CPTnet
8 October 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 16-24 September 2007

On team during this period were Team Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Christina
Gibb, John Lynes, Kathie Uhler, Mary Wendeln, and Mary Rose, guest from New
Zealand.

Saturday 15 September

Uhler and Wendeln responded to a telephone call from EAPPI. Soldiers were
keeping a group of thirty or more Palestinians from entering Tel Rumeida at
the nearby Dubboya Street checkpoint. The commander at the Yatta Road
checkpoint was letting all women through his checkpoint. Uhler mentioned
this to a Dubboya Street soldier who replied, "We have a different
commander." The soldiers refused to let the women through the gate or even
through the metal detector. Wendeln took a picture of a soldier as some
women argued with him. He told Wendeln to put the camera away. She called
the media who soon arrived. After an hour's wait, the soldiers let the
women through the gate. Then, all at once, the soldiers let the men and
boys in groups of ten or so through the gate. As the groups bypassed the
metal detector, Uhler commented to a bystander, "So much for security." He
responded, "This (the checkpoint) has nothing to do with security."

Sunday 16 September

John Lynes, Mary Rose and Mary Wendeln went on school patrol at the Ibrahimi
Mosque and the Yatta Road checkpoints. The CPTers heard gunshots from Old
City Hebron which they learned later was were the result of a feud between
extended Palestinian families. Immediately the Israeli military closed the
Yatta Road checkpoint, preventing some teachers from attending school. The
headmaster of the Ibrahimiyye Boys School pleaded with the soldiers to no
avail.

Wendeln left the area, returned, and found an Israeli settler with a gun
using his cell phone. Wendeln called Lynes for backup. The settler told
Lynes that he was protecting the children. Lynes convinced him to leave the
area. Wendeln and Lynes entered the souq as the soldiers closed the Mosque
gates preventing anyone from entering or leaving the Old City.

In the evening, the feud between two Palestinian clans erupted in earnest,
and a soldier, intervening in the clash, shot and killed a young Palestinian
man.

Monday 17 September

The principal of Tariq Ibn Zahid Boys Secondary School had decided to close
the school for the day, until the tensions from the shooting had died down.
Therefore, the soldiers at the Yatta Road checkpoint were stopping Tariq Ibn
Zahid students from going through. The Al Fayha'a Girls School decided to
close too, and all the girls went home. Meanwhile all the other schools
appeared to be open.

Around noon, Lynes went to guard Issa Amro's (of Palestinian International
Solidarity Movement) new home in Tel Rumeida from Israeli settler intrusion.

During the afternoon, Lynes and Uhler patrolled in the neighborhood of the
Ibrahimi Mosque. Lynes stayed with Amro while Israeli Border Police
detained him, first at the Gutnick Center checkpoint where an Israeli
soldier shoved them both. At the Mosque checkpoint an Israeli Border
Policeman hit Amro.

Tuesday 18 September

Uhler and Wendeln left for two days at the Monastery of Our Lady of the
Assumption in Bet Gemal, near Bet Shemesh in Israel. Uhler inquired of the
extern sister the status of their property, since the Israeli government has
made it known to them that it wants to buy their land. When the sisters
refused to sell this past year, someone planted a bomb on the farmland next
door, owned by the Salesian Fathers and Brothers. A man driving a tractor
over the trip wire detonated the bomb.

On Ash Wednesday, 2007, two masked gunmen walked into the sisters' church
after Mass and demanded money. A sister told the men they had no money. The
extern sister told Uhler, "All the sisters remained silent and recollected
throughout this ordeal." A guest in the gallery called the Israeli police on
a cellphone, and the police captured the gunmen as they left the monastery.

The extern sister said the decision was in the hands of the Salesians, from
whom the Israeli government also wants to buy land. Since the Salesian land
adjoins the sisters', if they sell to the Israelis, she said, the land could
be used for purposes that would be contrary to the monastic spirit of
silence and prayer. In that case, the sisters would have to leave or sell,
as well. For photos of the monastery, go to
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/hebron <http://www.cpt.org/gallery/hebron> .

Gibb and Rose on school patrol found an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) jeep
parked with its engine running at the Yatta Road checkpoint. Six soldiers
were at the checkpoint and were still all there when the CPTers left
forty-five minutes later at 8:00 a.m. Soldiers checked the bags of all boys
over (about) 10-year-old. However, the soldiers did not detain anyone or
turn anyone back. Ibrahammiyye and Al Fayha'a schools were open as usual.

The soldiers said the increased security related to the shooting of two
nights ago. Later, two members of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme
of Palestinians in Israel) came to the CPT apartment and said there was a
similar increased military presence at the Dubboya Street checkpoint where
they monitor the nearby Qurtuba School.

Wednesday 19 September

The whole Mosque area was open for Jewish people only. Israeli Border
Police closed the Mosque gate but schools were open. During school patrol,
a civilian police jeep stopped by Al Fayha'a School and an officer told Jan
Benvie and Gibb that the whole area was a closed military zone for
internationals until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday. Initially polite, he did not
like them questioning the order, but did show it to them, in Hebrew, with a
photocopy of a map of Hebron. He said they could not be anywhere in the Old
City. When they said that they lived there, he told them to go home and
stay there under curfew. As it was nearly 8:00 a.m. and almost all children
were in school, they walked slowly home.

Rose and Gibb patrolled the souq at midday, without meeting any soldiers,
and joined EAPPI at the "Hanthala" (Arabic for "resistance") caf