CPTnet
2 April 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 18-24 March 2007

On team during this period: Mary Wendeln, Kathie Uhler, Abigail Ozanne,,
Sean O'Neill, John Lynes, and Art Arbour.

Sunday 18 March - Monday 19 March
The team was in Bethlehem for a workshop.

Tuesday 20 March
Mary Wendeln and Kathie Uhler went to Ramallah for a networking fair of
Palestinian non-governmental organizations. About 30 organizations were
represented. The CPTers displayed English and Arabic versions of a pamphlet
describing CPT Hebron's work and made many connections. On the way back,
they were held up in traffic outside Jerusalem because the Israeli military
was conducting maneuvers with sirens and blasts in the city.
Art Arbour gave a tour to a Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation in
Hebron and At-Tuwani. A Palestinian neighbor reported to the team that at
about 3:30 p.m. two Palestinian boys, aged 12 and 10, were chasing some dogs
off their roof near the CPT apartment when Israeli soldiers saw them and
accused the boys of throwing stones at the Avraham Avinu Israeli settlement.
The soldiers took the boys to the Kiryat Arba Police Station where,
according to the boys, Israeli police questioned them, shook them, lifted
each and kicked and beat them. The boys said an old Israeli settler woman
came by and told the police to stop treating them this way and to release
them. The police released the boys and drove them in a police jeep back to a
gate, where the boys were able to get into the souq (the Old City market).

Wednesday 21 March
Today was Mothers' Day in the Middle East. A Palestinian neighbor invited
CPTers Wendeln and Uhler to a Mothers' Day celebration that was held in her
Center for Children. Wendeln and Uhler were presented with plants.
Around 2:30 p.m. the boy's soccer team that was started in the Old City by
CPT, Terre des Hommes, and a local mental health association began practice.
John Lynes and Jim Whitlock, a visiting friend of the team, attended the
practice. Afterwards they went along Shuhada Street and up to Tel Rumeida
via Abraham's Well. On the way they visited a Palestinian family who
described an incident the previous evening: At 8:00 p.m., Israeli soldiers
visited households in the neighborhood and complained that stones had been
thrown at Israeli soldiers. At 9:00 p.m. the Israeli military rounded up
four Palestinian families and made them stand in Shuhada Street while the
soldiers searched their homes. The women were released at midnight and the
men at 1:00 a.m. The Palestinians denied throwing stones.

Thursday 22 March
Lynes, Abigail Ozanne, and Whitlock visited a multi-family house on Kiryat
Arba Road. The building had been occupied two days previously by Israeli
settlers who claimed to have purchased it from the Palestinian owner.
According to Palestinian neighbors, the settlers came in the night,
accompanied by Israeli security forces for their protection. The settlers
are now referring to the building as Beit HaShalom (House of Peace). Despite
the fact that the ownership was disputed, settlers were permitted to stay in
the building and to make extensive alterations. CPTers observed the presence
of Israeli Border Police, and armed security guards sat on the roof of the
house.

Friday 23 March
A CPT delegation arrived in Hebron.

Saturday 24 March
At 1:45 p.m. the delegation, Hebron Team members, and a translator left for
the valley of Wadi Al-Ghroos to nonviolently challenge the Israeli military
to open the road into the valley. En route to the valley, they passed the
multi-family house near Kiryat Arba that was taken over (see 22 March
above.) Soldiers on both sides of a roadblock kept Palestinians away from
the house where the settlers were. At this point three volunteers with the
Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) joined the
group.

At the juncture where the road leading up to the gated valley begins, about
50 Palestinian children and 20 young adult males met the group. The
delegates gave the children two banners to carry up the road to the gate and
into the valley along a narrow dirt path that serves as the only way in. The
banners, in both Arabic and English, read "Open the Road!" and "Stop
Harassing the Children!" Some CPTers passed out CPT Hebron pamphlets.
Videographers from Associated Press TV and Palestinian TV interviewed
several participants and CPTers. The enlarged group proceeded into the
valley, stopping about half a kilometer in, where the boys began playing
football and the girls circle games. After a while, everyone enjoyed a
picnic lunch prepared by the delegates. The event ended peacefully at 3:00
p.m. On the way back to the Old City, as the team passed the occupied house
they witnessed Israeli police arresting a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy,
allegedly for throwing stones at a settler child. TIPH (Temporary
International Presence Hebron) reported that, despite being present for the
whole period, they did not observe the boy throwing stones. The young boy's
uncle accompanied him to the police station.