlelight vigil in Ramallah. In Nablus, the Qadi
Hamed Bitawi spoke, along with Father George Awad and the Mufti of Nablus,
Mohammed Bishawi. In Ramallah a hundred people, Christian and Muslim,
held photos of the four CPTers detained in Baghdad.
Around noon, children from the Beit Hadassah settlement threw large stones
at Palestinians in the market. Israeli soldiers summoned a Palestinian
ambulance, but on arrival the Israeli military would not permit it, or
CPTers Corcoran and Lynes, to enter the area. The CPTers summoned TIPH
(the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, a body of official
observers). The team received no reports of injuries.
Thursday 8 December
About fifteen girls lined up at the barrier close to the Ibrahimi Boys'
School and insisted on going through, in spite of a soldier telling them
to pass through the metal detector cabin. When Kathie Uhler asked the
soldiers to let the children through the barrier to school, since it was
obvious they were not armed, a soldier answered, "Yeah. But we have an
order."
Soon another soldier opened the wire at the barrier and let through all
the girls, the women teachers, and many of the boys. When Uhler asked a
teacher why this had happened, she replied, "Who knows?" Another teacher
said, "We are not trying to cause any trouble. We only want to teach in
our school (a high school for girls.)" When asked why he let them through,
a soldier answered Uhler, "Little girls can go through. It is not worth the
trouble."
Two women arrived from Machsom Watch (Israeli Human Rights Watch at
checkpoints) at 7:45 a.m. They talked at length with the soldiers. One of
the women told Uhler, "The soldiers said the commander said to let the
girls through the barrier today, only today." She indicated to Uhler that
this was probably a face-saving statement.
The remaining boys went quickly through the cabin.
A CBC (Canadian) television crew interviewed Meyer and Janzen, who took
them through the Old City and to Qurtuba Palestinian Girls' School. They
also came to the CPT apartment where they interviewed Lynes and took
pictures of the CPT members at work in their office.
Friday 9 December
At 1:00 p.m., Rich Meyer observed two settler boys throwing tiles from a
low flat roof behind Beit Hadassah at Palestinians (and Meyer) down in old
Shalala Street. Meyer called the police and TIPH (the Temporary
International Presence in Hebron, an official body of observers).
Saturday 10 December
(International Human Rights Day)
At 6:45 a.m. John Lynes, en route to school patrol, saw Israeli soldiers
entering the Mayela home behind the CPT apartment across the rooftops.
Others heard and saw nothing from there, but at 8:45 a young neighbor boy
came to tell us that the soldiers were still in their house. Kristin
Anderson and Diane Janzen, from the At-Tuwani team, went to the home and
found six Israeli soldiers lying around in the center room, with the
family confined to one bedroom. Janzen began videotaping, and in four
minutes the soldiers left.
David Corcoran and Kathie Uhler began school patrol at the Ibrahimi Boys'
School/Yatta Road checkpoint at 7:10 a.m. Israeli soldiers would not let
the girls through the barrier, as they had on Thursday. One girl, about
13-years-old, unlatched the razor wire and let herself through when
soldiers were otherwise engaged. They did not stop her when they saw her.
A female teacher tried to talk the soldiers into letting them through, to no
avail. Five press photographers arrived. One of the photographers told
Uhler that a soldier had used "bad language" at them, and had also called
some of the children "sons of bitches". The photographers called the officer
who came and reprimanded the soldiers.
Then suddenly at 7:45, probably at the officer's order, and after a female
teacher had asked for the metal detector to be turned off, all the
students passed through the cabin.
Passing by the checkpoint near the settlers' Gutnick Center, Corcoran and
Uhler joined Lynes waiting for four Palestinian men to get their IDs
checked. They had been waiting almost a half hour. Lynes summoned TIPH,
and he continued to wait with the detainees while Corcoran and Uhler went
on to the CPT apartment.
Sunday 11 December
School patrol at the Ibrahimi Boys' School/Yatta Road checkpoint went
smoothly. Lynes and Uhler witnessed soldiers letting the girls and some
boys through the wire at the barriers, bypassing the cabin altogether. The
remaining boys went through either side of the metal detectors in the
cabin. One boy reminded a reluctant soldier that the officer had let the
girls through the barrier yesterday.
At 6:30 p.m. six Israeli soldiers searched the CPT apartment. One soldier
referred to the fact that CPTers had "disturbed" them at the neighbors'
home yesterday. At 7:00, two TIPH observers came to take testimony about
the home invasion. They said TIPH observers would return tomorrow to take
testimony from the neighbors.
