CPTnet
3 February 2006
HEBRON UPDATE: 22-28 January 2007

On team during this period were Bill Baldwin, Janet Benvie, Bob Holmes, John
Lynes, Rich Meyer, Abigail Ozanne and Dianne Roe.

Monday, 22 January

Jan Benvie and Dianne Roe, with two member of the Ecumenical Accompaniment
Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), visited the women's center in Al
Aroub camp, near Beit Ummar.

Bill Baldwin, Benvie, Bob Holmes, John Lynes, Rich Meyer and Roe shared an
evening meal with EAPPI.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Meyers and Roe took part in a "Breaking the Silence" tour with a United
Methodist group. The Israeli army did not allow them to go to Hani Abu
Haikal's front gate so the group went the back way. Abu Haikel told the
group that his mother has been unable to leave the house for six years,
apart from one trip to hospital. The Israeli army initially refused to
allow the ambulance to the front gate, and only agreed after days of
negotiation.

Benvie gave a rooftop tour to a visitor from Ireland. Rabbi Margaret Holub
from Northern California came to stay with the team for a few days.

Wednesday 24 January

Members of the Shaheen family came to talk about the rescue of Jewish
families during the 1929 massacre and plans for a reunion.

Baldwin, Benvie, Holub and Roe, attended a 76th birthday party for an
international worker in Hebron. They then went to Hisham Sharabati's home
to watch the film, "What I saw in Hebron," which is about the 1929 massacre.

Thursday 25 January

Israeli border police stopped children at the end of Haret il Jaber
(Worshipper's Way) and told them that they would have to go to the Yatta
Road checkpoint. The police said they had to go through the metal detector.
Benvie spoke to one of the Border Policemen and he agreed to check with his
commander. After making a call, he allowed the children to walk down the
street to school.

Fariel Abu Haikel had Benvie and Roe over for a meal as a thank-you for
their help with her presentation and video for her upcoming speaking tour in
the US.

Friday 26 January

Baldwin went to Umm Salamuna for a wedding celebrated on land bulldozed to
make way for the wall. Residents of surrounding villages attended, as did
representatives of Ta'ayush, Peace Now, ISM, EAPPI, and CPT.

Benvie and Roe visited a family on Old Shalala Street. The woman spoke
about the harassment they suffer from the settlers of Beit Hadassah. She
told the CPTers that her daughter used to go to Qurtuba Girls School, but
now went to a different school because of settler attacks. She also told
them that she comes from Jerusalem and, although she has an ID card that
allows her to travel there, her children cannot travel with her.

Saturday 27 January

Benvie and Ozanne went on Shabbat patrol in the late morning. A squad of
soldiers were detaining young Palestinian men and searching them in the
souq. Benvie and Ozanne observed for a few minutes and Ozanne took notes
about the situation. A soldier and the squad leader approached them and
told them they could observe, but not take notes. Throughout the engagement,
the squad leader told the soldier what to say. The soldier told the CPTers
that the area had recently been declared a closed military zone, and
threatened to call the police. The CPTers continued observing while the
squad leader made a call to someone, then the squad moved on a few minutes
later and the police did not come. The CPTers followed them as they walked
through the souq, periodically stopping people, before returning to their
base.

In the late afternoon, Benvie and Ozanne observed soldiers guarding a Jewish
tour group in the souq.

Sunday, 28 January At 7:15 a.m., Israeli soldiers were stopping and
searching Palestinian men in the Babb iZawiyya area, an area nominally under
control of the Palestinian authority. Team members contacted TIPH and ISM
to advise them of the situation, because the team was on its way to church
in Jerusalem.

After church, the team visited Yossi Ezra, an elderly Jewish resident of
Hebron who now lives in the settlement of Gilo. Margaret Holub and an
Israeli peace activist accompanied the team. Ezra told them his family had
moved to Hebron in 1492, along with other Jewish and Muslim families who
were expelled from Spain during the inquisition. In spite of massacres,
uprisings and expulsions, Ezra's father Yacov refused until to leave Hebron
until 1947.