CPTnet
June 5, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: May 26-June 2, 2004

Wednesday May 26, 2004
No curfew

Sometime after 10:30 am, Chris Brown, Kathie Uhler, and Jerry Levin observed
an Israeli soldier mistreating a young Palestinian detainee at the Beit
Romano checkpoint. The soldier shouted angrily at the detainee because
apparently he had resisted an order to squat against a wall, while his ID
was checked. The soldier then ordered him to stand spread-eagled, face to
the wall. When he slumped a bit, the soldier pushed him roughly from the
back against the wall in order to get him to straighten up.

The team called TIPH and the monitors arrived at about 11:00am just as other
soldiers ordered the CPTers away from the detainees with whom they had been
talking.

Brown, Levin, and Uhler then proceeded to Nafez Assaily's LOWNP (Library on
Wheels for Nonviolent Peace) to discuss details regarding the "Buy in the
Old City" event being planned for June 3rd. Brown and Levin, who made a
count earlier in the morning, reported that of the approximately 500 shops
in the inner city area to be included in the event only 75 shops had opened.
The major inducement to shop there, the organizers decided, would be a
drawing for a new refrigerator donated by LOWNP.

On her way to Jerusalem, Kristin Anderson noted that Israeli soldiers and
Border Police had been stationed at all roads leading into and out of Hebron
and were preventing Palestinians from entering or leaving. Late in the
afternoon, Levin could only get from Hebron to Bethlehem in a service taxi
which first had to detour a few miles to the south through the village of
Dura before changing directions and heading north.

Thursday, May 27, 2004
No curfew

In the morning, due to the Israeli closures, CPTers Sis and Jerry Levin
coming to Hebron via the Al-Khader dirt barricades south of Bethlehem had to
take a service taxi which let its passengers out about a quarter of a mile
north of the Gush Etzion checkpoint. After that, they caught a service taxi
to Halhoul, crossed the overpass over Highway 35 on foot, and caught another
service taxi to Bab iZaweyya.

In the afternoon a six-person Israeli army patrol stopped. Anderson and
Janzen and demanded their IDs. After checking them, the soldiers let them
pass. Another foot patrol followed close behind. Later a Palestinian woman
friend of CPT's told the CPTers that Israeli army patrols now often include
at least one woman soldier carrying a metal detector wand. The women
soldiers had been stopping Palestinian women walking through the Old City
and obliging them to undergo body searches involving the wand being passed
over their bodies from head to foot. (See June 2 release, "What is 'haram?')

Friday May 28, 2004
No curfew

Levin led a group from Germany to the Duboyya checkpoint. As he described
the situation along Shuhada Street on the other side of the checkpoint, an
Israeli army patrol, returning from a search mission in Bab iZaweyya came up
to the group. An English-speaking soldier asked where the group was from and
what it was doing. Levin explained the origin of the group and said he had
been showing them conditions in Hebron, especially in the Old City. Another
soldier said something in Hebrew to the first soldier. Levin said that he
only spoke English, to which the Hebrew speaking soldier in very good
English said, "If I wanted you to understand what I was saying, I would have
spoken to you in English."

Levin replied, "Have it your way. You are the man with the gun." The soldier
pulled his knife out of a sheath and pointed it at Levin, and said angrily,
"What about this?" Levin replied, "You're the man with the knife too."

Later as Levin led the group into the Old City in order to introduce them to
a friend living at the other end, they came upon an Israeli army patrol
headed for the Chicken Market, where the CPT apartment is located. Levin
called Diane Janzen at the apartment and alerted her. Then he asked the
group to follow him as he trailed after the soldiers. They caught up with
the patrol just as it reached the entrance to the CPT apartment. Instead of
starting up the steps, the soldiers stopped to question the group as to what
they were doing and where they from. The leader of the soldiers demanded to
see everyone's "identification," which in their case meant passports. Levin
was exempted, apparently, because his red CPT cap was identification enough.

A few minutes later, as Diane Janzen talked to the group in the meeting
space in the men's apartment, the same patrol came up the stairs. The
soldiers performed a search of each room, which was more of a walk-through
than an exhaustive examination. As they approached the women's apartment on
the floor above, Kristin Anderson was at the door. They conducted a quick
search of the women's space. After they left, Anderson reported to the other
CPTers that some of the soldiers apologized for what they were doing. "It is
our job," some of the soldiers said. The entire episode lasted about ten
minutes.

Saturday May 29, 2004
No curfew

In the morning Maia Williams, Uhler, Brown, and Levin went to the LOWNP
office for another planning session for the "Buy in the Old City" event
planned for June 3rd. The organizers picked the slogan, "Help Bring New Life
to the Old City-Hebron."

At about 3:00 pm a metallic clattering sound shattered a quiet afternoon in
the CPT office. As Brown, Williams and Levin rushed into the men's
bedroom--which is next to the heavy metal fence barrier separating Shuhada
Street from the Chicken Market--they heard something crash against one of
the windowpanes. Glass shattered loudly, scattering shards over a large area
of the floor. Seconds later another pane shattered. Williams hurried up to
the roof and saw two teen-age settler boys on the other side of the barrier.
They ran away when they saw her peering down at them. Soldiers on the roof
across the Chicken Market had not stopped the youths from throwing the
stones at the windows.

Sunday May 30, 2004
No curfew

Monday May 31, 2004
No curfew

Greg Rollins' hearing regarding his denial of entry was postponed. CPT's
lawyer reported that the Israeli security service claimed that witnesses who
would testify against Rollins could not be present.

At about noon, Kristin Anderson and CPT delegate Sandy Anderson encountered
several TIPHers and Israeli soldiers at the Duboyya checkpoint. The team
learned that a soldier h