Monday 12 December
During school patrol, Meyer and Lynes noticed Israeli soldiers had invaded
the home above the cafe at Haret e-Qazazeen, and tied an Israeli flag to
the awning next to a Palestinian shop. Meyer stayed, Anderson and Janzen
came and tried to film the soldiers in the house, but they kept the door
barred. The soldiers left after an hour.
Meanwhile, at the Ibrahimi checkpoint cabin, children succeeded in
unhooking the end of the razor wire several times, and dashing to school
past the Israeli soldiers. The remaining children dispersed before 8:00
a.m.
Lynes, Uhler and a translator went to check out and document blockage of
windows and doors on Palestinian homes along a route the Hebron settlers
call "Worshippers' Way," as reported to CPT by the Hebron Rehabilitation
Committee. After talking with the Arab-Israeli contractor on the scene,
the translator was concerned that Israeli authorities might intend the
blockages to prevent Palestinians from disturbing Israeli settlers who
might try to move into the vacant Palestinian homes. She then took the
CPTers on a tour of the Palestinian homes further behind the row of homes
along the route. These homes are being rehabilitated, and a mosque will
be ready for use in eight months.
Tuesday 13 December
Lynes, Uhler and a translator paid a CSD (Campaign for Secure Dwellings)
visit to a Palestinian family now living in Abu Sneineh. The family is
living in the maternal grandmother's apartment while rebuilding in Al
Sendas near their demolished home. They said over half of the cost of the
new home so far has been covered by donations from Hebronites.
Lynes returned to Worshippers' Way, and photographed freshly blocked
windows. At 5:00 p.m. Israeli soldiers again conducted a house invasion of
the CPT apartment. Corcoran was the only CPTer present. The soldiers
produced no search warrant and despite demands that they leave their guns
outside, they forced their way in and searched all the floors of the
apartment. Corcoran called the police, who said they could do nothing.
Wednesday 14 December
School patrol was largely uneventful. A Palestinian threw a stone at the
soldiers, who promptly gave chase. One soldier had a vigorous argument,
in French, with one of the TIPH women, accusing TIPH of encouraging
Palestinian children to misbehave
Lynes again photographed windows being blocked along Worshippers' Way, to
the annoyance of an Israeli contractor.
Corcoran and Uhler met with the head of the Hebron Community Mental Health
Program. They discussed common objectives of CPT and his organization,
with a view to a meeting in Idna between CPT and the Idna Charitable
Society. The theme of the meeting would be: "How can people in Idna,
confronted with the Wall, promote personal integrity and enhance
nonviolent coping mechanisms?"
Israeli soldiers again invaded the CPT apartment at 5:00 p.m. for a third
time in four days. Corcoran, Gish, Lynes and Uhler were present. After
being asked not to bring their guns into this House of Peace, and unable
or unwilling to produce a written search warrant, they forced their way
into the apartment carrying their guns and calling CPT an illegal
organization. After about ten minutes they left, observed by three
members of TIPH who had followed the soldiers to the CPT Apartment.
Thursday 15 December
Uhler patrolled at the Ibrahimi Boys School/Yatta Road checkpoint. A
soldier greeted her, "Kathie!" Later he told her his name. She asked
the soldier (whom she believed was present during patrols of the previous
week), "Why not let the girls through the razor wire and barrier like last
week?" He replied, "Not me last week." He then said, "You see that girl?
She is the ring leader. She is a future Osama Bin Laden." To which Uhler
replied, "If you let her and the girls through, she wouldn't become that."
He then said, "I am only doing my job."
One side of the metal detector booth was turned off. Still, no girls or
women teachers went through it, opting to walk around the long way to
school. The boys went through both sides of the booth metal detectors.
Four media volunteers, one Italian, one German, two U.S., came around 8:00
a.m. from Alternative Information Center. They interviewed Uhler and Art
Gish about the work of CPT (Gish had just finished patrol at Shuhada
Street/Mosque.)
Corcoran and Lynes walked along Worshippers' Way, photographing blocked
windows, and also windows which may be earmarked for blocking.
The team hosted an international group of rabbinical students who were
touring Hebron to become acquainted with Palestinians. The visit included
prayers for the release of all captives, prayers for rain, and prayers for
peace and reconciliation. Muslims, Christians and Jews were present.
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server@MennoLink.org.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained,
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the
Brethren and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide
range of Christian denominations.
To express concerns, criticisms or affirmations to CPT's Chicago office
send messages to peacemakers@cpt.org. To express concerns, criticisms or
affirmations to CPT's Canadian office, send messages to
guest.996427@MennoLink.org.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at http://www.cpt.org/subscribe.php
Donate to CPT on-line with your credit card! Go to
http://cpt.org/donate.php and click the DONATE button to make a
contribution through Network for Good, a secure way to help support CPT.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 02 2006 - 08:56:38 EST