CPTnet November 27, 2007 HEBRON UPDATE: 22 October-4 November 2007
Team members during this period included Jan Benvie, Laura Ciaghi, Jessica
Frederick, Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Donna Hicks, Bob Holmes, Sarah
Shirk, Jonathan Stucky, Mary Wendeln, and Mary Rose.
Monday 22 October
In the morning, Border Police detained a Palestinian teacher and searched
the bags of ten Palestinian children in ten minutes. Jessica Frederick
spoke with three Border Police and one civilian police officer and presented
them with a legal position on paper from the Civil Administration stating
they could not search the bags of children on their way to or from school.
One Border Police said, "Someone puts a bomb in the bag of a 'little one,'
as you call them."
Frederick, Christina Gibb, and Donna Hicks went to the Ibrahimiyye Boys'
School to meet with the headmaster and Hani (not his real name), a boy in a
wheelchair that they are accompanying to school. A wall erected by the
Israeli authorities prevents him from a direct route to his school (See 16
November 2007 CPTnet release, "Obstacles to school, obstacles to peace.")
The headmaster told them that Israeli soldiers tried to destroy the
Palestinian Authority ID of a teacher they detained in the morning. One of
the Palestinian school staff said, "When he [the teacher] would take it [the
ID] out for a soldier, he would start laughing on (sic) him."
Wednesday 24 October
On afternoon patrol, Frederick and Mary Wendeln caught up with three
soldiers walking hurriedly through the market with a map in hand. The
soldiers started down a hill and positioned themselves low on the ground
with their guns aimed. They rapidly entered a nearby building and went up
its steps. The soldiers, ahead of the CPTers, entered a home. Hearing them
inside, Frederick opened the door and propped it open with her foot as
Wendeln informed the soldiers they needed to leave, because they did not
show a search warrant. Frederick snapped a picture before a soldier pushed
the door shut. After a few minutes, the soldiers left and took the stairs
to a higher level in the building.
When they left the apartment, Frederick and Wendeln entered the home to find
a visibly shaken mother with her eighteen-month-old son. Wendeln called
Zleekha Muhtaseb, who translated for the woman. She said the soldiers came
into the house unannounced and physically dragged her and her child from the
laundry room to the living room. Muhtaseb told Frederick members of the
family have connections to Hamas (one spent time in jail), so soldiers
periodically harass them in their home. Frederick and Wendeln stayed with
the family, sharing tea, cookies, dinner, and coffee with them. Finally,
the soldiers exited the building.
Thursday 25 October
CPT Delegation members went on school patrol with the team. One delegate
had an extended conversation with a soldier, whose brigade arrived in Hebron
from Gaza. He said he liked being in Hebron better, because in Gaza
soldiers did not interact with Palestinians. He said to the delegate,
"They're human beings. They have rights."
Gibb and Wendeln went to Qurtuba School for afternoon school patrol. Hisham
Sharabati told them young men were burning tires and throwing stones in Bab
iZawiyya. He said shopkeepers were going on strike, because a Palestinian
prisoner had been killed in an Israeli jail the day before. The deputy
principal dismissed the children as usual, despite the whiff of tear gas and
sounds of percussion grenades from the direction of the checkpoint. The
children and teachers were unable to travel freely home because the army had
closed the checkpoint and some of the roads. Eventually, two TIPH
(Temporary International Presence in Hebron) members escorted them along a
path and up a steep track where they were vulnerable to harassment by
soldiers and attack by settlers from Tel Rumeida.
Frederick and Lorne Friesen accompanied Hani to and from school and visited
with a friend of Hani's family. Years ago, one of his sons was at a
checkpoint when Israeli soldiers shot and killed a child. This traumatized
his son. When Friesen asked him if he studied a lot for school, the
translator (a friend of the family) explained the trauma he experienced had
made studying difficult; he now has a very poor memory. The translator said,
"They [the Israeli soldiers] ruined his future."
