CPTnet
May 28, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: May 19-22, 2004

Wednesday May 19, 2004
No curfew.

Kristin Anderson and Diane Janzen attended a monthly meeting organized by
members of TCAS (The Center for Agricultural Research) in Ramallah. The
organization seeks to bring together Palestinians and Internationals
interested in resisting the Israeli military's construction of the
"annexation" wall/fence.

Representatives from the villages of Biddu and Budrus described their
on-going efforts to organize and carry out nonviolent resistance to resist
further construction. They made it clear that even though they have been
successful in getting the course of the wall changed in some areas, their
struggle has not proceeded free of difficulties. The Israeli military had
injured many people and killed five. TCAS representatives committed
themselves to learning about resistance from nonviolence organizers in the
north and to build nonviolent resistance in the Hebron district.

In the morning Chris Brown and Jerry Levin, at the invitation of theHebron
Governate office, joined with representatives of Palestinian and
international organizations for a tour of several constantly threatened
small Bedouin cave villages in Area C, south of Yatta (Area C encompasses
more than 60% of the West Bank and Gaza, and has remained under complete
Israel military control as a result of the 1994 Oslo I agreement.)

While the tour group listened to an orientation in Yatta preceding the tour,
soldiers made an incursion into a nearby neighborhood. They were reportedly
trying to apprehend a militant. Two Israeli army
vehicles first prevented access to the town via the normal route. Then,
while the delayed meeting was in progress, small arms fire could be heard
close by. When the participants came out of the meeting and into the street,
they detected vestiges of tear gas, which had apparently drifted their way.

The subsequent tour introduced participants to two of the latest forms of
Israeli military harassment: the demolition of village bathrooms and the
prevention of Israeli army-approved schoolroom construction.

The Israeli army's excuse for destroying the bathrooms was that the
villagers did not have a permit to build them. But the destruction of those
bathrooms, the group learned, was actually a deliberately provocative
affront to Bedouin female dignity. According to Bedouin tradition, women
have the say-so in the placement of bathrooms and privies, while the men
have the privilege of choosing the spot where cisterns are to be dug.
Usually soldiers have destroyed the bathrooms without notice during surprise
raids on the villages. Israeli army bulldozers, guarded by soldiers, swoop
down on the villages, knock the bathrooms down, and then swiftly depart.

Because of the military's refusal to let the Bedouin build schools, their
children have to walk many extra kilometers a day to get to schools that can
accommodate them. The round-trip walk for children in one village has been
sixteen kilometers, and twenty-four at another.

Thursday, May 20, 2004.
No curfew

Anderson, Janzen, Brown, Levin, Maia Williams, Kathie Uhler, and CPT
reservists Sis Levin, Kathy Kamphoefner, and Paul Pierce went to the Israeli
Supreme Court to hear CPT lawyers argue for the lifting of the ban on Greg
Rollins reentry into Israel for "security reasons." When the hearing time of
9:30am passed and no attorneys from either side had shown up, a CPTer
contacted CPT lawyer, Jonathan Kuttab, by cell phone. Kuttab said that late
the day before (May 19th) Israeli Interior Ministry representatives asked
for a postponement of the hearing until 11:30am, May 31st.

Kuttab explained that a ministry representative made the request so that
officials, who had been deluged with e-mails and faxes on Rollins' behalf,
could have more time possibly to rethink their position on the ban.

Friday May 21, 2004 No curfew. Anderson, Janzen, Williams, Brown, Levin, and
CPT reservists Levin, Pierce, and Kamphoefner joined several busloads of
Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent peace activists from such organizations
as Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom, Bat Shalom, and Maksum Watch to protest the
brutality of the Israeli army's operations in Gaza the preceding week.
During that operation the Israeli army killed more than forty Palestinians
and destroyed scores of dwellings.

The demonstration was supposed to take place at the Sufa crossing close to
the Rafah Palestinian refugee camp, where the army's attempt to discourage
armed resistance was centered. But protest leaders said the action site was
shifted at the last minute to the Kissufim crossing, which is not quite as
close to Rafah, because of threats by Israeli police. The organizers thought
it best to take those threats seriously because of the nonviolent intent of
the demonstration.

Approximately seven hundred demonstrators walked about two and a half miles
to the crossing area where Israeli soldiers and policemen funneled them into
an area about two hundred yards from the crossing gates. After about two
hours of speeches the demonstrators suddenly surged past restraining
barriers, police, and soldiers and made their way through the crossing
gates. Police, backed by soldiers, finally halted them there.

The demonstrators stayed at that location for about forty minutes during
which time some Israeli settlers moved into the group. Some shouting and
shoving took place. Police detained six demonstrators The crowd moved back
from the crossing gate. After another hour and a half, when all the
detainees had finally been released, the demonstration ended and the
protesters headed home.