CPTnet
25 May 2005
HEBRON UPDATE: 12-18 May 2005
Thursday 12 May
Around 6:00 p.m. CPT co-director Doug Pritchard and Bill Baldwin walked with
Dianne Roe and Luna Villota to get a service taxi at Bab iZaweyya. An
Israeli military jeep came barreling down Shalaileh Street towards the
intersection at the vegetable market. Israeli soldiers jumped out at the
junction near the concrete blocks which once divided H1 and H2, waved their
guns around, got back into their vehicle and drove off.
Friday 13 May
Baldwin, Pritchard, John Lynes, Sally Britton, Kathie Uhler, and Donna Hicks
left at 8:00 a.m. to meet Roe and Villota at Bab iZaweyya. As they came
through the Bab ib-Baledeyya entrance to the Old City, they observed seven
Palestinian men kneeling, blindfolded and handcuffed with plastic handcuffs.
One knelt on the far side of the military 'bunker' at the Beit Romano
checkpoint, the other six along the cement slab wall at Old Shalaileh
Street. Hicks asked an Israeli soldier if there was a problem. He said no
and refused to say more. Two Palestinian women, one weeping, stood nearby.
The soldiers told CPT to move on, that the area was a closed zone. When
team members asked if the area was a closed military zone, the soldier said,
"No." He ordered the CPTers to move on and said if they stayed they would
be arrested.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers brought three more Palestinian men, blindfolded,
out of the Old City, and put them with the other men. They moved the one
man who had been kneeling separately to join the others. One of the
detainees known to the team told CPTers after his release that he was
walking through the Old City from his home when soldiers detained him.
Soldiers pushed him up against a wall in the Old City and held him at the
checkpoint for thirty minutes. Shortly after other international
observers arrived, soldiers released most of the men after checking their
IDs.
In late afternoon, Villota, Uhler, and CPT intern Chelli Stanley met with
Palestinian community leaders, internationals, and Palestinian residents of
Tel Rumeida affected by the Israeli settlement there, to discuss how to
address the Israeli military's decision to build a road abutting the
Palestinians' property and the Muslim cemetery.
Saturday 14 May
A translator for the team called to say that a crisis was developing in Wadi
El- Ghroos as serious as the one at Tel Rumeida. Israeli settlers, border
police, and soldiers are attacking Palestinian homes and sexually harassing
Palestinian women and girls. The Israeli military has closed the alternate
route over the hills out of the wadi, imprisoning the Palestinians behind a
series of roadblocks. Residents must travel in and out of the valley using
only one exit, and the Israeli military controls it.
Tuesday 17 May
CPTers Roe, Hicks, Grace Pleiman , and Rusty Dinkins-Curling visited
families in Wadi El-Ghroos late in the morning. The women of one family
complained that Israeli border police had been taking off their clothes in
the presence of children walking to and from school. Family members had
observed Israeli settlers swimming naked in cisterns. The area has been
almost completely cut off by surrounding Israeli
settlements, border police barracks, and military base. Because of the road
closure, families have wedding celebrations in a part of Hebron to which
guests have access. As the due dates for pregnant women near, they move in
with relatives in parts of Hebron with easier access to hospitals. Ten days
earlier, twenty-three acres that the Israeli High Court had ruled belonged
to the family had been confiscated. The military has restricted their
access to agricultural land.
Another family said they have problems with the soldiers provoking the young
boys as they walk home from school. Telephone lines have also been cut. A
third family reported that the field behind their house had been confiscated
recently. Israeli settlers have stoned their house twice in recent weeks.
Family members have seen male and female Israeli settlers standing naked
behind the house.
Wednesday 18 May
Hicks, Pritchard, Dinkins-Curling and Lynes did school patrol at Qurtuba
School. After Palestinian children and staff had left school, two Israeli
settler women confronted the CPTers and tried to trip them. Lynes, raised
in a Jewish family, tried to explain to the one woman why she should not
describe him as a Nazi.
_______________
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