CPTnet
12 May 2005
HEBRON UPDATE: 26 April - 4 May 2005
Tuesday 26 April
Mosque gate closed and locked
During morning school patrol, Maureen Jack and Donna Hicks learned that
Palestinian adults living near the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs
were under curfew. Jack asked an Israeli soldier why. He replied that the
mosque had been closed to Jews for Mohammed's birthday and so it was right
for it to be closed to Muslims during Passover.
Jack asked why the Israeli settlers had not been under curfew on Mohammed's
birthday. "That's a good question," he said. Jack replied, "And is there a
good answer?"
When the Palestinian children got out of school, hundreds of Jewish
worshippers were walking along Shuhada Street where the Palestinian children
cross to get home.
CPTers accompanied the children across the street in between the groups of
worshippers.
After school patrol Sally Britton, Jack, and Mary Lawrence responded to a
request for assistance from EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program of the
World Council of Churches). They walked amidst the Israeli visitors on
Shuhada Street, generally open only to Israelis and Jewish internationals,
without being challenged. Kristin Anderson and Christy Bischoff joined them
at Qurtuba School. When they reached the Israeli military checkpoint at
Duboyya Street, they found fifteen male students and three young women
stranded there because the checkpoint was closed to Palestinians. The young
women indicated they were not afraid to go up the hill towards the Israeli
settlement of Tel Rumeida. Anderson, Bischoff, and Jack attempted to escort
them through the checkpoint. The Israeli soldier would not let them through
and said the checkpoint would be closed until 7:00 p.m. The CPTers offered
to call the boys' parents but one gave a wrong number and the others said
they did not want to go home.
Wednesday 27 April
Jack, Roe, and Luna Villota met with Ghazi Brigith at the Beit Ummar
municipality to get an update on the status of the land confiscation orders
received by Beit Ummar residents on 8 April. A second fence to surround the
Israeli settlement of Karme Tsur is proposed, which will take more
Palestinian agricultural land. Palestinians face difficulties in following
the legal process for appealing the orders because of travel restrictions
imposed on them. A map of the area, at a cost of NIS 40,000, or US$10,000
is also required for the appeals process.
The farmers do not have funds to purchase the required map.
Thursday 28 April
Beit Romano checkpoint closed to Palestinians.
Saturday 30
April Beit Romano checkpoint closed to Palestinians.
Bill Baldwin, Britton, Jack, and John Lynes, along with six members of the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM), did school patrol near the Ibrahimi
Boys' School from 7:00-8:00 a.m. Baldwin greeted an Israeli settler with
"Shabbat shalom." The settler replied, "You are provoking the struggle.
Hebron belongs to us."
During afternoon school patrol, a young Palestinian man who lives near the
Ibrahimi School reported to Britton, Jack, and Roe that every day around
3:00 p.m. Israeli settler boys stone his house and break windows.
Monday 2 May
In the morning Britton and Jerry Levin encountered Mohammed Sidr, who
reported that the evening before, while running an errand, he was detained
by three Israeli soldiers, one of whom grabbed him, put a knife to his neck
and forced him to lie down. The soldier holding Sidr told him he would be
all right but demanded "information" from him. The same thing happened to
two other men. Sidr says he refused, saying he had done nothing wrong and
should be let alone. After about a half hour the soldiers released the three
men.
Levin, Roe, and CPT intern Chelli Stanley visited families who live behind
Qurtuba School near Tel Rumeida. As they went up the hill they saw a
graffiti, "Gas the Arabs", signed by the JDL (Jewish Defense League).
As they passed the Palestinian home on Tel Rumeida which the Israeli
military took over three weeks ago, Israeli soldiers asked the CPTers where
they were going. Later, while visiting the Abu Haikel family, whose home
is adjacent to the Tel Rumeida settlement, CPT talked with a soldier through
the front gate, locked from the outside by Israeli soldiers, barring the
front exit to the family. The soldier said he was sorry about the family
who lived there, but what could he do? CPTers returned to the house for
more conversation. When they went outside again, they observed that razor
wire had been strung on the Abu Haikel side of the gate, held in place with
an uprooted vine trunk, taken from the Abu Haikel vineyard. The fourteen-
year- old daughter of one of the Abu Haikels climbed up on the gate and
removed the razor wire, cutting her hands.
Wednesday 4 May
Baldwin, Jo French, and Roe did morning school patrol at Qurtuba School. A
car belonging to an Israeli settler blocked the stone stairway entrance
leading to Qurtuba. Baldwin and Roe moved into the street to watch for the
Palestinian children. Settler Anat Cohen approached them, shouting, "Go
away, Nazis! Go to Auschwitz!"
Roe replied that Nazis were bad and that she shouldn't trivialize the
Holocaust. Cohen kept shouting, "Go away!", and hit Roe on the head with
her palm and squashed Roe's CPT hat down over her glasses and nose. An
Israeli soldier came in between Cohen and Roe and told Baldwin and Roe to
leave. Cohen shouted to the soldier in Hebrew and Roe spoke in English to
the soldier, saying they would go to the other side of the car only if the
soldier would prevent Cohen from hurting the children. Cohen hit Roe again
and left, shouting, "Go to Auschwitz and take all of the Arabs with you!"
Roe went back and told the soldier that she has been talking with Jews who
were saved by Arabs during the 1929 Hebron massacre of Jews by Arabs. The
soldier replied, "No one cares about that. There has always been war between
us and there will always be war between us." Roe answered, "There was not
always war and there does not have to be war." The soldier responded that
his only job is to protect the Jews. When Roe asked him if that meant the
Israeli settlers should be allowed to throw out the Palestinians, the
soldier said that what happened to the Palestinians was not his problem.
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