CPTnet
3 December 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 5-18 November 2007
Team members during this period included Laura Ciaghi, Jessica Frederick,
Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Donna Hicks, Bob Holmes, Rich Meyer, Jonathan
Stucky, and Mary Wendeln.
Monday 5 November
While Hicks was walking through onto Shuhada Street, an Israeli soldier
asked her where she was from. She returned the question. The soldier
commented on the drive-by shootings in the city where he lived. Hicks
replied that her hometown in North Carolina was also known for its gun
violence.
Later in the afternoon, Laura Ciaghi, Jessica Frederick, Hicks and two
visitors walked to the Israeli settler-occupied house on the road to Kiryat
Arba. When a Palestinian woman called to them from a house nearby, Ciaghi
climbed the hill to talk with her. She learned that Israeli soldiers had
turned the woman back at the military checkpoint near the house. When the
CPTers and visitors went to the checkpoint with the woman, the soldier let
her pass. They asked why the woman could not pass earlier, and the soldier
replied they had learned of a bomb threat and had closed off the route.
They went on to the Al-Jabbari field opposite the gate into the Kiryat Arba
settlement, where Hicks saw that settlers had not undone the work of the
previous Friday's action.
Tuesday 6 November
As the CPTers returned from morning school patrol and moved through the
mosque gate checkpoint, Israeli border police closed the checkpoint, not
permitting people to move into or out of the Old City. When CPTers
confronted the soldiers, the soldiers said they closed the checkpoint for
the day "because of CPT." It reopened several minutes later.
Frederick and Stucky helped to harvest olives on land below the occupied
house.
Wednesday 7 November
Frederick and Gibb met with a representative of the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) to discuss CPT accompaniment for census workers
in areas around Hebron where these workers have faced harassment from
Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Thursday 8 November
Frederick, Gibb, and Hicks accompanied a group from the U.K. as they walked
the length of Shuhada Street on their tour of Hebron.
Friday 9 November
Frederick, Gibb, Hicks, and Rich Meyer went to the Al-Jabbari land for the
regular Friday action. On their way through the mosque checkpoint, they
observed the turnstiles were locked. Two Palestinian men were taking off
their belts and emptying their pockets to pass through the metal detector.
When they had passed, the soldiers unlocked the gate for three more people,
and then they locked it again, until all three had passed through the second
turnstile. They did the same for the next three people going through the
checkpoint, as well.
At the Al-Jabbari land, the Palestinians, CPTers, and other internationals
moved stones back to where they had placed them the week before, near the
roadside, so settlers could no longer pull their cars onto the field.
Settlers had thrown the stones back into the field over the course of the
week.
At dusk, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, Frederick and Gibb walked to
the Wadi Al-Nasara, where they observed between thirty to forty Israeli
settlers worshipping in the open. Israeli soldiers guarded Haret iJaber,
called by the settlers "Worshipper's Way," which runs through the Wadi.
Saturday 10 November
Frederick, Gibb, Hicks, and a guest went to Beit Ummar to visit a family
whose two sons the Israeli military had abducted on Wednesday morning. One
had been out of Israeli prison for a month-and-a-half. The mother said
about fifty soldiers surrounded their house around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday
morning, after having first gone to their old residence nearer the bypass
road, broken down the locked door and vandalized the house. The next night
they came back and took six more men from the extended family as well as
others in the village. The two abducted Wednesday morning were first sent
to the jail at Gush Etzion, but were moved to Hawarra near Nablus because
the Gush Etzion facility was full.
Sunday 11 November 2007
School in Hebron was dismissed early because of the third anniversary of
President Yassar Arafat's death.
Frederick, Hicks, and Eileen Hanson met Friesen in the Bab iZawiyya on their
way back from Jerusalem. Produce sellers were dismantling their stalls in
preparation to move to a new location. On reaching the Bab il-Baledeyya,
they encountered a patrol of six Israeli soldiers moving into the Old City.
(See 13 November CPTnet release, "HEBRON: Soldiers attempt to search
Christian Peacemaker Team premises.")
Gibb and her grandson went to Ramallah for the day, where they met friends
at the Quaker Meeting. The city was teeming with young men taking part in a
mass rally on the third anniversary of President Yasser Arafat's death.
Monday 12 November
During school patrol, children and teachers arrived at school as usual, but
the Ibrahimiyye Boys' School was dismissed almost at once, because the
teachers went on strike calling for cost of living increases in their
salaries. While Jessica Frederick and Rich Meyer were taking 'Hani' home in
his wheelchair, an unruly boy shoved another boy into Frederick. The
teachers were extremely apologetic about the incident, and said they would
discipline the boys.
