CPTnet
11 December 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 19 November-2 December 2007
Team members during the period included Jessica Frederick, Lorne Friesen,
Christina Gibb, Donna Hicks, John Lynes, and Rich Meyer and Jonathan Stucky.
Monday 19 November
In the afternoon, Jessica Frederick went to an "English Exchange" hosted by
House of Nonviolence/Library on Wheels. She answered questions about
American culture, and listened to Palestinian young adults talk about their
culture. One Palestinian asked if Americans viewed all Muslims as
terrorists, and another commented about Americans' lack of hospitality (but
"some Americans can be nice," said one young man.) At one point, Frederick
said, "My life is not like the movies"--which was surprising to the
Palestinians, who thought American movies gave an accurate portrayal of life
in America. Frederick explained the mixed cultural background in the United
States, her own heritage being German, French, Irish, Italian, and Scotch.
They all laughed while comparing the differences in gender relations in
Palestinian and American culture.
Later, Christina Gibb and Lorne Friesen went on patrol near the Occupied
House (what the team calls a Palestinian house on the road between the
Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and the Israeli settlements inside Hebron
that settlers are occupying.) Two young men from the next house up the hill
on the opposite side of the road called to them and invited the CPTers in.
Their father, who lives next door, joined the group. With no common
language, the CPTers phoned translators to ask the family in what ways the
settler presence was affecting them. The father replied that it is worst on
the Jewish Sabbath, when the settler boys have no school. They throw stones
at the houses and at the Palestinian children and adults. The Border Police
constantly patrol the road from Kiryat Arba to the Sanctuary of Abraham and
often detain Palestinians in the street to check their IDs.
On their way home, half a dozen Palestinian boys pursued the CPTers
relentlessly down the hill, shouting and jostling them.
When they reached the mosque gate back into the Old City, they heard a man
shouting from between the turnstiles. He had taken off his belt and emptied
his pockets, but still the metal detector beeped. He was arguing with the
border police, who made him take off his shoes and lift his shirt. The
police told the CPTers to move on or they would lock the gate. Gibb and
Friesen moved slowly through the tunnel until the argument died down.
Tuesday 20 November
Around 11:15 a.m., teammates sitting in the office felt the building shake
for a couple of seconds. Afternoon news reports indicated a small
earthquake had occurred north of the Dead Sea at that time.
While shopping in the Al Manara area, Donna Hicks and a Palestinian friend
learned that the area where the Palestinian vans and taxis to Yatta park
will be renovated into a more formal transportation terminal.
Wednesday 21 November
Frederick and Hicks accompanied Janet Benvie, returning to the Tuwani team,
to the pick-up point for Yatta taxis. They observed a USAID-marked heavy
truck leaving the area loaded with broken-up asphalt paving
Frederick and Hicks walked to the Occupied House around dusk. A group of
Palestinian boys physically and verbally harassed them on an isolated
section of Worshippers' Way as they were returning to the Old City.
Thursday 22 November
During school patrol at the Yatta Road checkpoint one of the soldiers was
searching the backpacks of teenaged boys. Hicks showed the soldier the
letter stating school children's bags should not be searched. He said he
knew about it, and muttered something about having to search the older boys.
At the mosque gate a border police officer was searching school bags,
calling out loudly and teasing boys. Soldiers briefly delayed three
teachers and three senior boys at the checkpoint across from the Gutnick
Center. Gibb and Hicks observed soldiers practicing some maneuvers in the
park area below the parking lot at the Gutnick Center.
Friesen and Frederick went on a late afternoon patrol. At the mosque
checkpoint, Israeli border police stopped and questioned a man carrying a
computer. A civilian police officer examined the computer, took out a couple
of parts, and after five or ten minutes, allowed the Palestinian to go on.
Friday 23 November
Friesen, Frederick, Hicks, and Lynes joined other internationals and Israeli
partners B'nei Avraham and Ta'ayush in digging and planting on the Jabari
land close to the main entrance to Kiryat Arba. Settlers, police, and army
observed the twenty or thirty activists working the land. One settler with
a video camera engaged one of the activists in Hebrew. He thanked them for
working the land for the settlers, according to one of the activists. One
settler, stopping his car, called out the window in Hebrew, translated by
the activists, "I hope God strikes you and your children dead by tonight."
After the other CPTers left, Lynes waited outside Kiryat Arba Police Station
for the release of Jonathan Stucky, who, with three Palestinian farmers from
At-Tuwani, had been taken in for questioning. Stucky and the farmers were
released after about three hours.
