CPTnet
July 3, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: June 14-16, 2004

Monday, June 14 2004

No curfew

CPTers Kristin Anderson, Christy Bischoff, Maureen Jack, Rich Meyer, Kathie
Uhler and Maia Williams, together with a translator, visited a Palestinian
family whose home had been in the Beqa'a valley. Four brothers shared a
house in the Beqa'a valley, which the Israeli military demolished on
September 2003. Now they all live in the city of Hebron.

The men of the family are farmers and have difficulty reaching their fields.
Israeli military roadblocks and checkpoints also make it hard to transport
their produce. "It feels as if you have to travel round world to get
produce to market," said one of the family. A teenage son told the CPTers
that he sometimes sleeps on a mattress in the rubble of their house and that
his older brother stays there most of the time. The younger son said that
when he is older he hopes to be a farmer in the Beqa'a. "Allah karim," he
said. "God is generous."

The CPTers then moved on to visit an extended Palestinian family whose
houses are now in the shadow of Kiryat Arba settlement. The family showed
the team how they had been working to re establish their garden after
Israeli soldiers bulldozed it and part of an outbuilding in March 2003.
Soldiers subsequently built a new fence annexing more of the family's land.
The CPTers photographed three houses belonging to members of the family
whose homes have received demolition orders. A teenage relative showed the
team the bullet wound on his leg caused by a settler who had shot randomly
into his house.

The father, a community worker, spoke of the harassment the family has
suffered from Israeli soldiers and settlers. "I can't tell all the stories
in one hour or even two," he said sadly.

The CPTers walked on to the Beqa'a valley, where they visited two families.
At the second home they saw a new fence that the Israeli military has
constructed just yards from Palestinian shops and houses; a single gate
provides access but local people expressed concern that the soldiers will
close it. At present, Israeli settlers bring their cars to be fixed at the
Palestinians' auto shop. One man told the CPTers that his young daughter
plays with an Israeli settler's child. "The other child cries when it is
time to go home," he said.

Tuesday, June 15 2004

No curfew

Anderson, Bischoff and Williams went to Tel Aviv to visit "Breaking the
Silence", an exhibition of photographs and other items which Israeli
soldiers had collected from their time serving in Hebron. The former
soldier, now a reservist, who showed the CPTers around told them that in his
experience soldiers commonly detained Palestinians for extended periods of
time, without thinking to check how long the men had been detained. The
soldier said that most of the people visiting the exhibition had served as
soldiers in Hebron; they were showing their families around so that they
could see what the soldiers had endured. Another soldier said to the
CPTers, "It is wrong to put 18-year-old kids in this situation."

Wednesday, June 16 2004

No curfew

CPTers Chris Brown, Jack and Meyer woke at 4.30 a.m., hearing a loud banging
on the metal door at the foot of the stairway. The banging continued, with
shouting in Hebrew. Brown and Meyer opened the door and five Israeli
soldiers entered, saying that they had seen a camera flash in the apartment.
The CPTers explained that they had all been asleep and that there was no one
else in the apartments. The soldiers entered each room in the men's and
women's apartments to check that they were indeed empty. They left without
disturbing anything (apart, of course, from the CPTers' sleep.)

Bischoff and Jack participated in a women's demonstration against the
Separation Wall in A-Ram, organized by Israeli and Palestinian women's peace
groups. A number of elderly Palestinian women in traditional dress took
part. The demonstration was peaceful and ended at the Qalandia checkpoint.

On the way from Qalandia to Jerusalem, an Israeli soldier came on the van to
check IDs. The soldier took one Palestinian man from the bus; the CPTers
followed. The man's daughter was in the hospital in Jerusalem, about to
undergo surgery. The man had not had time to obtain a permit to go into
Jerusalem. Despite his pleading the soldiers insisted that he return to
Qalandia.

Anderson, Uhler and Williams visited a family in the Jabel Johar
neighborhood of Hebron, near the Kiryat Arba settlement. The father of the
family has a number of medical and psychological problems as a result of the
general situation and particularly following an incident two years ago when
Israeli soldiers shot him in the mouth and lower back after he opened the
door of his house to admit them. Several months ago a soldier shot his son
in the eye, resulting in vision problems. On Fridays and Saturdays the
soldiers close the gate that is his only access to the road. "It is like a
prison," he said.

Thursday, June 17 2004

No curfew

Jack took a tour group to the Ibrahim Mosque. An Israeli guide was giving a
tour in the mosque to a group of young Israeli soldiers. Accompanying them
were two older men carrying rifles. Commenting on the presence of weapons
in a place of worship, an American pastor in the CPT group said, "It's an
affront."

Friday, June 18 2004

No curfew

On their way to meet up with Uhler who had been staying with a Palestinian
family next to Kiryat Arba whose home is at risk for demolition, Bischoff
and Jack came to a military checkpoint. Two soldiers asked them if they had
authorization to walk on that street (which the settlers refer to as
Worshippers' Way and the Palestinians as Prayers' Way.) While one soldier
radioed for authorization, Bischoff and Jack asked the other how many hours
at a time soldiers spent in the watchtower. He told them that a team of
four soldiers spends four days at a time there.

Saturday, June 19 2004

No curfew

Returning to the apartment through the Beit Romano checkpoint Jack saw
Israeli soldiers detaining three Palestinian men for ID checks. They
required the men in turn to lift up their shirts and approach them with
their IDs. As the third man was handing over his ID a group of a dozen
soldiers, accompanied about forty Israeli settlers (mainly boys, but also a
few men), came out of the Old City and up towards Shuhada Street. One