CPTnet
2 February 2008
Hebron Update: 31 December 2007 – 14 January 2008

[Note: According to Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous U.N. resolutions, all settlements in the Occupied Territories illegal.]


Team members for this period included Tarek Abuata, Jan Benvie, Jean Fallon, Delycia Feustel, Johann Funk, Art Gish, Eileen Hanson, Paulette Schroeder, Kathie Uhler and Mary Wendeln.


Monday 31 December, 2007
Uhler, Feustel and Funk went on patrol to a multi-unit, Palestinian-owned building, that Israeli settlers took over at Passover. The building was under construction near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. CPTers have named it, “the Occupied House.” When the team arrived in the late afternoon, soldiers denied them entry beyond their barrier. A soldier told them, “The road into the Old City is open only to Palestinians.” When the team protested they had always walked through the barrier, he responded, “There are new rules since last Friday.” The comment was probably a veiled reference, to the killing of two off-duty Israeli soldiers whose families live in Kiryat Arba.

Near the Yatta Road checkpoint, soldiers were holding two Palestinian boys for throwing stones. A Palestinian passer-by explained to CPTers, “They were throwing stones. No trouble for the soldiers, trouble for the boys.” Shortly afterwards, soldiers released each of the boys to older Palestinian males.
When the team arrived at Gates 4/5, near the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu, soldiers denied them entry to the Old City, saying, “These are our orders.” When the team said that they lived in the Old City, the soldier replied, “We have also been ordered not to speak to you.”


Tuesday 01 January 2008
While on the 11:30 a.m. patrol, Benvie and Feustel passed through Gates 4/5 into the Old City without anyone stopping them.

Later at the Mosque checkpoint, Uhler and Feustel found out that Border Police had been detaining sixteen men and a family of five for over an hour. Shortly after the CPTers arrived, police returned IDs to ten of the men and allowed them to leave. The remaining men were from Nablus and the family was from Ramallah. Uhler spoke with the men about their long detention. One of the men beamed and said, “I am so happy!” When asked why, he told Uhler, “I am happy just to be this close [to the Ibrahimi Mosque].” Over an hour later, the Border Police finally allowed the family and the group of young men to leave. However, they did not let the men enter the Ibrahimi Mosque.

In the afternoon, Uhler and Feustel visited a Palestinian family near the Occupied House. They talked about the loss of their produce stand in the Old City and income from it, and past harassment from settlers.

Wednesday 02 January
During school patrol, Benvie observed soldiers removing a rope hanging from a house along Shuhada Street. An Israeli officer spoke to Benvie and explained that the Palestinians climb down the rope, avoiding the nearby checkpoint. He was concerned about people bringing weapons into H2 (the Israeli military-controlled area of Hebron). He and Benvie spoke about the possibility of peace. He said, “Maybe not in my lifetime, but I hope for peace one day.”

Later, an Israeli settler spoke with Benvie and Feustel near the Gutnick Center, an Israeli settlement near the Ibrahimi Mosque. He said to the CPTers, “You will be happy to see a Jew killed.” Benvie said they did not like to see anyone killed, that they wanted peace for everyone. He replied by calling them Nazis.

When Benvie and Uhler picked up “Hani” (not his real name), an eight-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair, at the Ibrahimi Boys School to take him home, a teacher said that eight to ten soldiers broke into the school that morning during exams. He said they disrupted all the classes and insulted the teachers and headmaster in front of the students. The soldiers made the boys put their hands up. The little boys became afraid and some of them wet their pants. The soldiers said they saw an armed Palestinian policeman go into the school in the morning. The teacher said, “We ask God to give us patience.”

Feustel and Hicks led a tour for a group of thirty from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. As the group walked on Shuhada Street near Avraham Avinu, a patrol of Border Police offered to escort the group up Shuhada Street. Hicks politely declined the offer and the police did not accompany the group.

A Palestinian shop owner stopped by the CPT apartment with Eid Al Adha (End of Ramadan) treats for the team. In the summer, the IDF (Israel Defence Force) closed his shop at nearby Beit Romano checkpoint and later extended the closure to 01 May 2008. (See 22 August 2007 CPTnet release, "HEBRON REFLECTION: Evictions and closures; the news and bad news.") Uhler asked him if CPT could do anything regarding his shop. He said he did everything one could do, even getting his brother, who is a PA Minister, to put pressure on the Israeli Civil Administration. He expressed his frustration: “The closure order is a military order, and no one can change a military order except the military.”