At about 3:00 p.m., Hicks and Gibb went out on patrol to see what was
happening in Bab iZawiyya. A rubber bullet had hit someone in the neck. He
was not seriously hurt and was refusing to go in an ambulance. The CPTers
saw a group of boys running towards the checkpoint. One by one, they ran and
threw their stones, then ran out of sight. The army retaliated from the
checkpoint with tear gas canisters and percussion grenades. The tear gas
overcame an older man, who lay in the street while passersby administered
first aid.
Friday 26 October
After a short prayer, the delegation and the team headed for the Al Jabari
and Da'na lands to pick olives. One ISM (International Solidarity Movement)
member tried to conduct interviews with Palestinians and some Israeli
settlers. The ISMer said Palestinians would not give interviews, because
"they were arrested the last time" they gave interviews.
On their way home, at the Mosque checkpoint, CPTers saw border police
restraining an elderly Palestinian man by pulling at his clothes, while they
laughed at him. Gibb told the soldiers their behaviour was disgraceful.
One of the soldiers said it was only a joke; they were just having fun.
Gibb said it was not a joke for the man, and they had a responsibility to
respect Palestinian civilians, who are also children of God.
Saturday 27 October
While on CPT's roof, Mary Rose and a soldier on duty on the roof across the
road began chatting. Rose offered the soldier a brochure to describe the
work of CPT. They decided to meet in Shuhada Street, so Rose asked Muhtaseb
for access through her house. The two went to Muhtaseb's front door. After
aggressive settler adolescents confronted them and a soldier questioned them
about using the door, the other soldier arrived to collect the brochure.
When Jan Benvie and Hicks approached the Gutnick Center checkpoint at around
4:00 p.m., they observed four Israeli border police surrounding a
Palestinian man, forcing him to remove his trousers. As the CPTers
approached, the Border Police stepped back from the man. Not wanting to
embarrass him, Benvie and Hicks walked past, but stayed in a position to
monitor the situation. Half an hour later, Israeli authorities released him.
As Benvie and Hicks returned home, a patrol of six soldiers appeared from
the market, not far from their home. One soldier asked Benvie "Are you
hiding terrorists in your house?" She explained CPT is against violence and
that they worked for peace.
Monday 29 October
During morning school patrol, Christina Gibb observed Israeli police delay a
male schoolteacher for ten minutes at the mosque checkpoint. The officer
said every day was different and "anybody could be detained any day."
Tuesday 30 October
While passing through the mosque checkpoint on the way to Hani's home, a
border police officer stopped Jessica Frederick and Jonathan Stucky and
asked them for their passports. Frederick showed him her CPT ID, but he
insisted on seeing her passport, which he snatched from her hand. Scowling,
he looked at Frederick and said, "You're a strong woman. I'm a strong boy .
. . I don't like you." He then muttered something about what he would do if
he were prime minister, and Frederick and Stucky passed through the
checkpoint.
Janet Benvie, Gibb, Donna Hicks, and Mary Wendeln went out the mosque gate
for school patrol. When they arrived, a border police officer was searching
the school bag of a small boy. Even after Benvie questioned the search, the
border police continued searching bags and parcels. Another officer asked
Gibb and Hicks for the 'paper,' a letter stating children's bags should not
be searched at container checkpoints.
He said, "This is the Civil Administration, not the Army." Hicks replied,
"That's an interesting distinction." Gibb followed up with, "The Civil
Administration is part of the Army." The police officer said, "The boys
sometimes carry knives." Hicks said, "But you carry a gun."
Returning from school patrol, Benvie and Frederick observed a border police
officer kicking a Palestinian man as he stood spread-eagled against the wall
at the mosque checkpoint. The border police commander twice ordered Benvie
and Frederick to move and asked if they wished to be arrested. They stayed
within sight of the detained man, and within twenty-five minutes, the police
released the man.
