Hebron / al-Khalil

About CPT Hebron/al-Khalil

At the invitation of the Hebron municipality, CPTers set up a project in 1995 to address assaults by Israeli settlers and soldiers on Palestinians in the months before the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  In subsequent years, the team’s focus has included the Israeli military confiscation of Palestinian land, demolition of Palestinian homes, and the violence stemming from the Second Intifada.

Hebron/Al-Khalil (map) is located 30 km (19 mi) south of Jerusalem, and is home to around 165,000 Palestinians, as well as 500 Israeli settlers concentrated in Hebron’s Old City. 

The Oslo 2 Hebron protocol partitioned Hebron/Al-Khalil into two distinct zones, H1 and H2.  H1 is administered by the Palestinian Authority and contains 120,000 Palestinians.  In H2, which includes  the heart of Hebron's Old City, the Israeli military restricts the movement of more than 30,000 Palestinians while allowing 500 Jewish settlers to move freely.

CPT maintains an active nonviolent presence in the H2 zone of Hebron/Al-Khalil focusing on accompaniment, documentation, and human rights reporting. 

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HEBRON REFLECTION:  They left their mark everywhere

Her dropped head, her clasped hands, her sad face continue to haunt me.  I ask myself how anyone could endure this kind of pain, especially a mother.

I sat in a stupefied silence as the fifty-six-year-old woman told us about the invasion of her home last October.  Soldiers had awakened the family and their relatives next door by banging on the door at 12:00 a.m.  They then ordered the families out of their homes, locked the women and young children in the shop next door, handcuffed and blindfolded the men and adolescent boys, and told them stand in front of a shop.  

In the next twelve hours, the Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinian men accused of killing four settlers.  Afterwards soldiers entered the same house, although neighbors said the family had no connection to the killings, shot randomly into the bed, through the blankets, under the bed, into the windows, doors, and table.  I wept within when the mother pointed out a beautiful blanket meant to be a wedding gift for one of the sons and his wife, now riddled with bullet holes.

The aggression did not end there.  While forty to fifty military vehicles blocked the streets outside, two bulldozers demolished the part of the house where a newly married son lived with his wife.   They then destroyed another part of the complex prepared for another son soon to be married.  Furniture and remains of furniture now hung from the skeletal frameworks, where once a multi-family building stood.

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AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) REFLECTION: Darkness cannot drive out darkness

February 7th, 2012
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Hebron’s Old City has one main street.  It connects the Ibrahimi Mosque to Bab il Balideyya, an open square next to the Beit Romano settlement and military base.  Along this cobblestone road, narrower streets branch off, meandering deeper into the Old City, intersecting with other less trafficked alleys.  At night, the Old City is dark, with only the main road lit, and there, only in scattered places.

AL-KHALIL/HEBRON:Three Stories of Resistance on Martin Luther King Day in Hebron

January 20th, 2012
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Undeterred by heavily armed border police at the Qitoun checkpoint that CPTers monitor because schoolchildren and teachers must walk through it, the teenager who sells ka'ak (a chewy sesame bread) argues with soldiers every morning until they finally unlock the gate to the checkpoint and let him and his cart through. On Martin Luther King Day, however, they were ignoring him, so he finally walked back over to the gate, picked up a rock, broke the padlock, and pushed his cart through. The Border Police pushed him back and locked the gate. Another day, another time, they could have beaten him up or arrested him as has happened many times to young men his age in Hebron, and he must have known that, but he was literally determined to go about his business.

AL-KHALIL(HEBRON) ACTION ALERT: Pray that dismantling of the outpost in al-Bowereh will not result in “price-tag” attacks or home demolitions.

January 17th, 2012
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On the night of 11 January 2012, the Israeli military demolished the outpost settlement that overlooks the neighborhood of al-Bowereh on the northeastern edge of al-Khalil/Hebron. Often in the past, when the Israeli military has demolished outposts (including this particular outpost), settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians, their homes, and animals in what Israelis refer to as “price tag” attacks.  In recent months, settlers have also attacked Israeli soldiers tasked with carrying out the dismantling of outpost settlements, the building of which is illegal under both Israeli and international law.

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Soldiers beat and arrest two teenagers in Hebron

January 16th, 2012
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On 12 January 2012 at 5:20pm, Israeli soldiers forcibly entered the Zaru family home near the Qitoun checkpoint in al-Khalil (Hebron), assaulting the mother and two sons. The invasion was a result of an earlier encounter between the soldiers and Anas, the older of the sons, age 18 and developmentally disabled. That morning, Anas was coming home through the Qitoun checkpoint after refilling the cooking gas tank for the household. When he tried to enter the door of the checkpoint corridor, the soldiers closed it. He knocked repeatedly on the door until the soldiers shouted at him, “Why are you knocking?”

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) REFLECTION: Welcoming the Enemy

January 10th, 2012
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“CPT!  CPT!  Come, come!  The soldiers have a man!”  Her voice startled me.  Jean, Rosie, and I had been on afternoon patrol, but I had lagged behind to look at a few shops in Hebron’s Old City.  Though I did not know the woman requesting my presence, she knew who I was because of my red hat and gray vest bearing the Christian Peacemaker Team logo.  I was alone, inexperienced in the field. 

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Palestine / Israel delegation - APPLY TODAY!!! Tue, 03/13/2012 Mon, 03/26/2012
Palestine / Israel delegation Tue, 05/22/2012 Mon, 06/04/2012
Palestine / Israel delegation Wed, 07/04/2012 Mon, 07/16/2012
Palestine / Israel delegation Tue, 10/02/2012 Mon, 10/15/2012
Palestine / Israel delegation Tue, 11/06/2012 Mon, 11/19/2012

About CPT Hebron

The Work of CPT in Hebron/Al-Khalil

 

CPT maintains an active nonviolent presence in the H2 (Old City) zone of Hebron/Al-Khalil in addition to providing accompaniment to various communities in the greater Hebron/Al-Khalil region. Our work includes:

An Active Nonviolent Presence: CPT maintains a presence in the H2 area of Hebron in an effort to deter violence and to decrease the incidents of harassment and mistreatment.  CPT conducts daily patrols in areas in and around the Old City where there is a heavy presence of the Israeli military and Israeli settlers.  

Accompaniment: In addition to a continuous presence in the H2 (Old City) area of Hebron/Al-Khalil, CPT also provides accompaniment for communities in the Hebron Governate, such as the neighborhood of Al-Bweireh and Al-Beqa'a Valley, among others.  CPT provides accompaniment to schoolchildren in H2 and Al-Bweireh who are subject to searches and harassment as they pass through Israeli checkpoints and walk near Israeli settlements.  CPT also accompanies farmers in outlying areas who face land confiscation, harassment, and property damage.

Projects and Activities: At times, CPT focuses on specific projects to respond to crises or to support important initiatives proposed by the local community and Palestinian and Israeli peace and human rights groups.  Some of ongoing activities include visits to homes at risk of demolition and to areas facing land confiscation; visits to schools and civil society representatives to introduce CPT and its daily activities to local people,and regular meetings with a representative and diverse advisory committee comprising Palestinians from Hebron/Al-Khalil.

Documentation and Promoting Awareness: In hopes of increasing awareness of the situation in Hebron/Al-Khalil, CPTers photograph, videotape, and document violent incidents and human rights violations as they occur.  Through regular reports and releases, the team provides regular updates to CPT’s worldwide network as well as to local and international media.

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