CPTnet
20 February 2008
HEBRON UPDATE: 16-31 January 2008

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal.]

Team members during this period were Tarek Abuata, Jan Benvie, Jean Fallon, Jessica Frederick, Art Gish, Eileen Hanson, Dianne Roe, Paulette Schroeder, Kathie Uhler, and Mary Wendeln.

Tuesday 15 January
Benvie and Wendeln visited Palestinians who live behind the Beit Hadassah settlement after settlers broke into their home. Soldiers arrived and told Benvie she was not allowed to go on the roof to take photos. She asked if the family could go on their own roof and the soldier told her, “No, they cannot go. It is a closed military zone.” The soldiers detained two young men from the house, took their IDs and locked them inside the Beit Romano checkpoint. At the checkpoint, soldiers also stopped and searched two Palestinian police officers.

While passing by the Ibrahimi Mosque, Abuata spoke with two Palestinian men whom soldiers were detaining. The military commander came up and forbade Abuata to talk with the men. When Abuata asked why, the commander said, “Because I am the commander.” Abuata said, “I am also a commander, a commander of myself.” He challenged the soldiers to drop their weapons and become commanders of themselves rather than commanding others with their weapons. The commander accused Abuata of interfering with Israeli security and detained him. At the Kiryat Arba police station, Abuata refused to sign a statement in Hebrew. Abuata had had a friendly conversation with his interrogator, and, in the end, they parted smiling.


Wednesday 16 January
[During this period, Israel cut off the fuel supply into Gaza. The Gazans broke through the wall at Rafah setting off further Israeli reprisals and waves of tension throughout the Occupied Territories. CPTers witnessed the following events in the Old City.]

While Roe was in the market area at Bab iZawiyya, schoolboys shouted, “Taht! Taht!” (“Gunfire! Gunfire!”) Roe made her way through side streets as soldiers closed shops and teargassed Palestinian youth throwing stones. Soldiers blocked the entrance to the Old City at the Beit Romano checkpoint, so Roe made her way through the Old City tunnels to get to the CPT apartment. Fallon, Schroeder, and Wendeln, on errands in the area surrounding the Beit Romano checkpoint (Bab iBaledeyya), witnessed shooting, the burning of tires, and rock throwing from youth.

CPTers watched as soldiers forced merchants to close their stalls. The military enforced a curfew for several hours. Later when the three went on patrol a Palestinian woman asked for accompaniment so she could leave the Old City. Soldiers had forbidden her to leave. The CPTers walked the woman to a taxi. As the three CPTers were returning to the souq (market area), another Palestinian woman with two small grandchildren asked for accompaniment to her home in the nearby Tel Rumeida neighborhood. As the group walked closer to that area, they saw soldiers and Palestinian youth exchanging gunfire and stones, respectively. The group felt the effects of tear gas, and the grandmother offered the CPTers pieces of an onion (a commonly used remedy) to alleviate their symptoms. Some youth volunteered to accompany the woman and children to their home amidst the turmoil.

Abuata, Benvie, and Gish observed a Palestinian car parked in front of a teashop in the souq. Soldiers had ordered the driver to not move. Nevertheless, the CPTers got into the small car to accompany the three Palestinians already there out of the souq. Soldiers stopped the car at the Beit Romano checkpoint. After ten minutes, soldiers allowed the car to leave.

Thursday 17 January
Israeli authorities continued to place the Old City under curfew. CPTers spent time at Bab iZawiyya (another nearby market area). Soldiers shot “rubber” bullets, and lobbed tear gas and percussion grenades; young Palestinian men threw stones in response.

Abuata and Schroeder visited two families living in nearby Wadi Al Nasara. One of the families lives within Kiryat Arba, surrounded by the Israeli settlement fence. They said reporting what the Israelis are doing is the most powerful “weapon” to use in exposing Israeli apartheid and that international organizations play a big role in this reporting. The other family told the CPTers that settlers have occupied their land several times. They welcomed internationals working their lands and helping with the planting. Leaving the Palestinian families, settlers attacked Abuata and Schroeder. Fallon and Gish, as backup, joined them in the Wadi. After Fallon took pictures, about eight settler teenagers picked up rocks and walked toward her and Gish. The CPTers walked up the hill and stood among some Palestinians for protection.