Benvie and Uhler noticed a girl and boy near the Mosque police station. They found out that earlier in the evening, a soldier came to their home to detain the boy because he was playing with stones on the roof. The father—who has a disability resulting from a previous encounter with Israeli soldiers, during which both of his legs were broken—came to the roof to see why the soldier had come. The soldier started throwing stones at the father and the boy; the father started throwing stones back. The soldier called in more soldiers who beat the father on his hands and legs. When the father cried out, “My legs are broken!” a soldier retorted, “OK. I will break them more.” The soldiers detained the father at the police station. CPTers stayed at the home until an older sister called an uncle to come and stay with them, since their mother was away.

Thursday 03 January
While Benvie and Feustel escorted Hani in his wheelchair to school, soldiers at the checkpoint stopped Hani and, contrary to an Israeli Civil Administration order, searched his backpack.
Benvie and Feustel (and a translator) went to a local girl’s school to address the student body about CPT. Several teachers told the CPTers that Border Police at checkpoints make them go through the metal detectors, even though Israeli Civil Administration orders exempt women of childbearing age from going through them. They also said that Border Police at the Mosque checkpoint frequently search their bags, even though all teachers have additional identification.

The teachers further reported that many children coming from Wadi Al-Nasara neighborhood do not attend school around Jewish holidays because the Israeli military sets up additional checkpoints during these times.

Benvie, Feustel, Funk and Hanson walked to the Occupied House in the afternoon. They saw an Israeli settler playing with a group of children. As the CPTers walked past the man, he called the children to him and spoke to them. The children then started calling the CPTers “Nazi,” and one of the children hit Feustel. The man then praised the child.

A Palestinian friend stopped by for a visit. He told the team about his recent speaking tour of the Northeastern US and Canada. In Washington, DC, he was able to speak with someone in Barak Obama’s office and in the U.S. State Department. He said he enjoyed the visits and was happy to speak with anyone who would listen about the situation in Palestine, saying, “If I can change even one person, it is worth it.”

Friday 04 January
In the morning, Benvie and Feustel went to share in the work on Palestinian land near Kiryat Arba. A group of Palestinians and internationals removed stones from the field and prepared the land for planting. No Israeli soldiers or police were present, as is often the case, during such solidarity actions on the land. Settlers walked freely on a sidewalk, however, which they had built across the family’s land, connecting Kiryat Arba with an outpost settlement.

Benvie and Feustel patrolled at the Occupied House. Two Israeli settler men stopped their car beside the CPTers, saying, “You want to see blood!” Then Border Police stopped the two CPTers at the checkpoint beside Occupied House and said, “Don’t you remember me? I told you, you cannot go this way.” So Benvie and Feustel walked down the steps by the mosque next door to the house and up the stairs farther down on the lower street, arriving about twenty feet on the other side of the checkpoint. The Border Police officer saw them but did not say anything.

Saturday 05 January
Hanson and Feustel joined a demonstration in Beit Ummar with Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli activists . The group attempted to gain access to Palestinian land that Israelis fenced into the neighboring Israeli settlement of Karme Tzur. As the group walked toward a gate in the fence, a group of about twenty soldiers blocked their path. Leaders of the group played music and spoke to the crowd over a loudspeaker mounted on a tractor and trailer. After a long standoff, the Israeli District Coordinating Officer (DCO) ruled that the Palestinian farmers wishing to access their land needed to submit a list of names to his office and arrange a time to enter the land. Organizers responded by saying that they had tried to do so many times, and last year were only allowed on the land on two occasions. The leaders vowed to continue the demonstrations every Saturday until they gain regular access to the land.

Wendeln and Funk and Art Gish went to meet a friend in the Beqa’a Valley to discuss recently issued stop-work orders on several homes and a clinic. (See 11 January 2008 CPTnet release, "HEBRON URGENT ACTION: Stop work order issued for clinic in the Beqa’a Valley.")


Monday 07 January
Benvie noticed soldiers on a neighbor’s roof and Hanson and Funk went out on the porch to speak with them. Hanson asked, “What’s the problem?” A soldier replied, “There is no problem; we are just looking." Hanson responded, “ That is somebody’s home. Were you invited?” The soldier replied that the residents were not Jews.

Benvie and Hanson then went over to the neighbor’s house. The father seemed happy and untroubled by the soldiers’ presence. He was on his roof sewing cast-off tarpaulins into tents, and two young men were outside the house were working with the tarps. Three soldiers were inside and three more were in the entryway. Shortly after the CPTers arrived, the soldiers left. The family invited the CPTers in for tea and snacks.

