CPTnet
16 September 2005

HEBRON UPDATE: 3-9 September 2005

Those serving on the Hebron team during the period covered by this update
included Dianne Roe, Joanne Lingle, Jerry Levin, John Lynes and Christina
Gibb.

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Opening day of the new school year was calm in the vicinity of the schools
that CPT is patrolling. However, Christina Gibb and a visitor encountered
soldiers near the Tariq Bin Ziad school stopping some Palestinian vehicles
and searching them. At the new checkpoint set up near the Ibrahimi School,
soldiers required boys to go through the electromagnetic metal detector
installed inside prefabricated caravans (trailers); some had to remove their
belts.

Returning from noon school patrol, Jerry Levin, John Lynes and an American
visitor saw an Israeli soldier roughing up the nephew of a long time Old
City friend of CPT, because he leaned against a plastic barrier at a
checkpoint leading past the Gutnick Center into Shuhada Street. Soldiers
released the boy after several minutes, bruises on his face and arm evident.
However, he did not make a complaint at a nearby Israeli police station for
fear that he would be sent back to prison, where last year he spent five
months for "assaulting a soldier." On that occasion he hit back when pushed
and hit by a soldiers.

Sunday, 4 September 2005 On school patrol Dianne Roe and Lynes met a settler
with a guitar singing outside the entrance to the Avraham Avinu settlement.
He said he was glad to discover that CPTers were human because, he claimed,
he had gotten the opposite impression from the internet.

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. Roe and Lynes encountered Affaf Baatch, a neighbor
who asked CPT's help. She said that soldiers had entered her house, stayed
overnight, and had taken important family belongings. [ See 14 September
release, "Israeli soldiers occupy homes, take belongings."]

Monday, 5 September 2005

In the morning Gibb and Roe went to Tel Rumeida to assist with the Qurtuba
Girls School patrol. A soldier at the Duboyya Street checkpoint told them
that Tel Rumeida was a closed military zone, but he confided that he would
not enforce the order provided CPT was inconspicuous and would not "provoke
the settlers." In return, the soldier said, the Israeli police and army
would protect the children.

At noon, CPT observed soldiers detaining several high school age boys at the
lower Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint. CPT explained that the boys were simply on
their way back from school. A soldier said, "So what," and then demanded
that the CPTers leave. At the same time, Miriam Levinger, a founder of the
Hebron settler movement came by screaming, "The gates of hell await all
sinners." She also accused CPTers of being hypocrites who would go to hell
because they "persecute the Jews."

Tuesday, 6 September 2005

During morning school patrol, the headmaster and a teacher from the Ibrahimi
Boys School had to wait for one hour at the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint
before being allowed, due to CPT intervention, to proceed on to school. To
expedite passage for teachers and students in the morning, the headmaster
explained that he had provided Israeli authorities with a list of names of
teachers and himself so that such delays could be avoided, but to no avail.
He added that soldiers had detained him at checkpoints several times since
the beginning of school the previous Saturday.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

In the morning Al-Fayhaa Girls School Teachers and students refused to
submit to electromagnetic screening at the new checkpoint blocking access to
that school and Ibrihimi Boys School. After some negotiation with the
soldier in charge at the checkpoint, all were allowed to walk through an
opening in the barricade rather than through the screening process.

Thursday, 8 September

In the morning, Ibrahimi Boys School teachers joined teachers from nearby
Al Fayhaa Girls School in refusing to file through electromagnetic metal
detecting equipment at the new checkpoint leading to the girls school and
the boys school.

Friday, September 9, 2005

The Hebron and At-Tuwani teams met in At-Tuwani.