Friday 18 January
The military reopened Bab iZawiyya and the Old City. Fallon, Gish, and Schroeder attended an action in Bethlehem against the building of the Wall, which would render 5,000 acres inaccessible to Palestinians by surrounding four villages. Approximately 700 men and boys were present at the action and some 700 more men and boys at Friday prayer. The event, sponsored by the Popular Committee against the Wall and the Settlement in Al-Khader, proceeded peacefully.

Saturday 19 January
Uhler, Schroeder, and a visiting nonviolence trainer, patrolled along Wadi Al Nasara and spent some time talking with Palestinian children. They observed about thirty teenage Israeli girls gathering in the Wadi. Meanwhile, three Palestinian women and their small children needed to walk down the road, called by the settlers “Worshipper’s Way.” On Shabbat, the Israeli authorities have forbidden Palestinians to use that road, which forces them to walk a somewhat precarious, narrow, dirt path that is parallel to the road.

The girls rushed en masse at the women and CPTers. A general melee ensued with the girls shouting at the group, spitting, pushing, and kicking. By the time Fallon and Wendeln had arrived, a girl had torn off the glasses and hijab (head scarf) of one of the Palestinian women. The assailant broke the glasses and threw them on the ground. Another girl tore off Wendeln’s glasses and threw them on the ground another kicked Fallon, bruising her legs. One girl stole the chip from the CPT visitor’s camera.

The CPTers urged the soldiers along the road to intervene, but they did nothing at first. Then when backup arrived, they pushed the girls away from the Palestinians and CPTers. Schroeder managed a reflective moment with one of the Israeli girls, who seemed less active in the violence. She encouraged the girl to impress on her friends that God wishes no violence upon anyone.

Abuata and Gish went on afternoon patrol to Wadi Al Nasara and observed a dozen settler youth. On the way to the Occupied House (a multi-family Palestinian dwelling, under construction, taken over by Israeli settlers last March), they saw about 200 settler girls entering it. Israeli police arrested one Palestinian for filming the attacks. No settlers were arrested. The police released the Palestinian, whom the girls injured, after viewing his film of the girls’ attack in his home.

Monday 21 January
Uhler, Abuata, and Gish monitored soldiers closing shops at Beit Romano so that a group of about forty Israeli men could pray at a plaque in Hebrew in the souq. Gish and Abuata confronted the soldiers and worshippers with the injustice of closing all the shops so that outsiders could pray there. They said they hoped that Palestinians would not do that to them in Tel Aviv. Abuata had a meaningful exchange with the commander. All of this attracted some of the worshipers who cursed, mocked the group, and told the CPTers to go home. After an hour, soldiers dispersed the worshipers and the market was again opened.

Tuesday 22 January
The team hosted seven of the Hebron Youth Partners at a supper meeting. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, with Abuata, had trained four in Martin Luther King's method of nonviolence a week before in Bethlehem. The group talked about possibilities of working together in Hebron. All agreed that doing nonviolence training in Hebron universities is important.

Wednesday 23 January
The team hosted a meeting with a peace activist and organizer from Beit Ummar. Abuata, Roe, Wendeln, Fallon, Gish, and Schroeder attended. The group discussed the weekly action in Beit Ummar around the expansion of Karme Tzur, an illegal Israeli settlement. The activist assured the CPTers that Beit Ummar does not want its action to devolve into the violence of stone slinging, as it does in some other weekly actions in the West Bank.

Abuata, Schroeder, and Roe visited two Palestinian families in Wadi Al Nasara and talked about what CPT could do in the present settler crisis. Both families greeted the CPTers enthusiastically and described how the settlers of Kiryat Arba are ruthless with them on Shabbat (Friday-Saturday, sunset to sunset). One of the fathers began to cry when he described how he had the respect of the soldiers at one time. Now that he is eighty-five-years-old and feeble, he said, settler kids laugh and push him down and as he tries to cross the street to his land.

At dusk, Schroeder, Roe, and Abuata waited for two-and-a-half hours at the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint until the military released one Palestinian man. To pass the time away, Abuata suggested Schroeder teach some yoga. As Schroeder taught Abuata and Roe, one soldier did a bit of yoga playfully and said he was now on “the CPT side.” After soldiers released the man, Abuata and Schroeder conversed with the soldiers about the Occupation for about an hour.