Frederick and Lynes went on a patrol around 5:00 p.m. On the way back, a
soldier stopped them as they were about to go through the Bab il-Khan,
telling them that "new orders" specified that only TIPH (Temporary
International Presence Hebron) and those living in the building across the
street could use that gate. He said he would allow the CPTers to pass
through, just for today. Lynes said he was "sorry to be a nuisance," but he
would not be obeying those orders. The soldier said that these were his
commander's orders, and he was only a "small soldier." Lynes said he
understood, that he was a soldier once, too.
Saturday 24 November
Hicks joined the CPT delegation for a tour of unrecognized villages of the
Bedouin in the Negev, inside Israel. Israeli authorities are demolishing
Bedouin homes in these unrecognized villages, part of an effort to force
them to move to urban areas set up especially for them, and off their
ancestral lands. The Bedouin resist these efforts to move them. When some
of the villages petitioned the Israeli authorities for water services, the
authorities told them their problem would be solved if they moved to the
townships provided for them by the government.
When leaving through the Mosque gate at 1:20 p.m., Frederick and Lynes
observed that the border police permitted only one person at a time to pass
through the checkpoint, locking the turnstile after each person passed. A
Palestinian walking into the Old City as the CPTers were leaving said
something loudly in Hebrew, and the soldiers unlocked the gates for people
to pass through normally. He turned to Frederick and said, "I told them to
open the gates--in Hebrew."
While on patrol, Frederick and Lynes observed the trees planted on the
Jabari land on Friday were still standing.
A Palestinian shopkeeper alerted CPTers that a party of Israeli settlers,
outnumbered by army escorts, had passed through the Old City. Palestinians
were concerned because one of the settlers had kicked a Palestinian child.
The child and his mother, crying, came into the shop. The mother told a
soldier who asked the child to identify the settler who kicked him. He
could not do so, because all the settlers, in their beards and sidelocks,
looked the same to the child.
Sunday 25 November
John Lynes attended a meeting for Palestinians and internationals where he
learned that the previous evening settlers had entered Qurtuba School,
damaged the new garden and started to demolish a retaining wall behind the
school.
November 26 In the morning, Rich Meyer saw a young man, allegedly with a
knife, arrested by Israeli police near the mosque checkpoint. A Palestinian
friend said the young man was seventeen-years-old and from Dura.
The team joined members of international groups working in Hebron for supper
at a Palestinian friend's home. He thanked the internationals for traveling
so far to help the Palestinian people, and started a discussion about their
role and attitudes, what they would say when they returned home, and what
could be done to change the attitudes of Westerners towards Palestinians and
the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
At 9:00 p.m. at the Bab il Baledeyye, Gibb and a guest found a group of
soldiers with a Palestinian teenager. The teenager was sitting on the
ground leaning against a concrete bunker, looking scared and out of breath.
Four Palestinian men were standing by the barrier across the side street.
Gibb asked a soldier what had happened. He replied that the sentry had
called them out, when the boy had rushed to the gate asking to be taken to
the other side. The men were the boy's father and uncles. The soldiers had
called for an Arabic speaker, to clarify the situation and negotiate with
the men if necessary. After about ten minutes, the boy stood up, and went
slowly towards the men, accompanied by the soldiers. After a little
talking, one man came forward and embraced the boy, and they walked off
slowly.
Tuesday 27 November
Eileen Hanson and a visitor tried to go to the house of "Hani" (a boy in a
wheelchair) in the morning before he left for school. Israeli soldiers did
not let them through the Yatta Road checkpoint, saying that internationals
could not pass through that way. They went a different route.
After Jessica Frederick, Lorne Friesen, Hanson and the visitor, and 'Hani'
passed through the checkpoint on the way to school, a soldier asked
Frederick what organization she was with and said that only TIPH (Temporary
International Presence Hebron) could pass through the checkpoint. Frederick
said CPT passes through the checkpoint every day and that 'Hani' needed to
get to school. The soldier said, "I'm sure you are not the only ones who
can take him to school . . . I suggest you get the proper [permit to pass
through the checkpoint.]" Frederick asked him how one would get such a
permit, and he did not know. After the shift change, the new soldiers did
not stop John Lynes when he walked through the checkpoint.
CPTers heard gunfire in the early afternoon. Friesen and Hicks met Gibb and
a guest at the Bab iZawiyya, where they saw men with Islamic banners
breaking into smaller groups. The guest had filmed a protest by a
pan-Islamic group against the Annapolis conference at Al Manara near the
Hebron Governorate offices. The group had applied for a permit to
demonstrate but had been denied by the Governor's Office. Palestinian
police and security forces responded to the demonstration with live
ammunition as well as beating protesters with their sticks. One person was
killed, shot in the chest. Friesen and Hicks walked up to Al Manara where
they saw a continuing heavy police and security force presence. They noted
some damage to shops in the area, although many of the shops had closed
their metal shutters.
