CPTnet
3 June 2005
Hebron Update: 26 May-1 June 2005
Thursday 26 May
CPTers Kathie Uhler, Rusty Dinkins-Curling, Luna Villota, and CPT intern
Chelli Stanley met with residents of Tel Rumeida and other organizations
involved with accompaniment there to discuss ideas and roles. The
Palestinians present expressed approval of the Saturday 21 May action (See
23 May release, "Thirty-two Israeli peace activists arrested while
attempting to visit Palestinians on Tel Rumeida") and said they hoped for
further actions that would encourage the Palestinians who live there to
stay. They said they would welcome Israeli visitors. "Anyone shake hands
for the peace, welcome here," said one participant.
Friday 27 May
Villota, Stanley, and John Lynes visited a Palestinian family in their Tel
Rumeida home next to the Israeli settler mobile homes, called "caravans."
Because the street in front of their house is closed to them, the three
children must take a back route to go to school, passing beneath the
caravans. Israeli settlers stone the home, especially on Saturdays. The
Israeli military rarely intervenes. An elderly couple who live on the top
floor rarely leave their home. Relatives bring food and other necessities.
On their way up the hill via Tel Rumeida Street, Jerry Levin and Lynes were
approached by an Israeli soldier stationed at the Israeli military
checkpoint below the Israeli settlement enclave of Tel Rumeida. The soldier
offered to escort the CPTers to the house across the street from the
settlement enclave's new apartment building. As they walked up the street,
past several scowling settlers and other soldiers, the soldier confided in a
low voice that he did not like having to protect these settlers because they
are "savages," but said it was "my duty."
At the entrance to the house, the family patriarch and one of his
granddaughters invited the CPTers, who had been joined by Stanley and
Villota, inside for tea and coffee. He made a point of telling the CPTers
that this soldier "tries to help us." As they climbed the steps leading to
the second floor entrance to the house they walked over many stones, rocks,
and broken bottles left over from the latest settler harassment the day
before.
The father said that six Israeli settler families live in the apartment
building, two in the caravans, of which there are seven, and one family
lives in the Bakri house, a confiscated Palestinian home next to the Abu
Haikel home. He said that one of the reasons settlers commit so many
attacks on Palestinian homes in Tel Rumeida is because "these settlers never
work." One day the father asked, "Why don't you work?" And one said, 'We
don't have to work. We get money from America." He said that often Tel
Rumeida's settlers are joined by others from elsewhere "who come for the day
to party and then throw stones at us." Another family member mused, "With
settlers it's always giving or receiving, never sharing."
Saturday 28 May
Levin, Lynes, Villota and a local Palestinian activist led an Israeli member
of Checkpoint Watch and three Israelis in their early twenties into Tel
Rumeida. The Israeli police had arrested the older woman on the previous
Saturday for trying to enter the Palestinian controlled area of Hebron. She
reported that the Israeli military were not letting any cars pass beyond the
Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. She asked one Israeli guard why he
seemed so nervous. She said that he replied, "Because we are watching for
leftist people. We want to prevent their presence in Hebron."
The Israelis met local Palestinian community leaders at the Community
Center. The Israeli woman vowed to bring more Israelis back in the weeks
ahead. She told Levin, "You know we Israelis have pain, but it cannot
compare to Palestinian pain. Ours is a moral pain; and we must do something
about it."
Other Israelis and internationals, including journalists, also reached Tel
Rumeida. As the group walked up the hill towards the settlement enclave,
Israeli settlers began throwing stones, some as large as small boulders.
One hit Villota on the leg. As Israeli soldiers attempted to intervene, the
settlers ran around them and continued throwing stones. A settler teenager
ran at Villota with his fists balled up, growled, and came to a stop in
front of her, screaming at her, followed by another. Villota did not move.
An Israeli visitor put his hands out, got in between, and said, "Calm down."
As the attack wound down, soldiers made the settlers move up the hill
towards the settlement enclave and the group of internationals moved down
the hill, telephoning the Israeli police. When the police arrived, they
arrested no one. The journalists negotiated with the soldiers, requesting
to be let up the hill to visit one of the Palestinian families. The
soldiers agreed after a long conversation, and escorted the visitors as the
settlers continued to push and yell at them. While some of the group
visited with the family, others waited outside. Villota tried to talk with
one of the soldiers, who said he had been ordered not to talk with CPT.
Villota said, "You know this is wrong." He replied, "I know this is wrong
and I am doing it." Later, as the group left, the soldier apologized.
In the evening about forty Israeli settlers entered the Bab iZaweyya market
area. Israeli military separated them from the Palestinians in the market.
Monday 30 May
In the morning, Dinkins-Curling and two Palestinian colleagues made a return
visit to Wadi Al Ghroos. While visiting several families, they learned that
the Israeli border police have been frisking the Palestinian girls on their
way home from school and asking them what was under their clothes. One
mother said that her eighth grade daughter would not be going to school any
longer because she did not feel safe walking past the border police.
On a tour of the Old City, the CPT delegation observed an Israeli military
vehicle carrying welding equipment, at a house the Hebron Rehabilitation
Committee is restoring. Donna Hicks asked a soldier and the welder what was
going on. They would not answer. The welder cut one of the bars to the
door, got the door opened, and went inside. Settlers had vandalized the
house during Passover, spraying graffiti on the stone archway around the
door and removing the door handle. When the delegation
met with HRC staffers that afternoon, Hicks told them what the delegation
had seen.
Wednesday 1 June
In the morning Bill Baldwin and Lynes observed a trench being dug along
'Worshippers' Way' for a closed-circuit television cable for the military.
The Israeli military guarded the bulldozer.
_______________
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 is an initiative of the historic peace churches
(Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and
membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations.
Supporting violence-reduction efforts around the world is its mandate.
Contact CPT, POB 6508 Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253 Fax:
773-277-0291; e-mail: peacemakers@cpt.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 Jul 04 2005 - 12:19:27 EDT