CPTnet
October 21, 2004

HEBRON UPDATE: September 27-October 3, 2004

[Note: The village to which CPTers have been accompanying school children
has appeared on CPTnet with several different spellings. After consulting
with a CPT reservist who can read some Arabic, the CPTnet Editor has decided
to use the spelling "Tawani." The problem stems from the fact that Arabic
writing uses a different alphabet and does not commonly include vowels.
Thus, in some dialects, a vowel might have the sound of a "u," for example
and in other dialects it might sound like an "o," but the vowel itself would
not appear in a written name of the town.]

Monday, September 27
No curfew

At about 3:00 p.m. a patrol of soldiers entered an unoccupied building near
the CPT apartment. CPTers Diana Zimmerman, Christina Gibb and John Lynes
watched from the exterior and photographed the soldiers on the roof of the
building. The soldiers continued through the old city entering two other
buildings and declaring each a closed military zone while they were inside.
CPTers Cal Carpenter, Bourke Kennedy, and Lynes followed them until they
left the Old City.

Wednesday, September 29
 No curfew

At about 7:15 a.m. CPTers Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown were walking children
to school from the village of Tuba to the village of Tawani when five
settlers from the Ma'on Ranch outpost attacked them and the children. The
children were all able to escape, though the settlers did lightly injure two
of them by throwing stones at them. The soldiers beat Lamberty and Brown
severely. (See September 29, 2004 CPTnet release, "HEBRON DISTRICT: CPTers
Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown badly injured by
settlers in the south Hebron hills.")

CPTers in Hebron spent the day working on press releases and media calls
while Diane Janzen accompanied Lamberty and Brown to the hospital in
Beer Sheva. Carpenter and Williams left Hebron for Tawani to fill the
spaces left open by their injured teammates.

Thursday, September 30
No curfew

CPTer Lynes and a member of Operation Dove (OD) --An Italian Christian peace
organization-- met with participants in a bicycle peace pilgrimage while
they were doing a street patrol. The team in Hebron continued to do media
work related to the previous day's attack.

Friday, October 1
No curfew

CPTers Lynes and Kennedy along with a member of OD joined a Ta'ayush action
in the southern Hebron District. They first attempted to reach the
settlement of Ma'on. After trying two different routes--both of which the
Israeli military blocked, saying the area was a closed military zone--the
group had to give up on getting to the village they were trying to reach.
The Israeli Ta'ayush activists spent a lot of time arguing with the
soldiers. The group then made their way to Tawani where they joined the
CPTers and ODers in the village. The Ta'ayush activists prepared a banner in
Arabic and Hebrew that said "Stop the violence." They then marched along
with the Tawani team and several villagers from Tawani to Tuba, stopping
along the way near the outpost from which the attackers had come. In Tuba
the group spent time visiting with the families of the children who were
attacked. On the return to Tawani the group was stopped by Israeli soldiers
and forced to take a detour past the outposts because the military said that
no Palestinians could pass by the more direct path. The Israeli activists
had a verbal confrontation with the settlers from the outpost as the group
passed.

Saturday, October 2
No curfew

In the morning Hebron University called and said Israeli soldiers were
blocking the entrance to the school. Gibb and Lynes went toward the
university and met a student march that was underway protesting tie violence
in Gaza. The students had been able to leave the university from the back
gate. When the marchers arrived in Bab Izawiye Israeli soldiers were waiting
for them. Clashes began between some of the marchers and the soldiers and
lasted for about half an hour.

Kennedy had gone to meet a friend in H1 and had to wait for a while before
she could return to the Old City safely. On the way back at Beit Romano, all
three CPTers saw two boys approximately 12-15 years old whom the soldiers
had detained for throwing stones. The soldiers had handcuffed and
blindfolded the young men. Gibb questioned the soldiers and had a long
discussion with a senior officer before the boys were taken away in a
military jeep.

At about 4:30 p.m. Kennedy and Lynes were walking in the Old City when they
met a tour of about a dozen settlers whom a similar number of Israeli
soldiers were escorting through the market. As the CPTers continued, they
saw three Israeli soldiers leave a Palestinian home and join the tour.

Sunday, October 3
No curfew

Kennedy and Lynes encountered several tour groups of settlers escorted by
Israeli soldiers in the Old City throughout the day.

Soldiers detained Kennedy, an Ecumenical Accompaniment volunteer and a
Lutheran volunteer while they were observing the detention of seven
Palestinian men at Beit Romano checkpoint.