CPTnet
26 June 2006
HEBRON UPDATE: 10-15 June 2006
Team members during this period were Angela Davis, Christina Gibb, Tracy
Hughes,Dianne Roe, and Kathie Uhler.
During this week high school seniors began final examinations called the
"taujihi." These tests are important in determining college and
professional placement. CPT monitored the checkpoints through which the
students had to pass on their way to exams.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 13 and 14 June the Israeli Army repaired the
Sharabati wall in Hebron's Old City. CPT has known members of the
Sharabati family for ten years. In the summer of 2002 Israeli settlers
attacked the Sharabati home and threatened the inhabitants. The Israeli
army declared the area a closed military zone and evacuated the Sharabati
family. For an 8 August Report on the attacks of 2002 go to the website
of B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization
http://www.btselem.org/Download/200208_Standing_Idly_By_Eng.doc CPT will
continue to monitor as the Sharabatis try to rebuild the home amid
continuing Israeli settler threats.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
While on Taujihi patrol, Christina Gibb and Angela Davis met the principal
of Al Fayha'a Girls' School. She was upset because people broke into the
school the night before. They pried a window open with a crow bar,
breaking the metal shutters and wrenching the strong metal bars on the
window out of the stonework. They broke the glass of a file cabinet and
stole a computer, telephone, printer and video machine. Gibb took
pictures of the damage.
Tracy Hughes spoke with a tour group from various colleges in Missouri.
Roe gave a tour to a German family with four small children and their two
friends/colleagues. They were interested in meeting a Palestinian family
so Roe introduced the to Zleekha, a neighbor. In the afternoon/evening,
Zleekha and Angela Davis finished the tour with the family. They were on
Shuhada Street as people were leaving the synagogue on Shabbat. Zleekha,
Davis, and the mother of the family talked to several Israeli settlers on
the street.
Sunday 11 June 2006
In the late afternoon, the team heard some loud crashes. From the roof,
they saw neighborhood boys dismantling large metal things in a building
towards the old wholesale market. They saw the boys drop a large square
metal tank over the edge of the roof onto the street.
Monday 12 June 2006
Gibb and Davis went on school patrol for the Taujihi students.
Later in the morning they went to the Center for Cultural Exchange between
Hebron and France, near the university. They listened to presentations
about a new project the Center is starting for a Children's Radio Program.
In the late afternoon, Eissa Amro and his ISM friend Ra'ed came around to
talk about life in the Old City, and what can be done about the
neighborhood boys, to redirect their energy in constructive
ways. Amro had ideas about how to attract them to nonviolence training.
Tuesday 13 June 2006
The Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) called in the morning asking CPT
to monitor the work the Israeli Army was doing at the Sharabati house near
Avraham Avinu settlement enclave. Roe and Hughes tried to enter but an
Israeli woman soldier stationed near Avraham Avinu told them the area was
closed. Roe and Hughes then visited a Palestinian home nearby, and went
up on the roof there, but could see no more. The family invited them in
for cups of tea. One of the girls in the family is taking the taujihi
exams. She stays with relatives in Haret iSheikh area of Hebron to be
sure that soldiers don't stop her and cause her to miss the exam.
Wednesday 14 June 2006
Work continued on the Sharabati wall, but without the crane that was there
on the previous day.
Roe and Hughes went to Beit Ummar to visit the municipality. Mayor Farhan
Al Qam asked, "Don't Americans see what is happening to us? Doesn't
anyone care?" He said that Israeli settlers from Gush Etzion settlement
have uprooted hundreds of trees from Beit Ummar farmers.
Roe and Hughes then visited a farmer's family. One of the family members
works for the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture. "We have had no
salaries for four months," he said. Others in the family remarked on the
lack of access to their land. Even when the Israeli high court rules in
favor of the families, the Israeli army continues to deny access to
farmers trying to reach their land, and the settlers uproot trees and send
their sheep onto the land.
In the afternoon ISM (International Solidarity Movement) called to request
CPT's presence near Tel Rumeida. While HRC was paving the path by Qurtuba
School, Israeli ettler youth began attacking. An ISMer who was hit by
several large stones went to the police station to report the attacks.
EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniers) joined ISM and CPT. The settler youth left
in a van right before CPT and EAPPI arrived. Gibb and Davis remained by
the Duboyya checkpoint because ISM reported that soldiers were detaining
Palestinians.
The team took Hisham and Nariman Sharabati and their three boys out for
dinner at the Al Quds Restaurant in Ras el Jura. The Sharabati home in
Hebron's old city (see above) is Hisham's ancestral home. He said the
military must repair the wall (according to a court ruling) so his cousin
can continue repairing the home without fear of settler harassment.
Thursday 15 June 2006
Christina Gibb and Kathie Uhler did Taujihi patrol in the morning.
Gibb and Dianne Roe went to look at the old Sharabati house. Soldiers
allowed them in through Bab al Khan, and they took pictures of the
concrete block wall. Settlement buildings still overlook the house.
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