In the evening, CPT's neighbor, Zleekha Muhtaseb, recounted her efforts to
convince the Palestinian police and security not to respond violently.
Wednesday 28 November
Frederick, Friesen, and two delegates arrived at the Yatta Road checkpoint
on their way to Hani's home to escort him to school. The soldier on duty
initially denied the team permission to pass through the checkpoint. The
soldier said that only TIPH has the permit to pass through. Finally, he
said two could go, but first he needed to verify their passports. Friesen
and a delegate showed the soldier their passports. The soldier passed them
to another soldier to radio in the numbers. The soldier then returned the
passports. After saying "Thank-you," Friesen and the delegate walked past
the checkpoint. They had proceeded approximately 100 feet when a delegate
called them back because the soldier was upset. He said he had not told
them they could move through. Later, the soldier came to Friesen and
reiterated that the two had not waited for permission to move through. When
the soldier said that the CPTers had no permit to pass through, Friesen
asked him if he would be willing to bring 'Hani' to and from school. He
replied, "We have too many things to do. Security. You don't understand."
In the morning, Friesen and Hicks visited Qurtuba School to document the
settler vandalism. Around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, settlers uprooted
some of the newly planted trees and plants, and threw large rocks down onto
the walkway to the school. On Monday, young settler boys and their teacher
attempted to damage the water pipe going up the hill along the staircase.
The Hebron Municipality replaced the damaged trees and plants. The official
said, "If the settlers destroy these 1000 times, we will replace them 1000
times." (See www.cpt.org/gallery for photos.)
CPTers heard gunfire in the late morning. The team learned later in the day
that mourners and Palestinian law enforcement and security personnel clashed
at the funeral for the man killed at the demonstration the day before.
Thursday 29 November
On a visit to Qurtuba School, Frederick and Hicks learned that the
headmistress was at the Dubboya Street checkpoint waiting for her teachers
to come through. They walked to the checkpoint and joined EAPPI (Ecumenical
Accompaniment Program Palestine and Israel) and TIPH observers. The
teachers had waited an hour because the soldier said he did not have the key
to the gate. While the group waited, the soldier walked partway up the hill
to Tel Rumeida and when he returned he had the key in his hand. He unlocked
the gate and the teachers came through.
At the Yatta Road checkpoint, Friesen engaged the soldier who had tried to
stop them from moving through the checkpoint. The conversation turned to
'peace.' The soldier concluded, "until [there is peace], I need to be here,
and you need to be here."
Friday 30 November
Friesen and Hicks joined Palestinians and other internationals on the Jabari
land. The border police told the Palestinians that they could not walk on
the sidewalk and stairway built by the settlers on the land. They would
have to walk around to get to the far side. Instead, the Palestinians jumped
over the walkway. One settler child kept trying to step from the walk onto
the land and to pick an olive or two, but the border police got in the way
and told him to stop. When passing the Occupied House on the way home, the
CPTers and a Palestinian noted a large bus discharging men who looked like
settlers with backpacks and sleeping pallets at the Occupied House. A white
car pulled up to the Occupied House. When the driver, an Israeli settler,
noticed the CPTers and their Palestinian friend, she rolled down the window
and spat towards the three.
Later in the afternoon, Frederick, Friesen, and Hicks joined Palestinians
and other internationals at the Occupied House, where the Palestinians
called on the settlers to evacuate the house, and for the Occupation to end.
The Israeli court had found the week before that the settlers should be
evicted, but the case is still in litigation. An Israeli soldier asked one
of the Palestinians what they wanted. He said, "We want the settlers to
leave the house." The soldier said, "I'm a settler. Do you want me to
leave too?" The Palestinian replied, "Yes."
Saturday 1 December
In the early afternoon, Frederick and Hicks walked through the Old City out
to Al Sahle Street. The Old City was unusually crowded with shoppers.
After making some purchases and returning to the apartment, the two walked
out to the Bab iZawiyya, where they saw a number of tour buses parked in the
open area at the junction.
Sunday 2 December 2007
Hicks learned from a Palestinian colleague that Palestinian police had
escorted the tour buses to the Bab iZawiyya and Old City areas on the
previous day. He said that Palestinians from the northern West Bank are
coming to Hebron to shop because it is more difficult for them to shop in
Nablus or Jenin because of the Wall.
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