CPTnet
8 October 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 16-24 September 2007
On team during this period were Team Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Christina
Gibb, John Lynes, Kathie Uhler, Mary Wendeln, and Mary Rose, guest from New
Zealand.
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."
Sunday 16 September
John Lynes, Mary Rose and Mary Wendeln went on school patrol at the Ibrahimi
Mosque and the Yatta Road checkpoints. The CPTers heard gunshots from Old
City Hebron which they learned later was were the result of a feud between
extended Palestinian families. Immediately the Israeli military closed the
Yatta Road checkpoint, preventing some teachers from attending school. The
headmaster of the Ibrahimiyye Boys School pleaded with the soldiers to no
avail.
Wendeln left the area, returned, and found an Israeli settler with a gun
using his cell phone. Wendeln called Lynes for backup. The settler told
Lynes that he was protecting the children. Lynes convinced him to leave the
area. Wendeln and Lynes entered the souq as the soldiers closed the Mosque
gates preventing anyone from entering or leaving the Old City.
In the evening, the feud between two Palestinian clans erupted in earnest,
and a soldier, intervening in the clash, shot and killed a young Palestinian
man.
Monday 17 September
The principal of Tariq Ibn Zahid Boys Secondary School had decided to close
the school for the day, until the tensions from the shooting had died down.
Therefore, the soldiers at the Yatta Road checkpoint were stopping Tariq Ibn
Zahid students from going through. The Al Fayha'a Girls School decided to
close too, and all the girls went home. Meanwhile all the other schools
appeared to be open.
Around noon, Lynes went to guard Issa Amro's (of Palestinian International
Solidarity Movement) new home in Tel Rumeida from Israeli settler intrusion.
During the afternoon, Lynes and Uhler patrolled in the neighborhood of the
Ibrahimi Mosque. Lynes stayed with Amro while Israeli Border Police
detained him, first at the Gutnick Center checkpoint where an Israeli
soldier shoved them both. At the Mosque checkpoint an Israeli Border
Policeman hit Amro.
Tuesday 18 September
Uhler and Wendeln left for two days at the Monastery of Our Lady of the
Assumption in Bet Gemal, near Bet Shemesh in Israel. Uhler inquired of the
extern sister the status of their property, since the Israeli government has
made it known to them that it wants to buy their land. When the sisters
refused to sell this past year, someone planted a bomb on the farmland next
door, owned by the Salesian Fathers and Brothers. A man driving a tractor
over the trip wire detonated the bomb.
On Ash Wednesday, 2007, two masked gunmen walked into the sisters' church
after Mass and demanded money. A sister told the men they had no money. The
extern sister told Uhler, "All the sisters remained silent and recollected
throughout this ordeal." A guest in the gallery called the Israeli police on
a cellphone, and the police captured the gunmen as they left the monastery.
The extern sister said the decision was in the hands of the Salesians, from
whom the Israeli government also wants to buy land. Since the Salesian land
adjoins the sisters', if they sell to the Israelis, she said, the land could
be used for purposes that would be contrary to the monastic spirit of
silence and prayer. In that case, the sisters would have to leave or sell,
as well. For photos of the monastery, go to
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/hebron <http://www.cpt.org/gallery/hebron> .
Gibb and Rose on school patrol found an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) jeep
parked with its engine running at the Yatta Road checkpoint. Six soldiers
were at the checkpoint and were still all there when the CPTers left
forty-five minutes later at 8:00 a.m. Soldiers checked the bags of all boys
over (about) 10-year-old. However, the soldiers did not detain anyone or
turn anyone back. Ibrahammiyye and Al Fayha'a schools were open as usual.
The soldiers said the increased security related to the shooting of two
nights ago. Later, two members of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme
of Palestinians in Israel) came to the CPT apartment and said there was a
similar increased military presence at the Dubboya Street checkpoint where
they monitor the nearby Qurtuba School.
Wednesday 19 September
The whole Mosque area was open for Jewish people only. Israeli Border
Police closed the Mosque gate but schools were open. During school patrol,
a civilian police jeep stopped by Al Fayha'a School and an officer told Jan
Benvie and Gibb that the whole area was a closed military zone for
internationals until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday. Initially polite, he did not
like them questioning the order, but did show it to them, in Hebrew, with a
photocopy of a map of Hebron. He said they could not be anywhere in the Old
City. When they said that they lived there, he told them to go home and
stay there under curfew. As it was nearly 8:00 a.m. and almost all children
were in school, they walked slowly home.
