CPTnet
March 25, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: March 5-22, 2004

March 5
No Curfew

Cal Carpenter, Nathan Bender, Maia Williams and Kathy Kapenga joined Rabbis
for Human Rights for tree planting in the villages of Biddu, Beit Surik and
Qatana, northwest of Jerusalem to call attention to Palestinian farmland
that Israel's "security" wall will cut off from its owners.

A friend in Beit Ummar told Roe that a large explosion in the area had
injured an Israeli settler woman. Israeli soldiers put Beit Ummar and Arrub
Refugee Camp under curfew which lasted for four days. Israeli bulldozers
arrived and destroyed several acres of Palestinian vineyards and fruit
trees.

March 6
No curfew

Mark Frey and Cal Carpenter observed as a group of about twenty young
settler women, accompanied by six soldiers, walked up and down the road to
the settlement of Kiryat Arba. The young women entered the yards of
Palestinian families despite the fact that the soldiers told them not to.
The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) documented the
trespassing.

March 7
No curfew

Friesen and Frey did an afternoon street patrol with a French film crew.
Upon returning they discovered that someone had stolen the film crew's bag
with expensive equipment and money from the team's apartment.

March 9
No curfew

Friesen, Kapenga and Burke accompanied two Hebron Mental Health Project
employees to a kindergarten in the Old City near the Tomb
of the Patriarchs. After Israeli soldiers denied them access to the direct
route, they found another way. Employees at the kindergarten described
numerous incidents of harassment by the IDF. Enrollment has dropped from 85
students to 15-20.

The staff also has experienced difficulty in reaching the kindergarten
because the Israeli soldiers have restricted movement in the vicinity of the
Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Roe and Kapenga responded to a call from Beit Ummar from a Palestinian
family whose home soldiers had searched in the middle of the night. They
forced the family to stand outside in their night clothes for two hours
while the soldiers beat a family member in his 20's. Soldiers also arrested
other young men from the town.

March 11
No curfew

CPTers joined the children of the Old City on the playground. Roe did
portrait sketches and others entertained the youth. The playground
activities are organized by a Palestinian friend of the team who has
provided community- building experiences for the people of Hebron's Old City
for many years.

CPT members received word from a family in Beit Ummar that soldiers took
fifteen young men from the village in two days and held without charges in
Gush Etzion.

Friesen and Frey visited a home in Abu Sneineh Quarter. This home
overlooks Shuhada Street and has been the scene of much shooting. Families
in the neighborhood and the local school have closed their windows with
concrete blocks to prevent Israeli gunfire from hitting residents within the
buildings.

March 12
No curfew

The French film crew continued to document the work of CPT by accompanying
them in their various duties.

March 13
No curfew

"Um Ahmed," a former neighbor, visited the CPT apartment. Over a year ago
the Israeli military installed a fence at the entrance to the chicken market
area of the Old City and closed off the doors of dwellings and shops on
Shuhada Street. The door to Um Ahmad's home is outside the fence. The
Israeli military declared her home a closed military area. She and her
husband and children now live in one room outside the old city. She has
asked for help from the Red Cross, CPT, and TIPH (Temporary International
Presence in Hebron) to get permission to return to her home.

Roe joined two members of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Project in
Palestine and Israel) to escort Palestinian elementary school girls from
Qurtuba School. Four Israeli settler men and one youth got in the middle of
the group of Palestinian children. When Roe photographed them, one of the
settler men threatened her with his gun and the settler youth grabbed at her
camera. Israeli soldiers in a jeep proceeded up the hill and protecting Roe
from a further settler attack. The escort continued without further
incident.

March 15
No curfew

Kathy Kapenga attended a lecture on the Wall by Prof. Abu Salaeh of Abu Dis
University, sponsored by the General Union of Palestinian women in Hebron.
The lecture was followed by a bus tour of the route that the Wall would take
through Hebron.

March 16
 No curfew

Lorne Friesen and two members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in
Palestine and Israel(EAPPI) visited the museum in Beit
Hadassah. The museum is a memorial to the 67 Jewish residents of Hebron
massacred in 1929 by a Palestinian mob. Palestinian neighbors and friends
provided refuge for more than 400 Jewish Hebronites during the riots.

CPT participated in a memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the
death of Rachel Corrie in Beit Ummar.

March 18
 No curfew

Dianne Roe and Friesen and a CPT friend from Beit Ummar met the Canadian
Political Affairs Officer and Trade Commissioner, Alistair Wallbaum and gave
him a tour of the Old City.

Cal Carpenter and Kapenga observed soldiers detaining two teenaged
Palestinian boys. After a half hour, an Israeli police jeep arrived to take
them away. The police officer told the CPTers that the boys had a knife and
no identity cards. Kapenga took the boys' names and made calls to notify
their families.

William Burke, Carpenter and Kapenga received a request from a Palestinian
family for assistance in rebuilding two homes demolished by the Israeli
army. The team forwarded the information to Rebuilding Homes, an Israeli
organization which provides
assistance to Palestinian who have lost homes to demolitions.

March 19
No curfew

When Burke and Kapenga were on patrol in H2, they were heard the story of a
man recently released from prison who suffers from severe bouts of anger.
Later they heard Palestinian boy from the Ibrahimiya School express
appreciation to members of Temporary International Presence in Hebron(TIPH)
and the Israeli police for helping them evacuate their school after the
recent earthquake.

March 20
No curfew

Dianne Roe and JoAnne Lingle joined three busloads of Israeli women going to
meet Palestinian women in Salfit to demonstr