CPTnet
April 24, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: April 7-18, 2004

Wednesday, April 7
No curfew

Jerry Levin, David Janzen, Cal Carpenter and Lorne Friesen did school
patrol in the morning. They found an increased Israeli military presence in
the streets. More buildings were occupied by the army in the area of the
Ibrahimi Mosque. A large contingent of Israeli soldiers was stationed near
the Ibrahimi school. The schools were open and the soldiers allowed students
to pass.

Israeli soldiers forced shops in the old city to close early, at about 1pm,
to allow Israeli tourists to wander through. They also prevented access to
the Old City for several hours during these tours.

Thursday, April 8
No curfew

Levin, Janzen, Mary Lawrence and Friesen did school patrol. Children were
able to attend. Janzen and Levin saw Israeli border police detaining ten
Palestinian men for nearly an hour.

Friday, April 9
No curfew

Saturday, April 10
No curfew

Genie and Bill Durland, Cathy Mclean, and Janzen saw many Border Police
jeeps and Border Police detaining several men during school patrol.
Palestinian boys threw some stones and some Border Police threatened the
teachers that they would arrest all the boys if they threw any more stones.

Sun. April 11
No curfew

Dianne Roe, JoAnne Lingle, and the Durlands visited Beit Ummar on the way
back to Hebron from Easter services. On the way out of Beit Ummar they
passed Israeli soldiers detaining six to eight men. They engaged the men and
the soldiers in conversation for a while and then decided that their
presence was not being helpful so they continued to Hebron.

On returning to Hebron the team heard from friends that Israeli settlers had
occupied the Al Akqtab mosque near Avraham Avinu in Hebron. The settlers had
thrown out prayer rugs and the Holy Quran and moved in chairs desks and
pictures of Jewish rabbis. Israeli soldiers later removed the settlers.

Monday, April 12
No Curfew

The team traveled with Abdel Hadi Hantash of the Hebron Land Defense
Committee to the southern Hebron district. They visited the Hathalin
Bedouin near the Karmel settlement. There are ten new caravans at the
settlement and Israeli settlers have cleared and graded l Hathalin land
outside the settlement fence for ten new housing units.

The team also visited a village near the settlement of Ma'on. One of the
men of the village pointed out the route that the Israeli Civil
Administration says the wall will take in the area. This village should be
on the Palestinian side of the wall and so should its agricultural land. On
the way home Israeli soldiers stopped the taxi that the team was in, took
the Palestinian driver's ID and made the van follow their jeep. A little
further up the road they stopped and checked everyone's passports. Then the
soldiers gave the van a thorough search. One of the soldiers then apologized
for the disturbance and told the team that Palestinian vehicles are not
allowed on the road.

Tuesday April 13
No curfew

At 10 am Israeli soldiers came and ordered the shop across from the CPT
apartment to close. Carpenter and Janzen tried to talk to the soldier at the
outpost on the roof about the order but he would not respond.

Lingle and Roe visited a Palestinian family in the apartment building next
to the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu. The family has a son at Indiana
University whom Lingle visits when she is in the states. Only two families
remain in the building. They would leave if they could but they have no
where to go.

Roe and Lingle went with MaryLou Smith, a friend of the team, to visit Hope
Flowers School in Al Khader village. The school, which was founded with the
vision of Jewish, Christian and Muslim students studying together, has
dwindled in enrollment since the beginning of the Intifada. The cafeteria
and all of the homes near it are under demolition orders. Smith is working
with lawyers to try to get the orders rescinded.

Wednesday April 14
No curfew

Roe spoke to friend in Beit Ummar who related that Israeli soldiers have
been entering homes and interrogating villagers. The previous day, the
Israeli soldiers had interrogated the friend's neighbor's daughter.

Thursday April 15
No curfew

Dianne Roe visited with a Palestinian friend of the team who has done
translation for CPT in the past on the occasion of his son's first birthday.
Since Israeli soldiers shot his brother in Bab IZaweyya in 2000 he has been
afraid to enter the area.

Friday, April 16
No curfew

Carpenter and Roe visited Wadi Ghroos, a valley between the settlements of
Israeli Harsina and Kiryat Arba.

As Roe and Carpenter walked toward Wadi Ghroos They met members of the Idris
family who live near Kiryat Arba. A half hour earlier Kiryat Arba settlers
had attacked their fourteen-year-old nephew. Israeli police intervened and
took the nephew to the settlement for medical treatment.

Also on the way Carpenter and Roe passed the settlement outpost near Kiryat
Arba that has been the site of conflict between the Israeli military and
settlers as the Army attempts to dismantle it. Israeli soldiers and police
were observing a gathering of Israeli settlers there from across the road.

In Wadi Ghroos, Roe and Carpenter saw that the new road that Kiryat Arba is
constructing had been graded in the past few days. The road looks like those
built in other settlements that follow the perimeter of "security fences"
designed to confiscate Palestinian land. Palestinian farmers in the valley
told Carpenter and Roe that the Kiryat Arba authorities have already denied
them access to the land on the side of the road.

While in Wadi Ghroos, Roe and Carpenter visited with three Palestinian
families who talked about the hardships they are experiencing now. In the
past, the valley was famous for its grapes and they were shipped all over
the Middle East. Now, the farmers cannot even get them into the city of
Hebron. The farmers leave most of them on the vines because it is a loss of
labor to harvest them. The people face great difficulties when they travel
to work and school because of road closures and harassment at checkpoints.
Humanitarian aid groups have had problems getting access to the people of
the wadi for the same reasons.

Saturday, April 17
No curfew

Roe and a visiting journalist joined Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in
Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) people in a visit to Qurtuba Elementary Girls
School. (See forthcoming release, "