Thursday 24 January
Frederick, Roe, and Schroeder visited the home of Imm Jawad, whom Roe knew from having been with the family when Israeli military demolished their home. Imm Jawad invited Frederick to her home any time so she and her daughters could teach her Arabic.

Friday 25 January
Fallon, Schroeder, Uhler, and Wendeln participated in a walking tour of the Old City sponsored by Breaking the Silence--a group of discharged Israeli soldiers who served in Hebron. Their goal is exposing the reality of the Occupation and the “terrible moral price” they and Israeli society have paid for inhumane soldiering. Former soldier Yehuda Shaul led the group of about fifty, mostly Israelis and Jews. Various Israelis from the settlements surrounding the Ibrahimi Mosque heckled Shaul along the way. Police finally came to protect the right of the group to tour. Present in the tour group was a descendant of the pre-1929 Hebron Jewish community and Israeli citizen, Chaim Hanegbi. He owns the land where the wholesale market used to exist in Hebron, now the site of the Avraham Avinu settlement. He is adamant about the Israeli government expelling all settlers from Hebron and said that he would move back into Hebron only if Israel applied laws equally to Israelis and Palestinians.

Frederick and Hanson went on noon patrol at the Mosque. The Israeli military held about seventy men during the Friday Prayers, checking their IDs. The soldiers released all the men in half-an-hour.

Fallon and Uhler met with Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief of the Council of Human Rights. Jahangir invited CPT Hebron to brief her on instances of abuses of this freedom as observed in their work.

Hanson and Roe left for Beit Ummar in the afternoon. The team heard reports of military incursions and clashes in the town following an attack by two men from there at Gush Etzion (an Israeli settlement bloc) on Thursday. Soldiers firing shrapnel injured a friend of CPT and fellow nonviolent activist from Beit Ummar.

Saturday 26 January
Frederick and Schroeder traveled with a convoy of cars and buses to the Erez checkpoint at Gaza to deliver seven tons of foodstuffs and, along with 2000 people, make a statement “To End the Siege in Gaza.” At least twenty-six Israeli human rights groups organized this massive event. Shir Shusdig, an Israeli woman from Sderot near the Gaza border, spoke: “For seven years I am suffering from the Qassams (homemade Palestinian rockets) in Kibbutz Zikum and Sderot. I know that the people on the other side are also suffering very much. That’s why I am here.”

Sunday 27 January
In Beit Ummar, Roe, Wendeln and Uhler offered CPT’s condolences at the deaths (killed by settlers) of two Sabarneh men (cousins, relatives of team friend Edna Sabarneh) who had infiltrated the Gush Etzion settlement (See 7 February CPTnet releases, "BEIT UMMAR: Tragedy in Beit Ummar, Part I—a closer look," and "BEIT UMMAR: Tragedy in Beit Ummar, Part II--rest in peace?")

Schroeder and Fallon responded to a call to document soldiers’ detention of six boys at Gates 4 and 5, at Avraham Avinu. A settler woman had accused the boys of breaking into her home and stealing from it. Soldiers were forcing the boys to stand in the cold with their arms held high for over an hour before the CPTers arrived. About fifteen settlers, mostly youth, gathered around yelling for vengeance and throwing eggs. Three of the detainees’ mothers came, stood in front of a military vehicle, and pleaded with the soldiers and police to free their boys. Police took the boys in for questioning, releasing them all at midnight.

Monday 28 January
In the morning, a Palestinian friend reported to CPT that the police accused only the two eldest of the boys. One of the younger boys and his mother came to the CPT office. The boy spoke about how soldiers had accosted him outside his home, as he was getting ready to go to the hospital. He needed an x-ray from a recent beating by soldiers. The boys were not beaten in the police station, he said, but they were in handcuffs and blindfolded for two-and-a-half hours. The boy’s wrists were raw in places. At midnight, the police released and left them on a road near the Occupied House. At that checkpoint, soldiers held the boys for another hour. A policeman tore this boy’s ID in half. He will have to pay 150 NIS (shekels or about $50) to get a new one. