CPTnet
8 October 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 7-15 September 2007
On team during this period were Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb,
John Lynes, Kathie Uhler, and Mary Wendeln, and Mary Rose, guest from New
Zealand.
Friday 07 September
Bi'ilin celebrated the Israeli High Court ordering the Israeli government to
move the wall around the city one kilometer off part of the village land.
(See Hebron Update covering 4 September.)
All internationals and Palestinians agreed to cancel the weekly haying
action at the Al-Ja'abari family farm during Ramadan.
Saturday 8 September
Palestinian teachers continued their Saturday strike, demanding that they
have a five-day week like other Palestinian Authority employees, so the team
did not need to conduct school patrol
Dianne Roe, Valerie Joy, and John Lynes visited the newly appointed Mayor of
Hebron, Khalid Asaily, to discuss with him the possibility of Hebron
becoming a sister city to Corning (USA), Leichardt (Australia) and Exeter
(UK).
Lynes, Joy and Mary Rose observed a new CPT neighbor (a relative of the CPT
landlord) stopping Zleekha Muhtaseb, another neighbor of CPT, as she was
watering the olive tree planted at the corner of Chicken and Shuhada Streets
in memory of CPTer Tom Fox. The Israeli army enclosed the area, from the
CPT door to the corner (about twenty square feet) to keep Israeli settlers
from entering the "souq" (market) at that point. The new neighbor told
Muhtaseb that the tree was too close to his side door on Chicken Street.
Then his relative uprooted the tree.
Four soldiers arrived and questioned Muhtaseb's right to be there. She
showed them her documents, then asked permission to go into the empty house
opposite to retrieve a soccerball on the balcony. The soldier refused
permission after much discussion. Muhtaseb's mother, Lynes, Joy and Rose
observed this incident. Joy took a photo. A soldier approached her and
said taking the photo was disrespectful. Since one of the soldiers had
cursed her mother in Arabic, Muhtaseb confronted the commander about this
behavior and he eventually apologized for his soldier.
Outcomes: the ball is still on the balcony, the olive tree will be replanted
in a pot.
Uhler reported from Wadi Al-Ghroos where she had been living with an
extended family to improve her Arabic. The family decided not to seek
much-needed water from the Israeli army encamped there. A family member
told Uhler, "We have got along for sixty years without the army and we will
continue to do so." The family harvested grapes and shipped them to market
by automobile out of the Wadi on a rough dirt road. The Israeli army closed
the only paved road into the Wadi years ago.
The family seemed content with this year's grape sales. Uhler observed with
delight the family making "dibs," a rich syrup made from grapes, much like
molasses. The oldest, heaviest boy stomped on the grapes. A Palestinian
woman, who arrived that day, amid cheering, from Jerusalem, cooked the juice
through the night in a huge vat. A family member told Uhler, "I hope you
noticed that she prayed before she began to work."
Sunday 09 September
Four of the team attended a barbecue along with EAPPI (Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) at the Hanthala
("Resistance") café, at the Beit Romano checkpoint, hosted by café owner
and CPT long-time friend, Hisham Sharabati. During the evening, locals on
nearby Old Shalaleh Street summoned CPT to observe the activities of
soldiers in the shop next to theirs. The noise inside sounded as though the
soldiers were breaking through a wall. Lynes followed the soldiers and
photographed them entering the building. When Wendeln asked what they were
doing, the soldiers would only say they were "playing."
Monday 10 September
A group of about twenty teenage Palestinian boys in uniforms, swept and
cleaned the souq, from the Ibrahimi Mosque gate to Khan Shaheen, the CPT
neighborhood. Their work was part of a five-day program organized by the
Palestine National Development Committee and funded by USAID. Lynes
accompanied the boys but the Israeli army caused no trouble.
Christina Gibb and Mary Wendeln went to the opening of a creative arts
center, "Youth and Childhood Dreams Centre" in Haret iJaber, a neighborhood
of the Old City on the hill behind Abraham's Mosque. The center is funded
by TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron).
Tuesday 11 September
On school patrol by the Gutnick Center, Lynes and Wendeln observed two
soldiers performing maneuvers, hiding and imitating the shots of a machine
gun near children as they were walking to school.
The principal of Ibrahimiyye Boys School told Gibb and Rose soldiers had
detained him at the Ibrahimi Mosque gate, with no provocation, for an hour
on his way home from school the day before. The soldier told the man, a
principal, he could detain him for up to six hours.
