CPTnet
September 8, 2001
HEBRON: CPTers Anne Montgomery and Kathleen Kern attacked by mob of settler
boys

[Note: If you have not yet responded to CPT's August 27 Urgent Action
against settler violence, now would be a good time to do so. You may use
details from the release below in your letters or faxes. Please note that the American
Ambassador to Israel is Daniel Kurtzer, not Danielle Kurtzer.]

At approximately 7:00 pm on September 6, 2001 a Palestinian friend of the
Hebron team called to tell them that her brother was being detained at a
checkpoint near the back entrance of the Israeli settlement of Avraham
Avinu. Not seeing the young man as they approached, Kathleen Kern called the
friend who told her that settlers were attacking. Just as she was saying,
"They're coming; they're coming!" the phone went dead and a soldier at the
checkpoint demanded that the two CPTers show their passports.

A group of 10-12 settler boys, ranging in ages approximately from 7 to 12
years old then ran at the two women, shouting "F--- you" and as well
phrases in Hebrew. As they began picking up small stones and throwing
them at the women, the two CPTers asked the soldiers to call the
police. The soldiers just laughed and made ineffectual attempts to stop
the boys from throwing stones, water, and sand at the women. One of the
boys came around the back of the concrete blocks where the women had sought
protection and began hitting Kern with a rod made of some light metal.
Since the soldiers were not calling the police, Kern called the U.S.
Consulate in Jerusalem and an Israeli friend and asked them to do so.

When the police finally approached the two older boys most responsible for
the assault ran into Avraham Avinu. The remaining boys turned their
attentions on the police officers and began grabbing for the video camera
of one officer who was taping them. The boys continued to caper around the
van, laughing and taunting the police officers and yelling "Naziim,"
Naziim" at the two women until the van pulled away.

The women filed complaints at the police station across from the Israeli
settlement of Kiryat Arba and were released around 9:15 pm. The friend who
had originally called for help told CPTers she had escaped from the
settlers without injury, but that the soldiers who had detained her brother
had physically abused him and taken away his ID (without which
Palestinians cannot walk outside their homes.)