Near the Gutnick Center checkpoint at the Mosque, Feustel and Hanson observed a Palestinian man standing face to the wall and legs spread out. The commander took the man aside and spoke with him for several minutes. Then Israeli Border Police walked him over to the police station at the Mosque and handcuffed him there. The arrestee’s mother and two younger siblings arrived at the station. The mother seemed unaware of any reason for the arrest. After some conversation with the police, mother and children left. Hanson and Feustel followed them. Along the way, another man told the CPTers a similar story of his detention at the same checkpoint. The CPTers phoned TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). Hanson and Feustel left the situation to the TIPH members and returned home.


Wednesday 09 January
Feustel responded to a call from a neighbor. The woman explained that her two sons were caring for their doves and dogs on their roof. A soldier from an observation tower said the boys threw stones at him, but the boys said they were only chasing cats away from the dogs. The soldier came to their home and said that if he saw anyone from the family on the roof again, he would arrest the whole family. The boys’ mother said, “The soldiers harass me every day and have been coming almost every day for a month. Sometimes they stay for as long as five hours.” She is usually alone and is afraid they might hurt or kill her or the children. Feustel urged her to file a complaint with the Israeli police.

Funk and Benvie spent many hours observing Israeli settler activity at Wadi al Nasara, which settlers refer to as part of Worshipper's Way, near the settlement of Kiryat Arba. Over fifty Israeli settlers—men, women and children—were there. Large boulders partially blocked the road and settlers were moving more stones over to the roadblock. They appeared to be constructing walls in two areas and, on the ground, a decorative Star of David. The land belongs to Palestinian families and the settler youth by their acts are threatening to confiscate or steal the land. A number of Israeli policemen and IDF were at the site, but they made no attempt to stop the settlers. Soon Feustal and Schroeder joined Benvie and Funk. Three military trucks arrived. Most Palestinians, including children and a pregnant woman, bypassed the settlers by trudging through a field below and parallel to the road. But several children and adults insisted on using the road. The CPTers escorted those who dared to take that route. Benvie and Fuestal accompanied an older man with a cane who said he owned the land.

About an hour later, soldiers began to urge the settlers back. Settlers were arguing with Border Police and began to rush through an opening into a Palestinian neighborhood. At once, the police ran to get in front of the mob of about forty settler youth. The police had to physically push them out of the neighborhood, all the while suffering verbal and physical attacks by the youth. Adult settlers arrived and escalated the struggle with the police. One policeman was injured.

Six teenage settler girls told Schroeder that Palestinians were occupying “their” land. When Schroeder spoke to them of God, who said to love everyone and to do good to everyone, they insisted on repeating their rhetoric. An Israeli woman arrived and spoke with the settlers and police against their violence, without any success. The CPTers heard her trying to reason with settler women. When they called her “Nazi,” she angrily replied: “How can you say that to me when many of my family were killed by the Nazis?”

Wendeln and Hanson went out to visit the medical clinic in the Beqa’a Valley. The building to house the clinic is currently under construction, and the Israeli Civil Administration recently issued a military stop-work order on the clinic. A stop-work order usually precedes a demolition order. The clinic is the only medical service for 600 to 700 women and their children in the valley. In addition to the clinic, two houses adjacent to it have stop work orders, as do two other homes in the valley.


Thursday 10 January
Hanson and Benvie observed at the Gutnick Center checkpoint that the Border police were detaining eight men, including four teachers, from the Ibrahimi Boys School. The police body-searched two of the teachers, who were spread-eagled against the wall. The reason for the extra security became clear when upwards of fifty settlers marched along Shuhada Street to the Gutnick Center. Soon after, the police released the eight men.

Benvie, Feustel and Funk went to the Wadi al Nasara where they observed around twenty young settlers on the Palestinian land. They learned from some other internationals that longtime CPT friend Abdelhadi Hantash from Hebron Land Defense Committee had been there that morning. Benvie called Hantash, who told her he was writing a report and would send it to the mayor on Saturday.


Friday 11 January
The CPT Delegation arrived for the next four days: two in Hebron and two in At-Tuwani.

Benvie and Funk went to Wadi al Nasara in the mid-afternoon. The settlers were still on the land and the soldiers were forcing Palestinians to walk in the muddy area to the side of the road. The CPTers stayed and observed for a short time.