Returning through the Old City, Frederick and Stucky learned from a
shopkeeper that the day before the Israeli military had demolished eight
homes, which had had longstanding demolition order, in Idhna village, on the
Israeli side of the separation barrier.
On reaching the Bab ib-Baledeyya after a walk through the Old City to see
some of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee's work, Hicks and a group of
Palestinian Christian women observed a Red Crescent ambulance stopped at the
Beit Romano gate. One of the women commented, "I have heard of this kind of
thing happening. Now I have seen it." (See 6 November CPTnet release,
"HEBRON: Israeli military detains sick Palestinian woman at checkpoint.")
Thursday 1 November
Bob Holmes observed an Israeli soldier at the mosque checkpoint hold three
high school students and inspect their school bags, taking all the contents
out of one. When Holmes did not stop taking photos after being told to stop,
the captain ordered Holmes away, saying taking photos of soldiers was not
allowed and that he was not allowed within fifty meters of the checkpoint.
A civilian police officer summoned Holmes and said the soldiers were just
following orders. When Holmes said, "Their orders stink!" the officer
replied, "Maybe, but they are trained to follow orders."
About 2:45 p.m., a boy came to the door asking CPT to come to a nearby house
because Israeli soldiers were on the roof. Hicks, Holmes, and Stucky
responded and found six soldiers on the roof, overlooking the square above
the coffee shop not far from the CPT apartment. CPTers stayed on the roof
with the soldiers. A half hour later, other internationals arrived to
monitor the situation. The soldiers departed an hour later without saying
why they had come onto the roof.
Friday 2 November
Hicks, Holmes and Stucky, along with other internationals, took part in the
Friday action at the Al-Jabbari field near Kiryat Arba. They cleared a
field for planting and planted another field with half a dozen olive trees.
When the group began burning brush in the field closest to the road, an
officious captain, new to the area, ordered the workers to stop. He gave
them ten minutes to depart and said if they did not, he would arrest the
Palestinian coordinating the work. The Palestinian leaders successfully
negotiated with the Israeli military to continue working.
Many Israeli settlers who had come for the festival commemorating Abraham's
purchase of the Cave of Machpelah (See Genesis 23) passed by, some of them
demanding that the work be stopped. Israeli police and military kept the
settlers from interfering. Work ended at 1:30 pm.
At dusk, Gibb and Hicks confirmed that the mosque gate was padlocked and a
heavy tarpaulin hung on the mosque side so persons in the Old City could not
see what was happening towards the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah.
Frederick and Wendeln observed six Israeli soldiers stopping Palestinians
from entering the Old City through the Bab ib-Baledeyya. A soldier
approached Wendeln as she was taking pictures, and asked, "Is this
necessary? Israel has the gentlest army in the world." Wendeln responded
that no army was gentle, including the U.S. army.
Saturday 3 November
In the late morning, Frederick and Wendeln went on patrol. They observed
large crowds around the Gutnick Center. On returning from the Al-Jabbari
farm across from the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, they saw a patrol of
soldiers going up the Al-Jabbari's road. They followed the soldiers along
the path above the Al-Jabbari land. Frederick asked if there was trouble, to
which an Al-Jabbari responded "yes," but the CPTers were unable to establish
what that trouble was. As they passed a settler-occupied House, settlers
dropped a styrofoam bowl of eggs on Frederick's head.
In the afternoon, Hicks and Stucky took another way to the Occupied House
where they watched as a group of female settlers and visitors heckle other
international observers. The Israeli soldiers stationed along the road did
nothing. Six settler men walked towards Haret iJaber, which settlers call
"Worshippers' Way" rhythmically calling out to the observers, "Assholes,
assholes, assholes!"
Sunday 4 November
Hicks and Stucky learned from a Palestinian colleague that Israeli settlers
had attacked the Al-Jabbari house and land on Friday night, vandalizing
property and beating up one of the sons.
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