When Jonathan Stucky was on the CPT roof, a soldier on the roof across the
street initiated a conversation, stating, "Life is sh--." Stucky responded,
"We have life and a beautiful day, so it cannot be so bad." The soldier
said he was one of the soldiers who had invaded the CPT premises the day
before, looking for weapons. Stucky asked him why, given that CPT is a
peace organization, rejecting all violence. The soldier responded that CPT
is too "pro-Palestinian" and the Israeli soldiers do not know what CPT keeps
on its premises. Stucky said, "Everyone is invited to come visit but must
leave their weapons outside." The soldier talked about the nice people in
Israel. Stucky replied, "There are very nice people in Israel, very nice
people in Palestine. CPT works for peace between the nations."
Christina Gibb and Lorne Friesen led a group of African-American
Presbyterian Church leaders from New Jersey on a tour of the Old City.
While Gibb waited outside the Mosque checkpoint for the group to come out of
the Ibrahimi Mosque, she witnessed border police attacking one young man,
and detaining a second. The border police pushed one hard against the wall
and hit him about the head and body. The civilian police were also present.
Gibb ran towards them shouting "Stop beating him up" and tried to get in the
way. Israeli authorities pushed her back before she reached him. A border
police officer turned to her, producing a shiny kitchen knife about 14
inches long, and said passionately, "He was going to stab us--he wanted to
kill us!" Gibb replied, "You don't know that." The police pushed Gibb back
across the street. By then, the youth had been beaten to the ground and
several border police were kicking him while he lay moaning trying to
protect himself from the blows. Gibb continued monitoring the situation.
During the next three-quarters of an hour, the Israeli military closed the
mosque gate, and additional police arrived. Donna Hicks came out through
another old city gate and joined Gibb, while Stucky watched from inside the
Old City at the mosque gate. Friesen and the Presbyterian group left the
mosque by another gate, unaware of what had happened.
Finally, police marched the youth up the hill by the mosque, probably to the
police station.
Before Gibb left, the senior border police officer came over to where she
was standing, and angrily told her she had been interfering in their work,
and must never behave like that again.
Frederick and Meyer met with a representative from TIPH (Temporary
International Presence Hebron) about the letter from the Israeli civil
administration stating that children should not have to pass through the
metal detectors at the container checkpoints, nor have their school bags
searched.
Tuesday 13 November
During morning school patrol, border police searched the bags and parcels of
most people--men, women, and some of the schoolchildren, coming out of the
mosque gate. They made the male teachers take off their belts and watches
as they came through the metal detector. A border police officer standing
inside the gate on the ingoing side delayed the headmaster. At the request
of the other teachers, Hicks went to investigate. The border police officer
rudely told Hicks to leave, that he would close the gate if she stayed. He
kept interrupting her as she attempted to learn what the problem was. The
headmaster finally made his way through, but the border police closed the
gate in both directions for about ten minutes. When Meyer attempted to talk
with the officer, the officer told him to go home. Meyer asked where the
officer was from and mentioned that he, Meyer, had been invited to be in
Hebron. When the teachers arrived at school, they told Gibb that the
soldiers had delayed the headmaster had because he refused to take off his
jacket, in addition to his belt and watch.
Wednesday 14 November
In the morning, the team went to Qurtuba School to take part in celebrations
marking the completion of the extensive renovation work financed by several
nongovernmental organizations.
Frederick and Hicks went on a late-afternoon patrol out the mosque gate.
When they reached the metal gate before the turnstiles, a border police
officer came barreling out the gate with his gun pointed and rushed into the
doorway to his right. Three more police rushed out with their guns pointed
as well, totally ignoring the two CPTers. Hicks asked if they were
practicing. The police did not reply, but entered the home and did not come
out for several minutes. The Palestinians around seemed to think nothing of
it.
Near the Yatta Road checkpoint, a group of children met the two and directed
them to the checkpoint where they talked with a young Palestinian man who
said soldiers had detained him for an hour. When a TIPH patrol came by, the
children flagged it down and explained what was going on. The patrol stayed
to monitor the situation.
Thursday 15 November
Palestinian schools were closed to commemorate Palestine Independence Day.
Two members of the Grace-pilgrimage, a Portuguese peace movement, whose
action this year was walking from Eilat in the south of Israel to Jerusalem,
visited CPT because they saw the peace flag on the roof.
Friday 16 November Frederick, Friesen, Gibb, and a visitor took part in the
weekly action on the Jabbari land with other internationals. During the
week, the settlers had thrown the rocks and tires moved the week before back
onto the land, so this time the workers moved them to the supporting wall of
the lowest terrace. Then they raked about a third of the land closest to
the road, and turned it by hand with picks. Israeli military and police
kept the settlers from disrupting the work by signaling to the settlers to
drive on whenever they tried to stop.
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