Feustel and Wendeln went to the weekly nonviolent action on the Al Jabari farm, near Kiryat Arba. Because the ground was too muddy to work, the day’s action consisted of sitting in a circle in solidarity with members of the Al Jabari family. Also present were ISMers and Sons of Abraham (an Israeli peace group that includes former soldiers). On the way back to the apartment, the two CPTers observed soldiers at the Gutnick checkpoint constructing a barricade and retaining Palestinians from ten to thirty at a time on their way to noon prayers at the Mosque. Israeli police soon arrived, talked to the soldiers, and then the soldiers let the Palestinians through.

Saturday 12 January
Hanson and Schroeder went to Beit Ummar to participate in an action to gain access to Palestinian land behind the fence at Karme Tzur. Soldiers stopped the nonviolent group on the path leading to the gate. Eventually organizers said the demonstration was over. Then, Palestinian youth began slinging rocks at the soldiers, who responded with tear gas.

CPTers Benvie and Funk spent five hours along Wadi Al Nasara accompanying Palestinians. Settlers were harassing them and soldiers were ignoring them. In one instance, three settler boys came towards a Palestinian man. One of the boys spoke in Arabic and insulted the Prophet Mohammed, saying he was a pig. The man became angry and Benvie stepped between him and the boys. The man was able to go on his way. A soldier stood and watched, but did not offer any help or try to redress the boys’ conduct.

A group of eight to ten settler girls pulled Benvie from where she was standing and dragged her to the middle of road. They hit, pushed and kicked her until she fell down. A boy sprayed something in Funk’s face, making it difficult for him to see clearly. Throughout the attack, the soldier stood and watched what was happening. Eventually another soldier saw what the settler boys and girls were doing and moved forward to stop them.

As Jewish worshippers walked up and down the path they call Worshippers Way to the Synagogue at the Mosque, some returned Benvie and Funk’s greetings of “Shabbat Shalom,” some ignored them and some called them Nazis. One man referred to Benvie’s recent release as “obscene.” (See 11 January 2008 CPTnet release, “HEBRON REFLECTION: Tae see wirselves as others see us.” He said it was obscene to compare the suffering of a Jewish mother whose son was “murdered by Arab terrorist” to that of the mother of a “terrorist.” He asked Benvie and Funk questions, but then shouted further questions or comments at them when they tried to answer.

Later Benvie and other observers saw a group of seventy settlers near a Palestinian home just below Kiryat Arba. She went with some internationals went to the house. The settlers came to the house shouting, screaming and throwing stones. They left four members of the family with head and arm injuries. A half-hour later Israeli Border Police and army removed the settlers from the area. The police took four men of the Palestinian family to the police station to question them; but they did not question any settlers. A Palestinian activist went with some family members to file a complaint at the police station.

Sunday 13 January
CPT Delegates returned from an overnight in Tuwani. After meetings in Hebron, they went on to home stays with Palestinian families in the Beqa’a Valley, Tel Rumeida, and Beit Ummar.

Wendeln went to Jerusalem to meet teammate, Jean Fallon, who arrived from the U.S. Later that evening the two CPTers chatted briefly with Mordechai Vanunu at the Jerusalem Hotel. Vanunu blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear program. He served an eighteen-year sentence, including eleven years in solitary confinement. He remains under city arrest in Jerusalem.

Gish spent eight hours leading a tour of twelve from the Evangelical Covenant Church in Rockford, Illinois. When the group was near the Gutnick Center, a Kiryat Arba settler recognized Gish and greeted him enthusiastically. The group was surprised and engaged in conversation with the settler. The settler puts all the blame for the current situation on the Palestinians.

Gish noted the advantage of having a delegation from one congregation: people do not feel isolated when they return home.

Monday 14 January
Benvie saw a group of Israelis, with two members of the Hebron settler community, come out of the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah and enter the souq (market). A guard of ten Israeli soldiers was with them, since Israeli citizens are forbidden to go into that Palestinian area. ( However, Israeli settlers live in the souq in four settlements with 2,000 soldiers stationed there to protect.) Abuata joined Benvie and they saw soldiers holding up pedestrian traffic and making Palestinians go inside their shops.

During the event, the commander told Abuata that he is not responsible for making peace, and that he has only doing his job: to protect Jewish settlers. Abuata proceeded to tell him about CPT and the nonviolence efforts and trainings happening in the area. Abuata encouraged the commander to “…make peace with the Palestinians on a personal level, which is the only way peace can be possible between nations.”

On the way back to Hebron from Beit Ummar, the CPT Delegates’ shared taxi was delayed some minutes in traffic while workers cleared Route 60 of ice.