CPTnet
24 January 2007
HEBRON LETTERS: Commentary on recent video showing
Hebron settler woman harassing Abu Aisha family

[Note: This month, the video of a Hebron settler woman cursing a Palestinian
woman from the Abu Aisha family on Tel Rumeida prompted wide Israeli and
international outrage. For most people who have served in Hebron, what the
settler woman was doing in the video seemed tame when compared to the
settler violence they had witnessed since 1995. Below are some excerpts
from one of more than 100 newsletters that CPT reservist Mary Lawrence sent
to her supporters between 2001 and 2005 detailing the indignities settlers
have imposed on the Abu Aisha family and their neighbors.

An article from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz about the video is available
at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/813377.html

Lawrence's 104 newsletters are available at
http://mysite.verizon.net/peacemaking_in_palestine/

>From newsletter 6:

"On October 18, Christian Peacemaker Team's Mary Lawrence and LeAnne Clausen
visited Tel Rumeida--. They had been contacted by TIPH, the 'Temporary
International Presence in Hebron,' --and asked to investigate reports that
settlers were damaging homes on Tel Rumeida . . .

"We made our way to a large home which abuts the settlement. Over the last
year, the settlers have broken all the windows--

"They sawed through the trunks of all the vines in the small vineyard behind
the house, and burned the vines as well. They tore off the wrought iron
gates. The family gave in and moved out, except for the grandmother, Um
Jihad, who we visited on the top floor --

"She welcomed us in, gave us Turkish coffee and told us that a few weeks ago
settler youngsters had put grease or soap on her steps. They had tried to
set fire to the house by poking lit candles through the grids that covered
her porch windows, but she put the candles out before they could do any real
damage, and they had set fire to her laundry on her washing line.

"She told us that she went away for a few days to visit her relatives one
time, and the settlers broke in and stole all her blankets. So now she
doesn't go far from home."

That was 2001. Then Um Jihad died, and the settlers invaded her house. It
is now part of the settlement.

The October 18 account continues:

"We were welcomed to Abu Aisha's home. After the customary tea, they began
to tell us their stories. One of the daughters had been stoned by the
settler kids a few days ago and another daughter had been hit with a metal
bar. Because the settlers were stoning their windows, they put grilles in
front of them but the settlers poked metal bars through the grilles and
broke the new windows. They showed us a bullet hole high up in one of the
windows and the holes that the bullet had made in the curtains.

"A few days ago some settler boys set a fire at the bottom of the steps and
another in the garden by the grapevines. The oldest daughter took photos of
the settler boys as they were setting the fire. They called the police, and
told them that they had taken photos of the boys who were setting the fire .
. . They are waiting to see if anything comes of it.

"The old man, Abu Aisha, told us that when the settlers first came in 1982
the Palestinian neighbors welcomed them, offering them coffee, tea and
grapes--because the Quran says you must welcome both neighbor and stranger.
He said that the first settlers seemed like ordinary people-- But that as
time went by the newer settlers were not like everyone else. They didn't
come to live like other people, but only to take more and more land."