CPTnet
22 April 2006

HEBRON UPDATE: 11-15 April 2006

Team members serving during this period were Art Arbour, Dave Corcoran,
David Janzen, John Lynes, and Paul Rehm.

Tuesday 11 April

Art Arbour and Dave Corcoran led a tour of twenty-five
people from the Holy Land Trust through the Old City of Hebron.

John Lynes accompanied a Palestinian neighbour to the Civil Administration
compound in Hebron, where she had an appointment to file a statement about
the behavior of Israeli soldiers who had raided her home in 2005. They had
removed some personal belongings. Outside the compound soldiers admitted
Palestinians six at a time, after which soldiers forced the gate shut
against the Palestinians' bodies. Soldiers prodded them through the wire
fence with the barrel of their weapons to stop them pushing. Lynes and the
woman he was escorting went through another entrance. The proceedings were
entirely in Hebrew and Arabic, so Lynes was unable to follow them. The
woman expressed gratitude for his presence in the intimidating environment.

Wednesday 12 April

Dave Corcoran, David Janzen, Lynes and Paul Rehm, with a translator,
visited Palestinian families in the Wadi Al-Ghroos. Nearly surrounded by
the Kiryat Arba settlement, the Border Police barracks and a new fence that
cuts them off from their almond trees, life for Palestinians living in the
Wadi has become progressively more difficult.

The first family they met told of Israeli soldiers putting an eight-year-old
boy into a trash container and closing the top. They bemoaned the fact that
few people came to visit the thirty homes in the Wadi, due to fear of the
settlers. Prospective suitors for their daughters also stayed away, they
said.

The next family showed the team the remains of an extension to their home.
The IDF ordered them to have the extension demolished and to pay for the
demolition. One of the women spoke of living with the fear of losing their
homes to settlement expansion. Another spoke about the limited access to
their fields. Last year they had to wait a month for permission to harvest
their crops, by which time the fruit was ruined.

Thursday 13 April

Several tour groups visited the CPT apartment. An Israeli soldier on the
opposite roof claimed that a group of American students from Cairo or the
French group that followed had been photographing and taking notes about the
military barracks from the CPT roof. An Israeli patrol arrived to
investigate, by which time the tour group had left. An Israeli officer
politely insisted on visiting the roof, but left apparently satisfied.

Friday 14 April Janzen and Art Arbour met with a representative from the
Canadian consulate office in Ramallah, taking her to several areas of
concern in Hebron. The group was unable to go past the Duboyya Street
checkpoint even with the diplomatic pass. Later in the afternoon the group
drove to At Tuwani where Diane Janzen and Lorne Friesen spoke about their
work.

In the evening Lynes and Rehm, having heard about the difficulty at the
Duboyya Street checkpoint, visited Tel Rumeida, but met with no problems.

Saturday 15 April

On school patrol, Arbour and Janzen confronted a group of ten settler boys
who were throwing rocks at a Palestinian man who lived near the house
recently taken over by Israeli settlers. The boys would not heed
admonishments from the CPTers nor from nearby soldiers but the intended
target escaped without injury. However, at least five friendly
conversations between settlers and CPTers occurred on Shuhada Street during
this patrol.

Lynes and Corcoran took a walk along Haret Jaber ("Worshippers' Way. ")
While they say along the way and offered Jewish settlers returning from the
Tomb of Abraham Happy Passover Greetings, two male settlers asked who they
were and why they were there. One of them invited the CPTers to his home in
the Kiryat Arba Settlement for lunch with his family, consisting of
eighteen people including sons, daughters and grandchildren. After
prayers, a lively discussion ensued about CPT and the whole
Israeli/Palestinian conflict for about two and a half hours. He seemed
willing to talk to one of the Palestinian families that CPT knows. On the
way back to the old city of Hebron Lynes and Corcoran encountered two IDF
soldiers helping two young Palestinian children fix their bike. Having
prayed that morning for reconciliation, the CPTers felt their prayer was
answered.

During afternoon school patrol Rehm encountered an Israeli soldier refusing
to let a group of school children walk on Shuhada Street past the entrance
to the new settlement. The soldier rebuffed Rehm's offer to walk with the
children. One child picked up a stone to throw. Rehm persuaded him to drop
it. The arrival of a military patrol put an end to the stand-off.