CPTnet
8 October 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 7-15 September 2007

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

Friday 07 September

Bi'ilin celebrated the Israeli High Court ordering the Israeli government to
move the wall around the city one kilometer off part of the village land.
(See Hebron Update covering 4 September.)

All internationals and Palestinians agreed to cancel the weekly haying
action at the Al-Ja'abari family farm during Ramadan.

Saturday 8 September

Palestinian teachers continued their Saturday strike, demanding that they
have a five-day week like other Palestinian Authority employees, so the team
did not need to conduct school patrol

Dianne Roe, Valerie Joy, and John Lynes visited the newly appointed Mayor of
Hebron, Khalid Asaily, to discuss with him the possibility of Hebron
becoming a sister city to Corning (USA), Leichardt (Australia) and Exeter
(UK).

Lynes, Joy and Mary Rose observed a new CPT neighbor (a relative of the CPT
landlord) stopping Zleekha Muhtaseb, another neighbor of CPT, as she was
watering the olive tree planted at the corner of Chicken and Shuhada Streets
in memory of CPTer Tom Fox. The Israeli army enclosed the area, from the
CPT door to the corner (about twenty square feet) to keep Israeli settlers
from entering the "souq" (market) at that point. The new neighbor told
Muhtaseb that the tree was too close to his side door on Chicken Street.
Then his relative uprooted the tree.

Four soldiers arrived and questioned Muhtaseb's right to be there. She
showed them her documents, then asked permission to go into the empty house
opposite to retrieve a soccerball on the balcony. The soldier refused
permission after much discussion. Muhtaseb's mother, Lynes, Joy and Rose
observed this incident. Joy took a photo. A soldier approached her and
said taking the photo was disrespectful. Since one of the soldiers had
cursed her mother in Arabic, Muhtaseb confronted the commander about this
behavior and he eventually apologized for his soldier.

Outcomes: the ball is still on the balcony, the olive tree will be replanted
in a pot.

Uhler reported from Wadi Al-Ghroos where she had been living with an
extended family to improve her Arabic. The family decided not to seek
much-needed water from the Israeli army encamped there. A family member
told Uhler, "We have got along for sixty years without the army and we will
continue to do so." The family harvested grapes and shipped them to market
by automobile out of the Wadi on a rough dirt road. The Israeli army closed
the only paved road into the Wadi years ago.

The family seemed content with this year's grape sales. Uhler observed with
delight the family making "dibs," a rich syrup made from grapes, much like
molasses. The oldest, heaviest boy stomped on the grapes. A Palestinian
woman, who arrived that day, amid cheering, from Jerusalem, cooked the juice
through the night in a huge vat. A family member told Uhler, "I hope you
noticed that she prayed before she began to work."

Sunday 09 September

Four of the team attended a barbecue along with EAPPI (Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) at the Hanthala
("Resistance") caf