CPTnet
11 June 2007
HEBRON: Daily harassment in Hebron; letter from a Palestinian friend

The following is a letter sent to the Hebron team by a Palestinian friend
and fellow nonviolent activist in Hebron in the last week of May. It has
been edited for clarity.

Dear All, I am writing this to discharge my feeling by writing to my friends
who can understand me.

Today at 9:00 p.m., I was walking beside the new settlement in Hebron [A
Palestinian building occupied by the settlers recently.] Two settlers with
guns they came to me, stood in my way and started photographing me. I
didn't care; it's normal with me. I kept walking.

One from them told me, "I will kill you; I will kill all the Arabs." The
other one said "Where is [three international nonviolent activists--two of
whom were attacked by settlers and went to the hospital on Saturday]?

I kept walking. When I arrived to the soldiers' tent, I called them and I
told them, "Please help me. They are telling me that they want to kill me."
The settlers said to the soldiers that I cut the water pipes. I told the
soldiers "NO NO NO NO; they told me they want to kill me, and let's go to
the see the water [pipes.] The soldiers said: "Sheket (shut up); give me
your ID." They told me, "What do you have in your bag?" They forced me to
take off everything from the bag and put it in the ground. I told them I
work for B'tselem, the Israeli center for human rights. One of the regular
soldiers said, "I hate them more than you." I asked him, "Why?" He said,
"Shut up." After they saw everything in my bag,-- they said many bad words.
-- They told me, "Now we want to search your body." They forced me to face
the wall and to open my legs and searched me in a very violent way. After
that, I told the soldiers, "You know I am not a terrorist."

They are doing all of this harassment daily in Hebron. Each day,
[soldiers] check me and detain me for at least twenty minutes.