CPTnet
May 19, 2005
HEBRON UPDATE: 5-11 May 2005
Thursday 5 May
In the morning, Bill Baldwin, Sally Britton, David Janzen, and Grace Pleiman
joined a diplomatic tour group that included representatives of the
consulates of South Africa, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and United
Kingdom, organized by the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), to tour the
site of the proposed new road for Israeli settlers from the Tel Rumeida
settlement to the synagogue in the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Israeli military
delayed the tour group at the checkpoint on Duboyya Street at the foot of
the hill to Tel Rumeida. Finally the soldiers let the diplomats pass
through the checkpoint without the Palestinians, CPTers and other
internationals in the group. Those whom the soldiers had forbidden to
proceed, were joined by others who had gotten to the site by an alternate
route around the checkpoint. They gathered at a building owned by
Palestinians that settlers had stoned the night before. The Israeli
military stopped anyone from going any farther, declaring the area a closed
military zone. The tour concluded with a discussion on the other side of
the checkpoint, where media and Qurtuba School students and personnel had
also gathered.
Around 10:30 a.m., Dianne Roe and Kathie Uhler responded to a call for
backup from EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Palestine and
Israel) at the Qurtuba School. EAPPI said rioting was happening at the
Duboyya street check point, and that young Israeli settler women were
gathering there.
When they reached the school, ten teenaged Israeli settler girls surrounded
Roe and Uhler and told them to leave "their street". When the CPTers said
they were staying to accompany the Qurtuba students home, the settlers
attacked the CPTers, yelling insults, pushing, shoving, kicking, and
spitting. Israeli soldiers stood by watching and laughing until Uhler
called for their help. Roe telephoned the Israeli border police and the CPT
office. More police arrived and dispersed the girls, although a few Israeli
women remained.
Although the soldiers told CPT to leave, they and the Ecumenical
Accompaniers walked the girls up the hill past the Israeli military
checkpoint. At the check point, the soldiers stopped Roe and Uhler. The
soldiers let the Ecumenical Accompaniers pass with the schoolgirls. When
pressed for a reason why CPT could not go on, the soldiers said Tel Rumeida
was a closed military zone. When Roe asked for the written order, the
soldiers showed Roe a text written in Hebrew, which she photographed.
Friday 6 May
When Roe, Uhler, Pleiman, Janzen, Luna Villota, and two visitors tried to
pass from Bab iZaweyya through the Duboyya Street checkpoint to go to Tel
Rumeida, Israeli soldiers told them the area was not a closed military zone,
but it was Israeli and CPT did not have a permit to go through.
A Palestinian friend of the team whose house lies adjacent to Israeli
settlement of Tel Rumeida told Roe and Pleiman that on Thursday, Israeli
settlers and soldiers had followed his ten-year-old son. When asked why the
soldiers had followed his son, the soldiers told him they were nervous about
what the settlers might do.
Saturday 7 May
Israeli soldiers prevented Roe, Baldwin, and Donna Hicks from passing
through the Beit Romano checkpoint. The soldier said the situation was too
dangerous. While visiting the tea shop of a Palestinian friend, they
learned that Israeli settlers had glued shut the only entrance to the home
of his neighbor.
Sunday 8 May
Baldwin and Hicks with team translator Zleekha Muhtahsib attempted to get up
to Tel Rumeida. They got as far as the checkpoint at Shuhada Street and
Qarantina Street across from the old Palestinian wholesale vegetable market
and the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu. When the Israeli soldiers
learned that Muhtasib was a Palestinian resident of Hebron, they would not
let her pass through the checkpoint to the Qarantina neighborhood. Several
Israeli settler women and children gathered and taunted Muhtahsib and the
CPTers. The soldiers worked to keep the settlers away, and escorted the
three back down the street to the checkpoint near the Ibrahimi School.
Settler children threw some stones, hitting both Baldwin and Hicks.
As the three walked passed the checkpoint on Shuhada Street near Ibrahimi
School on the way towards the Yatta Road, a Palestinian man approached
Muhtasib and described how soldiers had blocked the only entrance to his
house on 1 May. Gaining access to his home requires walking over the roofs
from an abandoned and vandalized medical clinic. He had been waiting all
day for the Israeli commander to come to unweld the plates blocking the
entrance. His three daughters attend
Al Fayya School near the Ibrahimi Mosque, and he said they jump off the
walls every day to go to and from school. He said Israeli law enforcement
had detained him for three days after he gave a statement in support of a
Palestinian boy shot and killed by Israeli soldiers three months ago.
The three CPTers reached Hani Abu Haikel's house, which abuts on the Israeli
settlement of Tel Rumeida, from the far side of the neighborhood. They
learned that Israeli settler teenagers stoned the Abu Haikel children
yesterday. When the children cried out, the settlers complained to the
soldiers. The water pipe to the house was broken six weeks ago when the
road, to which they no longer have access, was paved. When Hebron
municipality workers came to repair the pipes, the Israeli soldiers would
not let them pass. The family has some water in the well, enough to last
two to three weeks if the pipe is not repaired. When the three left, Abu
Haikel's sister pointed to the flower pots and said the plants were dying
because they had to conserve the water they had in the well in case the
pipes did not get repaired. The settlers who are squatting in the Bakri
house next door have been taking a long pipe and reaching across the
property line to break windows on the ground level of the Abu Haikel house.
Soldiers tell the family they should not leave their house.
The three CPTers returned to the Old City via the fields in between
Qarantina and Abu Sneineh neighborhoods.
When Baldwin and Hicks passed through a gate leading back into the Old City
of Hebron across from the Avraham Avinu settlement, an Israeli soldier
escorted them from the checkpoint to the gate, unhooked new razor wire in
front of the metal door and saw them through.
Monday 9 May
When Roe tried to get through the turnstiles at the gate at the Ibrahimi
Mosque so she could meet Israeli visitors, descendants of the pre-1929
Jewish community in Hebron, on the other side, she was delayed because
thirty Palestinian boys were waiting to go through. The Israeli visitors
were not allowed through because the Israeli soldiers told them only Muslims
could be in the Old City. Roe called a Palestinian friend who met them and
invited them through a Palestinian entry point. The visitors explained that
they wanted to give their ancestral homes to the Palestinians who lived
there, but that the Israeli government would not allow it. The Israeli
government in 1967 also would not allow the previous owners to return to
their homes, saying their doing so would set a precedent, and that
Palestinians would want to return to their homes from which they fled in
1948.
Tuesday 10 May
While at Qurtuba School, Roe and Hicks learned that one of the students had
been stoned by Israeli settlers as she was coming down the street past the
Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida. The headmistress had taken the student
to the hospital to be checked for injuries. They also learned that soldiers
had detained the girl's brother on the previous day, claiming he had cursed
them. Hicks and Roe walked to the Duboyya Street checkpoint to accompany
the student back to school as she came from the hospital. She had no broken
bones.
Wednesday 11 May
CPTers learned from EAPPI that Israeli settler girls had attacked students
leaving Qurtuba School at the end of the schoolday. The team viewed
pictures and a video clip of the incident.
_______________
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 : Wed Jun 01 2005 - 09:07:51 EDT