Rose and Gibb patrolled the souq at midday, without meeting any soldiers,
and joined EAPPI at the "Hanthala" (Arabic for "resistance") café,
established by Hisham Sharabati in March 2007 at the Beit Romano checkpoint.
The newly appointed Middle East Coordinator of US Church World Aid was there
with the EAPPIers, and was very interested in the work of CPT.
Thursday 20 September
Benvie and Lynes observed soldiers detain four teachers from the Ibrahimiyye
Boys' School at the Gutnick Center checkpoint. The teachers had teacher
passes as well as their Hebron IDs. Lynes called TIPH (Temporary
International Presence in Hebron). After the soldiers held the men for
twenty minutes, Benvie called the Red Cross, who said they would call the
commander. TIPH arrived and spoke with the Border Police. The head teacher
came to the checkpoint a few minutes later and complained to the Border
Police. Following the confrontation, the police released the teachers.
When Benvie and Lynes went on noon patrol, they saw Israeli soldiers forcing
open some of the closed shops inside the tunnel, between the entrance beside
the Mosque checkpoint and the turnstile gates. When the two returned in the
afternoon, the soldiers had welded the doors closed again.
Friday 21 September
Benvie and Gibb went to an action at Al Walaja, near Bethlehem, where the
Israeli army is installing part of the Wall. Palestinians from the village
committee organized the event and were joined by other Palestinians,
Israelis, and internationals. The village committee said that part of the
land belonged to the nearby Cremisan monastery of the Salesian Order. They
understood the monastery had agreed that the Israeli authorities could use
part of the monastery's land for the Wall. In return, the monastery would
be located on the Israeli side of the Wall. The village committee invited
the monastery to join them in a court action calling for the relocation of
the Wall, but the monastery declined.
The Palestinians, Israelis and internationals walked from the village along
the route of the Wall, a sandy "road" that Israeli bulldozers cut through an
ancient forest. In some places, the route of the Wall will be within twenty
feet of family homes. The forest is a popular area where local people (from
Bethlehem and Beit Jala) come. The action continued with the removal of a
roadblock, consisting of large boulders and earth, from the route. The
activists could see the Israeli military some distance away, but the
soldiers made no attempt to stop the action.
Saturday 22 September
Benvie and Wendeln went on noon patrol. The soldiers closed the Mosque gate
because it was Yom Kippur and the mosque/synagogue was for Jewish worship
only.
Louisa Waugh, a journalist working with Palestine Monitor in Ramallah, and a
friend of Benvie's, visited the apartment with two friends. Benvie took them
on a rooftop tour. Gibb joined them and they walked through part of the Old
City.
After seeing the group off, the CPTers walked around the area beside the
Gutnick Center and noticed many soldiers in the area. When they returned to
the souq, they saw a dozen or so Israeli soldiers, including the camp
commander, in the area.
Uhler, with Zleekha Muhtaseb translating, returned for a visit to the
extended Palestinian family with whom Uhler did a home stay in Wadi Al
Ghroos. A family spokesperson told them about the lack of water in the
Wadi, and that the family had decided not to pursue getting water from the
Israeli army base there, as another family did two weeks ago. (See September
17, CPTnet release, "HEBRON: Water from the Israeli army.") The
spokesperson said he wanted CPT to go to the mayor of Hebron to present two
requests on their behalf: 1) Pave the bumpy road leading into the Wadi; 2)
Replace the 1/2" water pipe with a 1" (at least) pipe that conducts water
from the Hebron municipality into the Wadi.
Sunday 23 September During school Patrol, Wendeln noticed a group of
Palestinian boys saying something provocative to two Israeli settler boys on
their way to the synagogue. One of the settler boys threw a white plastic
bag at the Palestinians. Wendeln stepped in between the two groups of
boys--the same who had had an altercation on September 22, and they
dispersed.
Monday 24 September
The merchant whose shop is between the barriers outside the CPT apartment
door on the opposite side of the street, came to ask CPT for help in
claiming compensation from the Israeli army for the fire there on 17 July.
The army had prevented the municipality fire engines from coming to his
shop. The shopkeeper gave Benvie and Gibb the keys for his shop so they
could photograph the interior. However, they were unable to unlock the
doors.
Gibb and Wendeln saw a few men detained at the Gutnick Center during the
late afternoon patrol. An army jeep was moving between Kiryat Arba (Israeli
settlement) and the Mosque all the time, because preparations for the
Israeli feast of Succoth were underway in the Mosque grounds, with tents
going up and cars arriving with palm branches.
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