PPTnet
Hebron Update: June 27- July 3, 2004
Selected notes

Monday, June 28 No curfew
A new group of trainees in the EAPPI (ecumenical accompaniment) program, a
CPT type project of the World Council of Churches came to Hebron for a tour
led by Maureen Jack.
Tuesday, June 29 No curfew
Maureen Jack took visitors from Scotland on a tour. At the Ibrahimi Mosque,
border police, pointing at the CPT hat, indicated Jack could enter the
mosque if she removed the hat. She did so, and put the hat back on when she
got outside. The officer said, "You just want to make war between Arabs and
Jews!" She replied, "No, we want there to be peace."
Chris Brown, Donna Hicks, and Jack met with volunteers and a representative
from LOWNP (Library on Wheels for Nonviolence and Peace) to work out
details for the upcoming Festival Shopping Day for Hebron's Old City.
Representatives of a French group attended and explained that on the
morning of the drawing for the shopping day prize, there would be sports
activities for the children at the drawing site.

Wednesday, June 30 No curfew
Bischoff and Carpenter visited a family in Idhna who had received a home
demolition order and had requested CPT's help. On the way there, a family
friend explained that townspeople were not sure of the plan for the Wall,
but feared they would be on the Israeli side. The family's home is in a
group of about 20 nearest to the Hebron bypass road and under Israeli
control (Area C). There are seven homes and five shelters under demolition
orders, delivered on June 17, 2004. The Israeli military destroyed one
shelter on June 28. The home owner has been proactive in contacting
organizations and individuals who might assist him in stopping the home
demolition. CPT prepared a letter alerting the US embassy to the situation.

Anderson, Jack, and Kathie Uhler accompanied a BBC film crew for the BBC
program 'Songs of Praise' to the Jabal Johar neighborhood, to document a
family's experiences with Israeli military and settlers over the last year
and a half, over which the Israeli military had bulldozed the family's
fruit trees, confiscated land, and threatened the family with home
demolitions. The military ordered the CPTers and journalists out of the home
but took neither film nor cameras. Carpenter, Jack, and a guest of the team
accompanied the BBC to the Ibrahimi Mosque soup kitchen. Many children with
their buckets and canisters were getting soup for their families. Staff at
the kitchen explained that the children often had difficulty getting to the
kitchen during Shabbat and curfew.

Thursday, July 1, 2004 No curfew
CPTers distributed raffle tickets to merchants for the prize, a washing
machine, for the second Shopping Day in the Old City. Customers making a
purchase received a raffle ticket for the prize. Israeli military at the
Beit Romano checkpoint created a bottleneck by briefly detaining most
people coming into and out of the old market.

Near the CPT apartment, CPTers Jack and Uhler observed an Israeli military
patrol detaining four Palestinian men who had volunteered to work on the
Shopping Day. One soldier was on one knee with his rifle pointed at the
Palestinians. CPTer Brown came out of the CPT apartment and waited with
Jack and Uhler until all four men were released. The leader of the patrol
asked why CPT was in Hebron. Brown said, "We live here. You are welcome to
come and have tea as long as you leave your weapons at home." The soldier
smiled, and said, "I can't do that."

Saturday, July 3, 2004 No curfew
CPTers Hicks, Diane Janzen, and Jim Satterwhite walked through the old
market to see if children were having difficulties getting to the mosque
soup kitchen for their soup. On the way, they encountered an Israeli
military patrol escorting a group of about 25 religious Jews - men, women,
and children - through the market. Upon reaching the soup kitchen, the
CPTers found it closed. On the way back to the CPT apartment, the CPTers
encountered the tour group again. A man came up to Hicks and said, "You
look amazed that we would be here, as if we were monsters, and shouldn't be
here. We've lived here [for many years]." Hicks replied, "I am sad that you
see it that way." The man continued in the same vein, and Hicks responded,
"I am sad you see it that way." He then walked off.
Between 2:00 and 2:30pm, Hicks and Janzen listened as Israeli settler boys
tossed more rocks at the window nearest Shuhada Street. More glass was
broken out. The boys also hit the office windows, but did not break the
glass. Janzen went to the roof to call to the Israeli soldier normally on
the roof across the street, but there was no one stationed there.
Satterwhite observed the activity on his way back to the apartment and also
called up to the military post on the roof.

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