CPTnet
May 31, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: May 22-25, 2004

Saturday May 22, 2004
No curfew

Kristin Anderson, Jerry Levin, Chris Brown, and Diane Janzen met with Nafez
Assaily (Library on Wheels For Nonviolent Peace) to plan a collaborative
action. Nafez suggested organizing a "Buy in the Old City Day," which might
attract shoppers to the nearly-deserted shopping area. Over the years the
OldCity has been economically ruined because of on going Israeli settler
harassment and Israeli Army complicity in those actions, which often has
taken the form of curfews and closures.

At mid-afternoon, Kathie Uhler saw about twelve Israeli settler boys
throwing stones over the fence from Shuhada Street into the street of the
Chicken Market. An Israeli soldier chased them off.

Mary and Tony Lawrence on their way to the Beqa'a Valley came upon Israeli
soldiers detaining about twenty men in order to check their IDs near the
Ibrahimi School. The Lawrences called TIPH (Temporary International Presence
Hebron), which arrived a few minutes later to monitor the situation.

Sunday May 23, 2004
No curfew

In the late after noon, Levin accompanied two visitors (one a British
photojournalist) on a walk through the Old City. At the main intersection
before the Ibrahimi Mosque gate they encountered an Israeli army foot
patrol, which had stopped a young man driving a small tractor pulling a
small wagon full of gravel. A soldier took a shovel from the pack of another
soldier and used it to thoroughly poke down into the gravel from one end of
the wagon to the other, presumably searching for weapons. Then he passed a
metal detecting wand over the cart before letting the driver move on.

Another soldier grabbed a Palestinian teenager who happened to be passing
by, spread-eagled him face to the wall, lifted his shirt and patted him down
very thoroughly before letting him proceed.

While this was happening the photojournalist took many pictures of the
soldiers conducting their search. One soldier objected, but, when the photo
journalist showed him his press pass, the soldier shrugged and allowed him
to continue. However, later at the Beit Romano checkpoint, another soldier
objected to his taking pictures of the recently installed circular cement
guardhouse and the soldiers on duty there. When the photojournalist refused
to stop, the soldier took his press pass, and refused to give it back. Then,
when the photojournalist objected, the soldier phoned someone higher up for
instructions while the photojournalist phoned his editor for help. After
about ten minutes the soldier returned the press pass and the
photojournalist, along with the other visitor, left the area.

Monday May 24, 2004
No curfew

In the morning Chris Brown and Levin observed soldiers detaining three women
and two men at the Beit Romano checkpoint. Then in Bab iZaweyya they
followed a small Israeli army patrol as it worked its way without incident,
through the market place. About forty-five minutes later, while on their
way back from a meeting further uptown in H1 they found that Israeli
soldiers had strung razor wire across the eastern edge of the Bab iZaweyya
intersection.

At noontime, in response to a phone call, Brown went to Beit Romano
checkpoint to monitor a situation in which a Palestinian man working for an
Israeli human rights organization had been observing the detention of
several other Palestinians. The Israeli soldiers, who did not want the man
to observe the detention, took his ID, but returned it when an Israeli
official confirmed by telephone that he could continue watching. Fifty
minutes later, soldiers return the IDs of the three young men at the
checkpoint. One young man said he had been held there for five hours.

Anderson and Janzen went to the TIPH headquarters to talk to newcomers about
CPT and the work it does.

Tuesday May 25, 2004
No curfew

In the morning, Brown observed three young Palestinian men detained at Beit
Romano, while Israeli soldiers checked their IDs. He witnessed a soldier
stationed on a roof overlooking the plaza at Beit Romano shouting at the two
detainees, whereupon they lifted their shirts so that soldiers could
see that they were not concealing any weapons. The soldiers then released
the men.

At about noon Brown and Janzen on the roof of the CPT apartment observed
several Israeli army foot patrols headed toward the Ibrahimi Mosque
following an explosion. The CPTers set out to investigate. As they moved in
the direction of the explosion, they found that shops were closed, the gate
leading from the Old City to the Ibrahimi Mosque locked, and that curfew was
imposed from Kiryat Arba to and throughout the Abu Sneineh neighborhood.
Nevertheless the CPTers were able to exit the Old City through two gates and
go to the Ibrahimi Boys School. At the school they came upon several Israeli
personnel vehicles, Israeli soldiers, and Israeli border police. The CPTers
learned that a Palestinian had thrown a homemade explosive device at an
Israeli settler vehicle, and the driver had been slightly wounded.

Then, while walking towards Yatta Road, the CPTers came upon soldiers
detaining about thirty young Palestinian men. Then they saw an Israeli
military bulldozer uprooting olive trees and rosebushes in a lot across the
street from the school.

Anderson, Levin, and Uhler went to a second meeting at Nafez Assaily's
office in H1 to plan the upcoming "Buy in the Old City Day" event, with
which the incoming CPT delegation will collaborate.