A twelve-year-old Israeli settler boy rode down Shuhada Street on his
scooter and taunted a group of Palestinian schoolboys. Lynes and Wendeln
stood between the boys and separated them.
In Wadi Al-Ghroos, Uhler visited a one-hundred-year-old woman, Soraya, who
was a gracious host, conversant and spry, who maintains her home alone. Her
daughter and husband, visiting from Jerusalem, appeared to be in their
seventies.
The team took colleagues Hisham and Nariman Sharibati to dinner to celebrate
the birth of their baby girl.
Wednesday 12 September
During morning school patrol near the Gutnick Center, Wendeln and Lynes
intervened when a Palestinian boy thumped an Israeli boy riding past on a
bicycle. The incident did not escalate.
Cathy Nicols and an associate of Sabeel (Ecumenical Liberation Theology
Center) visited to plan the CPT part in Sabeel's annual conference tour in
October. They expect about eighty attendees.
Gibb with Muhtaseb visited Al Fayha'a Girls School and met the new
principal, Jihan Shweiki. Later she visited Motaz Zalloum, the principal of
Ibrahimiyye Boys School and discussed cooperation regarding the issue of
soldiers detaining teachers on their way to and from school.
Lynes, Wendeln, Gibb and Rose attended a meeting with ISM (International
Solidarity Movement), Palestinian ISM and EAPPI at Issa Amro's house on the
Tel Rumeida hill to plan coverage of the Old City during the upcoming
Israeli and Muslim festivals. A Palestinian ISMer spoke of the good effect
the co-operation of the international teams had this time last year.
Thursday 13 September Beginning of Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah
It was a "Jews only" day at the Ibrahimi Mosque, so the Israeli army closed
the gate from the souq to the mosque.
The morning patrols were uneventful, except for some school children and
adults who could not get out of the souq to their schools or other
destinations because of the Mosque gate closure. Uhler got two girls into
the souq through the "Ladder Lady's" house. [Historical note: Throughout
the numerous Israeli army-imposed curfews in the Old City in 2003--some 200
days--the army closed the Mosque gate to all Palestinians. During the
curfews, the schools were open but the children could not get to them
through the closed gate. So, "the Ladder Lady" allowed the children to pass
through her second-story home out of the souq, but they had to come and go
via a rickety, wooden ladder. After her impassioned pleading at the city
hall, the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee installed (c. 2004) a staircase to
the door of the "Ladder Lady's" home.]
Friday 14 September
Both mosque and synagogue were open. Jews and Muslims worshipped in their
respective parts of the building.
On patrol, Rose saw soldiers accost two youths and push one up against a
wall. The soldier struck the youth in his mouth with his gun butt before
letting him go.
The Palestinian woman who owns the Women's Cooperative Craft shop in the
souq and her husband took Rose, Gibb and an ISMer in their car to their home
in Idhna, northwest of Hebron. They drove to Beit Awwa at the Green Line
between the West Bank and Israel to see how far into the area the Israeli
army is building the Wall. Gibb was at Beit Awwa with the whole village
three years ago when army bulldozers destroyed many olive trees to make way
for the Wall.
The group went on to the hosts' home where Rose and Gibb broke the Ramadan
fast with members of the extended family. The host told them she had waited
twelve years to marry her husband. He was a fugitive for four years hiding
in the hills, and then, after the army caught him, she waited eight more
years while he was in prison.
Saturday 15 September
Uhler and Wendeln responded to a telephone call from EAPPI. Soldiers were
keeping a group of thirty or more Palestinians from entering Tel Rumeida at
the nearby Dubboya Street checkpoint. The commander at the Yatta Road
checkpoint was letting all women through his checkpoint. Uhler mentioned
this to a Dubboya Street soldier who replied, "We have a different
commander." The soldiers refused to let the women through the gate or even
through the metal detector. Wendeln took a picture of a soldier as some
women argued with him. He told Wendeln to put the camera away. She called
the media who soon arrived. After an hour's wait, the soldiers let the
women through the gate. Then, all at once, the soldiers let the men and
boys in groups of ten or so through the gate. As the groups bypassed the
metal detector, Uhler commented to a bystander, "So much for security." He
responded, "This (the checkpoint) has nothing to do with security."
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, do NOT hit reply. Send
a message with only the word, "suspend," in the body to
server@MennoLink.org.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren
and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of
Christian denominations.
To ask questions or express concerns, criticisms and affirmations send
messages to 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 : Thu Nov 01 2007 - 09:00:53 EDT