CPTnet
27 July 2006

JERUSALEM: Christian Peacemaker Team delegation arrives in Israel/Palestine

As Israel continues to escalate its response against alleged Hezbollah
targets in Lebanon, twelve members of a delegation sponsored by Christian
Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arrived in Jerusalem today, 27 July 2006.

During the next several days they will speak with representatives of Israeli
and Palestinian peace and human rights organizations in Jerusalem and
Bethlehem. Delegates will then travel to Hebron, West Bank, where CPT's
long-term team is based and where Israeli settler and soldier violence
against Palestinians and internationals has recently escalated. While there,
they will assist with CPT's ongoing work of violence deterrence,
documentation of human rights abuses and accompaniment in the Old City,
where both settlers and Palestinians live. They will also visit Palestinian
farmers and shepherds in the outlying Hebron District whose land and
livelihoods expanding Israeli settlements threaten and who also face
harassment from soldiers and settlers.

Members of CPT's 26 July-8 August delegation are Lauretta Amundsen and David
Szollosy (both from Willow Beach, Ontario), Mary Marjorie Bethea (Sherman
Oaks, California), Paula Bhagyam (Houlton, Wisconsin), Nancy Birdsong
(Geneva, New York), Jamey Bouwmeester and Kelley Evans (both from Shade,
Ohio), Michael Del Ponte (San Ramon, California), Donald Friesen (Reedley,
California), John McCarthy (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), Inger Styrbjørn
(Kalmar, Sweden) and James R. Thomas (Bronx, New York.)