CPTnet
September 28, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: September 6-12, 2004

Monday September 6
No curfew

CPTers Chris Brown, Cal Carpenter, Kim Lamberty and Maia Williams did school
patrol in the morning. On the way back to the apartment a friend told the
group that Israeli soldiers were detaining men at the Dubboya checkpoint.
Brown and Lamberty went to observe the detentions.

While returning to the apartment, Brown observed Israeli Border Police
walking twenty-five men towards the Beit Romano checkpoint. As they walked,
the Border Police were pulling young men out of the crowd and making them
join the group that they were detaining. This incident reflects a pattern
of more aggressive ID checks since the Beersheva bombing.

Brown phoned TIPH and the CPT office. Carpenter and Lamberty joined Brown
and TIPH at the checkpoint. They monitored the situation for the next hour
and a half. During that time the police handcuffed one of the men and moved
him into a round concrete structure with a few small windows called a
"pillbox." The police released all but one of the men, whom they held for
another half hour.

Tuesday September 7
No curfew

CPTers Brown, Carpenter, Christina Gibb, Char Smith, Lamberty, and Williams
joined with Rabbis for Human Rights to accompany villagers from the
Palestinian town of Susia to get water. The villagers had permission from
the District Coordinating Office (DCO), but wanted accompaniment in case
settlers caused trouble. No problems occurred while the villagers drew the
water. However, the groups received information that settlers, accompanied
by the Israeli military, had uprooted more than forty trees in the village
of Tuwani, located next to Ma'on settlement. The group went to Tuwani to
speak with the people of the village and photograph the destruction.

Returning to Hebron the CPTers saw soldiers stopping many Palestinians on
either side of Route 60 in Beit Anun. The soldiers were allowing only a few
at a time to pass and behaving aggressively towards the people. Many of the
Palestinians were going up the road and through the grape arbors to avoid
the dealing with the soldiers.

Wednesday September 8
No curfew

On a patrol, CPTers Anna Bachman and Smith observed an Israeli soldier at
Beit Romano checkpoint making a young boy empty his backpack on the ground.
They stayed with him, although the soldier told them to leave, until he had
repacked the bag and was ready to go.

Israeli soldiers prevented CPTers John Lynes, Smith, and Gibb from passing
the mosque gate while they were shopping. The soldiers were jack-hammering a
strip across the street in that area.

CPTers Brown and Lamberty found Israeli soldiers detaining an ambulance,
transporting a patient with a broken leg, at the Beit Romano checkpoint.
They were told that it had been there about a half hour prior to their
arrival at the site. They stayed about ten minutes until soldiers allowed
the ambulance to pass.

Thursday September
No Curfew

Brown, Smith, Bachman, and Gibb had a meeting with a local friend regarding
how best to spread the word about CPT in the schools so that the children
will have a better idea who team members are, and also regarding how to get
to know the children of the old city better.

Bachman made contact with shopkeepers to begin to set up a more intentional
presence for the team near the Beit Romano checkpoint.

Carpenter and Williams had trouble reaching Hebron from Jerusalem. Border
police stopped them just outside the city and told them they could not enter
because the whole city was a closed military zone. They eventually found
another way.

Friday September 10
No curfew

CPTers Williams, Lynes, Lamberty, Smith, and Gibb went to Beit Ummar for the
afternoon where they visited with a number of families and delivered some
peace banners from a synagogue in the US. They had great difficulty getting
in and out of the city.

Saturday September 11
No curfew

Sunday September 12
No curfew

Bachman and Williams left to start a week of accompaniment in the South
Hebron Hills. They planned to go to Susia but a contact from the Israeli
peace group Taayush told them they were more needed in Tuwani where a clinic
is being built, so they relocated.