CPTnet
3 December 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 5-18 November 2007

Team members during this period included Laura Ciaghi, Jessica Frederick,
Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Donna Hicks, Bob Holmes, Rich Meyer, Jonathan
Stucky, and Mary Wendeln.

Monday 5 November

While Hicks was walking through onto Shuhada Street, an Israeli soldier
asked her where she was from. She returned the question. The soldier
commented on the drive-by shootings in the city where he lived. Hicks
replied that her hometown in North Carolina was also known for its gun
violence.

Later in the afternoon, Laura Ciaghi, Jessica Frederick, Hicks and two
visitors walked to the Israeli settler-occupied house on the road to Kiryat
Arba. When a Palestinian woman called to them from a house nearby, Ciaghi
climbed the hill to talk with her. She learned that Israeli soldiers had
turned the woman back at the military checkpoint near the house. When the
CPTers and visitors went to the checkpoint with the woman, the soldier let
her pass. They asked why the woman could not pass earlier, and the soldier
replied they had learned of a bomb threat and had closed off the route.
They went on to the Al-Jabbari field opposite the gate into the Kiryat Arba
settlement, where Hicks saw that settlers had not undone the work of the
previous Friday's action.

Tuesday 6 November

As the CPTers returned from morning school patrol and moved through the
mosque gate checkpoint, Israeli border police closed the checkpoint, not
permitting people to move into or out of the Old City. When CPTers
confronted the soldiers, the soldiers said they closed the checkpoint for
the day "because of CPT." It reopened several minutes later.

Frederick and Stucky helped to harvest olives on land below the occupied
house.

Wednesday 7 November

Frederick and Gibb met with a representative of the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) to discuss CPT accompaniment for census workers
in areas around Hebron where these workers have faced harassment from
Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Thursday 8 November

Frederick, Gibb, and Hicks accompanied a group from the U.K. as they walked
the length of Shuhada Street on their tour of Hebron.

Friday 9 November

Frederick, Gibb, Hicks, and Rich Meyer went to the Al-Jabbari land for the
regular Friday action. On their way through the mosque checkpoint, they
observed the turnstiles were locked. Two Palestinian men were taking off
their belts and emptying their pockets to pass through the metal detector.
When they had passed, the soldiers unlocked the gate for three more people,
and then they locked it again, until all three had passed through the second
turnstile. They did the same for the next three people going through the
checkpoint, as well.

At the Al-Jabbari land, the Palestinians, CPTers, and other internationals
moved stones back to where they had placed them the week before, near the
roadside, so settlers could no longer pull their cars onto the field.
Settlers had thrown the stones back into the field over the course of the
week.

At dusk, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, Frederick and Gibb walked to
the Wadi Al-Nasara, where they observed between thirty to forty Israeli
settlers worshipping in the open. Israeli soldiers guarded Haret iJaber,
called by the settlers "Worshipper's Way," which runs through the Wadi.

Saturday 10 November

Frederick, Gibb, Hicks, and a guest went to Beit Ummar to visit a family
whose two sons the Israeli military had abducted on Wednesday morning. One
had been out of Israeli prison for a month-and-a-half. The mother said
about fifty soldiers surrounded their house around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday
morning, after having first gone to their old residence nearer the bypass
road, broken down the locked door and vandalized the house. The next night
they came back and took six more men from the extended family as well as
others in the village. The two abducted Wednesday morning were first sent
to the jail at Gush Etzion, but were moved to Hawarra near Nablus because
the Gush Etzion facility was full.

Sunday 11 November 2007

School in Hebron was dismissed early because of the third anniversary of
President Yassar Arafat's death.

Frederick, Hicks, and Eileen Hanson met Friesen in the Bab iZawiyya on their
way back from Jerusalem. Produce sellers were dismantling their stalls in
preparation to move to a new location. On reaching the Bab il-Baledeyya,
they encountered a patrol of six Israeli soldiers moving into the Old City.
(See 13 November CPTnet release, "HEBRON: Soldiers attempt to search
Christian Peacemaker Team premises.")

Gibb and her grandson went to Ramallah for the day, where they met friends
at the Quaker Meeting. The city was teeming with young men taking part in a
mass rally on the third anniversary of President Yasser Arafat's death.

Monday 12 November

During school patrol, children and teachers arrived at school as usual, but
the Ibrahimiyye Boys' School was dismissed almost at once, because the
teachers went on strike calling for cost of living increases in their
salaries. While Jessica Frederick and Rich Meyer were taking 'Hani' home in
his wheelchair, an unruly boy shoved another boy into Frederick. The
teachers were extremely apologetic about the incident, and said they would
discipline the boys.

When Jonathan Stucky was on the CPT roof, a soldier on the roof across the
street initiated a conversation, stating, "Life is sh--." Stucky responded,
"We have life and a beautiful day, so it cannot be so bad." The soldier
said he was one of the soldiers who had invaded the CPT premises the day
before, looking for weapons. Stucky asked him why, given that CPT is a
peace organization, rejecting all violence. The soldier responded that CPT
is too "pro-Palestinian" and the Israeli soldiers do not know what CPT keeps
on its premises. Stucky said, "Everyone is invited to come visit but must
leave their weapons outside." The soldier talked about the nice people in
Israel. Stucky replied, "There are very nice people in Israel, very nice
people in Palestine. CPT works for peace between the nations."

Christina Gibb and Lorne Friesen led a group of African-American
Presbyterian Church leaders from New Jersey on a tour of the Old City.

While Gibb waited outside the Mosque checkpoint for the group to come out of
the I