CPTnet
20 October 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 1-7 October 2007
Team members during this period included Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Jessica
Frederick, Christina Gibb, Sarah Shirk, Jonathan Stucky, Kathie Uhler, Mary
Wendeln, with Matt Rasure, volunteer, and Mary Rose, guest from New Zealand
Monday 1 October 07
Hebron settlers organized events for the Festival of Sukkoth. The Mosque
area was open to Jews only, and there was an extra military presence in the
area. A large number of Jewish visitors came to Hebron. Concrete blocks
created a temporary one-way traffic route.
On school patrol, Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Jonathan
Stucky, and Mary Wendeln observed fewer Palestinian children than usual pass
through the checkpoints without incident. However, some schools closed
early.
Israeli soldiers detained some Palestinian men in the school patrol area.
The CPTers called ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and waited
until the soldiers returned most of the men's IDs.
Tuesday 2 October 2007
On mosque patrol, Benvie and Jessica Frederick observed Border Police
holding four young Palestinian men at a checkpoint. The men said the Israeli
Border Police had detained them for over an hour. Benvie attempted to talk
with a Border Police officer, who ignored her. When Benvie telephoned ICRC
and TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), the soldier picked up
the men's IDs and made a call on their radio. Within five minutes, the
soldiers returned the IDs.
Benvie and Frederick went to the Yatta Road checkpoint where Israeli
soldiers stopped everyone coming through and checked their bags. Benvie and
Frederick heard two rounds of gunfire and then a siren from the Gutnick
Center and Mosque vicinity. Israeli military vehicles rushed to the area.
Israeli Border Police made Benvie and Frederick stand at the Gutnick
checkpoint, preventing them from seeing what was happening beside the
mosque. They allowed armed members of the Hebron Israeli settler community,
including a settlement leader with a video camera, to go through. After
thirty-five minutes, many Israeli security forces departed, leaving the
Mosque checkpoint gate into the Old City closed.
Hisham Sharabati informed the team that Israeli soldiers had closed the
other entrance into the Old City, and kept it closed for two hours until
after dark.
That evening Benvie, Frederick, and translator Zleekha Muhtaseb spoke with
Palestinians to learn about the day's events at the mosque. Muhtaseb
explained that some Palestinians were afraid to tell the CPTers what
happened, for fear of encountering trouble from Israeli soldiers. However,
several spoke of a "crazy" young man who walked to the checkpoint with a
plastic gun and firecrackers, and he yelled "Allahu akbar" ("God is great.")
They said soldiers fired into the market area. A news outlet reported the
gunfire critically injured a seventeen-year-old man and wounded a
sixteen-year-old woman. One man, who had been in the mosque area at the
time, told the CPTers that Israeli authorities took him to the police
station for questioning. There, the authorities held him for several hours,
beyond the time of "iftar" (breaking the daily Ramadan fast). He said the
soldiers teased him, asking, "Have you broken the Ramadan fast yet? We
have." They then asked him if he saw what happened. He said he had not
seen anything.
Wednesday 03 October
Benvie and Stucky observed two Israeli Border Police at the Mosque
checkpoint forcing two young Palestinian men to raise their shirts to show
they had no weapons.
Benvie and Uhler met with a representative of Hebron's mayor to advocate on
behalf of a family at Wadi Al-Ghroos. The family felt the municipality
could alleviate the water shortage they face if a larger pipe replaced the
pipe carrying water from Hebron to the Wadi. Also, Uhler said the families
urged the municipality to pave the rutted dirt road they currently have to
use. The representative said he would speak with the engineers about the
water problem, but paving the road would be more difficult.
Thursday 04 October 2007
During school patrol, Wendeln met a representative from ACRI (Association
for Civil Rights in Israel). When Israeli soldiers checked the children's
backpacks, Wendeln presented them with the paper from ACRI (stating that
children should not be searched going to and from school). The soldier
crumpled it in his hand.
Friday 5 October 2007
In celebration of the International Day of Nonviolence, Joy Ellison, Eileen
Hanson, Gibb, Sarah Shirk, Stucky and Matt Rassure went to Umm Salamouna
near Bethlehem to join a nonviolent demonstration organized by Holy Land
Trust. The group of nearly fifty participants, including locals and
internationals, gathered in front of the Israeli settlement of Efrat. The
peaceful demonstration attempted to share peace messages with the
twenty-seven soldiers blocking the road to the settlement, who refused to
receive them.
Benvie, Frederick, Shirk, and Stucky spent part of the day at Issa Amro's
house near the Tel Rumeida settlement to deter attacks from settlers. No
one approached the house.
Sunday 7 October
On school patrol, Frederick and Wendeln observed Border Police at the
Gutnick Center checkpoint searching a teacher's bag. They detained him
briefly to check his ID. Then, the Border Police detained six Palestinian
men. Frederick took pictures and called the ICRC. After a half hour, they
released the men.
Gordon Janzen and Tim Freose from Mennonite Church Canada arrived for a
short stay. Mid-afternoon, a man came to CPT's apartment to report trouble
at the Beit Romano checkpoint. Benvie and Frederick, with Freose and Janzen
went to see what was happening. The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) arrested
one of the young men, aged eighteen. When CPTers arrived, they found him
handcuffed and in a holding cell. An older man arrived and spoke with the
soldiers, who soon after released the young man. Palestinians in the area
told the CPTers that two Palestinian men had been fighting and the IDF
detained one of them.
_______________
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
<http://www.cpt.org/subscribe.php>
Donate to CPT on-line with your credit card! Go to
http://cpt.org/donate.php <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