CPTnet
31 October 2006

HEBRON UPDATE: 15 -21 October 2006

On team during this period were Jan Benvie, Donna Hicks, Abigail Ozanne,
Kathie Uhler, Jerry Levin, JoAnne Lingle.

Sunday 15 October

In the morning, Jan Benvie and Donna Hicks encountered an Israeli army
patrol near the CPT apartment. The soldiers told them they could not take
pictures even though neither had made a move to take pictures. Following
behind the soldiers, they watched as one confiscated a toy gun from a
Palestinian boy who was playing in an open doorway. A shopkeeper, learning
what had happened commented, "It's a terrible thing to take toys from
children." Hicks replied, "I am worried that a soldier will see a child
with a play gun and shoot at him."

Two young Palestinian men, long-time friends of CPT, visited in the
afternoon and said that Israeli soldiers had warned them to stay away from
Tel Rumeida. The men also confirmed that Palestinian boys and young men are
sexually harassing Palestinian as well as international girls and women more
aggressively.

In the evening, CPT learned that the Palestinian family whose home Israeli
soldiers had invaded the evening before (see 18 October CPTnet release,
"HEBRON UPDATE: 8-14 October 2006) discovered that the soldiers who had
invaded took 5000 Israeli Shekels and 100 Jordanian Dinars. In addition,
the soldiers had not returned the ID of the young man they had handcuffed
and beaten during the invasion of the home. The family reported that when
they went to the police station to complain, they were told that the police
were on holiday, and they should come back later.

Monday 16 October

Abigail Ozanne, JoAnne Lingle and a translator made a follow-up visit to the
family whose home soldiers had invaded the previous Saturday. The mother
told them that the money the Israeli soldiers took had been hidden among
clothing. She said that despite filing a complaint with the Israeli police
she had little hope of recovering the money. But she said that she was not
worried about recovering her son's ID; they can get another one.

Tuesday 17 October

Jerry Levin and Lingle investigated reports of an Israeli incursion into H1
(the Palestinian- administered area of Hebron) near the Hebron Polytechnic
University on Ein Sara Street. TIPH (Temporary International Presence
Hebron) already on scene told them that a contingent of Israeli soldiers in
several vehicles closed off a large area around the Hebron Legislative
Council's Office, broke into it and took away the Director. The CPTers found
several Palestinian posters mounted on the office walls had been defaced by
the soldiers who had used magic markers to scrawl, "I love (the word 'love'
symbolized by a heart) the Israele arme (sic)."

Wednesday 18 October

While shopping in the Manara section of H1, Hicks and Levin met a
Palestinian woman who complained about the difficulty Palestinians were
having getting to the Ibrahimi Mosque to pray during Ramadan because high
Jewish holy days had been occurring at the same time. "For anything, for
nothing the Jewish say, 'You must go back.' It is nothing for them to say to
us, 'You must go back'. But it is everything to us. We will never go back
for anything. We will never stop to help our children. This is our
message."

Later, Lingle and Levin visited CPT's long time Palestinian colleague,
journalist Hisham Sharabati for an update on his insights about the current
situation. He talked about the "consequences" of the sanctions imposed by
the U.S., Israel, and the West. "They are causing economic and social
deterioration" which, he said, western media, especially in the United
States, is not reporting adequately.

Because the Palestinian Authority has not paid public worker salaries for
six months due to the international funding freeze, schools are closed and
parents are losing track of their children during the day. Public hospitals
are taking only the most severe emergency cases and are running short of
supplies to handle them. Many police are not only striking but are also
taking part in demonstrations. Public health workers are not giving
vaccinations. In other areas of civil affairs, passports and new IDs are not
being issued. Sharabati said, "For example a relative was supposed to
travel to Amman with his wife for a very important meeting. But because
their newborn baby is not registered for an ID card, they cannot take the
baby." And with the post offices closed, he added, people cannot get money
orders from overseas needed to help them survive. "If this economic
situation remains the same," he concluded, "we are going to face collapse."

Thursday 19 October

CPT learned from Palestinian colleagues that settlers took more than 150
dunams (one dunam =1/4 acre) of land belonging to three families near the
village of Susiya southeast of Yatta. In addition, ten prefabricated houses
have appeared southeast of the village of Carmiel, also near Yatta. The
houses, built on fifty more dunams of Palestinian land, are a new outpost
fifty meters from the settlement.

On late afternoon patrol as Benvie and Hicks neared the Ibrahimi Boys'
School, a four-year-old boy lightly kicked Hicks in the left leg. Another
boy threw a firecracker at them. Two apologetic Palestinian women promptly
scolded both youngsters.

Throughout the late evening an Israeli sentry on the rooftop opposite the
CPT apartment, kept calling loudly "CPT! CPT!"

Friday 20 October

At the turnstile leading from the Old City into the Ibrahimi Mosque special
security zone, Levin and Lingle watched three Palestinian men struggle to
get a wheel chair through the turnstile. It was too big and bulky to get
through. So they had to lift it up over their heads and maneuver it with
some difficulty over the eight-foot high barrier to Palestinians waiting on
the other side to let it down to the ground.

In the afternoon, Hicks and Levin encountered a Palestinian funeral
procession moving down Shuhada Street past Ibrahimi Boys School to the
Muslim cemetery. When they reached the southern edge of the cemetery not far
from the school, Israeli soldiers would not let them go any further. After
several minutes of fruitless negotiation, the procession turned back and
left H2.

Ozanne observed a squad of Israeli soldiers patrolling through the Old City
in what seemed like an uncertain fashion. One soldier said he had only been
in Hebron for a week.