Friday, July 9, 1999
Jim Satterwhite and Joshua Yoder went to a gathering at the
rebuilt Shawamreh home for observant Jews and others who
could not make it to the main celebration on the following day. The home
had been rebuilt by ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions)
following its demolition last summer by the Israeli military. It was
complete except for the temporary plywood roof; a concrete roof would be
very difficult to remove should the home be demolished again.

A short ceremony featured speakers from ICAHD and Rabbis for Human Rights,
with Salim Shawamreh closing. The participants helped to clean and remove
leftover building materials from around the home.

Saturday, July 10, 1999
Satterwhite and Yoder met with Abdel Hadi Hantash of the Hebron Land Defense
Committee. An older man had just finished meeting with Hantash about his
land, all of which was confiscated for a highway extension to Beersheba.
Hantash also reported on 19 stop work orders issued by the Israeli military
on construction and over 1250 dunams (approximately 316 acres) of
Palestinian lands either planned for confiscation or in the process of
being confiscated in the Hebron District.

Team members went to Anata for a celebration of the newly built home of the
Shawamreh family. CPTers assisted in the rebuilding over the past year.
Around four hundred Israelis, Palestinians and internationals came to
celebrate in solidarity with the family.

Several organizations made speeches challenging Ehud Barak -- the new
Israeli Prime Minister -- to bring an end to home
demolitions, and expressed their hopes for a just peace and
coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. (See forthcoming CPTnet
release The House that Peace Built.")

Tuesday, July 13, 1999
The team discussed possibilities for intervention at Abdel Jawad Jaber's
home where the expansion of Harsina settlement is causing significant
problems for the family. A large retaining wall currently being built is
planned to go over part of the home -- a cave that the family settled in
over one hundred years ago. The family continues to use the cave as a
kitchen and storage room. They fear that if the wall is completed, the cave
will collapse, possibly even destroying the whole home. The heavy machinery
and dynamite blasts have already cracked and broken windows in the home and
caused some of the plaster to fall off the cave ceiling.

Wednesday, July 14, 1999
On night patrol, Shady Hakim and Yoder observed soldiers
detaining a Palestinian youth known for being something of a
troublemaker. He had been detained for at least one hour. Some
Palestinian onlookers jokingly told the CPTers, "You are here
against the Israeli Occupation right? Well this guy deserves to be
detained. He cursed and provoked the soldiers and made them angry . . .
Listen. We keep telling him to keep still for just 5 minutes so that they
will let him go, but he continues to curse and provoke them. If I come to
you and greet you, and you detain me, then this is wrong. But if I come and
curse you for no reason, then of course you will be angry. See, you guys
think that the Israelis are oppressors here. But I ll tell you that most
Palestinians are doing fine. It is the Israelis who are oppressed because
they have to deal with us! When they run into someone like him, they are
miserable. You must also tell people how this youth makes the Israelis
miserable. "

When Hakim and Yoder talked to the youth he said "Leave me
alone. I am fine here and I don t need you to do anything for me."

Thursday, July 15, 1999
Jim Satterwhite returned from Anata where he had spent the night at the
Shawamreh home in case there was an attempt to demolish it. On his way home
to Hebron, at the Jerusalem checkpoint, Satterwhite witnessed soldiers
stopping Palestinian taxis and checking passengers' ID card numbers.
Soldiers are given incentive to check Palestinian ID cards because whenever
they match a number with one on their black list, they are rewarded with
extra days of military leave; the system is locally known as Bingo.

Hakim, Mark Frey and Eric Frey (Mark Frey's brother, a volunteer with
Mennonite Voluntary Service in Manitoba) visited the Muslim side of the
Ibrahimi Mosque (traditional burial site of Abraham and Sarah). Hakim was
questioned about whether he was Christian or Muslim for security purposes,
even though people of both faiths are allowed into the Mosque side of the
structure.

In the afternoon, most of the team visited with Abdel Jawad
Jaber s family in the Beqa'a. Jawdi and Yassir, Abdel Jawad's
sons, described Israeli policy in the West Bank as one of cowardice and
fear, like a man who is paranoid and does irrational things: "The policy
does not look to the future at all. The colonies [illegal settlements] are
unsustainable and must get water piped in from outside."

Yassir told of his years working in Jerusalem and his relationships with
Jewish acquaintances, who even though they had visited and knew him
personally, still feared and distrusted him.

The team walked through the confiscated Jaber land where construction of
expanding Harsina settlement continues. Towards the end of the visit, Abdel
Jawad told Hakim, " You know, years ago, this was a very beautiful place to
live. You
couldn't ask for anything more. It was heaven, paradise. You
would just sit on top of the hill [now a construction site] amongst the
trees and flowers, and you didn't need anything else. It was so beautiful .
. . heaven. But now . . . what can we do?"

On a night patrol of Hebron, Yoder, Natasha Krahn and Eric Frey
noticed a group of nearly 30 settlers near the settlement of Beit Hadassah.
About fifteen soldiers were gathered in an area,
apparently beating someone. When CPTers tried to get closer,
some of the settler youth held them back and would not let them approach.
One of the settler women was trying to video tape members of the team while
others were shouting, "Go home . . . Go back to Auschwitz, Nazis" in the
CPTers' faces.

Frey and Krahn used their cameras to draw the settler's attention away
from the soldiers. The CPTers saw that the soldiers had been beating two
Palestinian men who were later arrested. (See forthcoming CPTnet release, A
Strange, Familiar Place. )

Saturday, July 17, 1999
Hakim, Satterwhite and Yoder visited with Hani Abu Heikel, a long-time
friend of CPT who lives right next to Tel Rumeida settlement. Hani told
CPTers that he respected their work and the fact that their presence bears
witness to the injustices of the Hebron occupation. He also reported that
he has regular confrontations with settlers who are forcibly trying to
confiscate more land on Tel Rumeida.

Monday,