CPTnet
6 July 2005

HEBRON UPDATE: 25 June-2 July 2005

 Saturday, 25 June John Lynes and Greg Wilkinson walked up Worshippers' Way
in company with a friendly, elderly Israeli settler from Kiryat Arba.

Monday, 27 June
At the Hebron Rehabilitation Center, Lynes and Kathie Uhler met Don Wilson,
the head of mission at the Canadian Consul in Ramallah, to explain CPT work
in Hebron and Tuwani.

Around 6:30 p.m., Lynes, Mabel Brunk and Scott Smith heard that there was a
fire nearby. They walked up stairs through a family home to the roof where
they could see the old vegetable market area. Only smoke was now coming from
a deserted shop where an Israeli settlers' fire brigade was hosing water.

The family reported that the same shop had been on fire the day before
around noon and again the night before. Each time the fire brigade came,
but not until several hours had passed.

 Tuesday, 28 June A group of Scots with an Alternative Information Center
delegation came unexpectedly to the apartment. Lynes and Smith gave them the
standard tour information in the delegation apartment and then on the roof.
A soldier on a nearby rooftop post called his base to say a crowd was on the
roof. Six soldiers came to the CPT street and called for everyone to come
down. The soldiers first said, "Stay off the roof until you get a new
verbal permit from us, " but then relented and left.

Wednesday, 29 June
Brunk and Smith went to Tel Rumeida and walked up the hill toward the house
of Palestinian friends to pay a visit. They had heard that Israeli soldiers
had been in the house recently. The soldier at the checkpoint said he had
orders that CPT may not pass. A soldier at a nearby checkpoint suggested,
"Maybe you can go just to the checkpoint and your friends can come down and
talk to you." Smith and Brunk returned to the checkpoint near the house. The
soldier talked on the phone to his superior and, after ten or fifteen
minutes, was still waiting for a reply. "Bureaucracy," he occasionally
exclaimed.

During the wait, a settler mother and her small child approached with trash
to throw in a nearby bin. She called out, "You are anti-Semitic. You are
like Hitler. You come to destroy all Israelis and Israel!" Smith said he
has many Israeli friends and does not hate Israelis but she and her crying
child continued walking past. The settler driver of an ambulance backed
toward Smith and Brunk, standing by the road, shouted at the soldier, then
continued up the hill toward the settlement. The soldier muttered,
"A--hole." To the CPTers he suggested, "Come back tomorrow; maybe you'll
have a real answer about a visit."

Lynes, with help from Smith and Lorin Peters, hung his painted banner on a
cable from the CPT apartment to the house across the blocked street.
Israelis walking on Shuhada Street can now read the Hebrew words of Psalm
29: "The Lord will bless his people with peace."

 Thursday, 30 June About noon a translator from the Beqa'a valley phoned and
said, "This morning Israeli bulldozers demolished two houses, one in Beqa'a
and the other in Jabal Johar." He said, "I can't leave my house to meet you
because the two bulldozers are still at the gas station and I don't know
what they might do next." CPT informed The Temporary International Presence
in Hebron
(TIPH) and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) of the
demolition incidents.

CPT members Lynes, Peters and Brunk traveled by taxi to the house in Beqa'a
where the demolition occurred. This family eleven was building a structure
beside their small house to increase their living space. Israeli bulldozers
had demolished the building that morning. CPT members photographed the Jaber
family standing in the ruins. The family served the team coffee on their
porch.

Saturday, 2 July
Lynes, Peggy Gish and Brunk walked up Worshippers' Way, greeting Israeli
soldiers and pedestrians with "Shabbat Shalom." Near the entry to Kiryat
Arba (Israeli settlement) an Israeli soldier called out, "Good morning," and
climbed down a rocky slope to talk, saying, "My name is David."* When an
Israeli man walked past, David said, "We have trouble with him. He set up a
roadblock here yesterday, meant to keep Palestinians from walking on
Worshippers' Way. Yesterday we were fighting settlers. There are bad
people among them."

David asked, "What do you think of Israeli soldiers?" Gish said, "Soldiers
are caught in the violent system of war; it's the system of war that is
wrong." When asked, "What kind of solution would be best for Israelis and
Palestinians?" David answered, "A two state system." He added, "We all want
peace."

CPT members in Hebron during this period: John Lynes, Peggy Gish, Kathie
Uhler, Mabel Brunk, Lorin Peters, Scott Smith and Annaliese Watson.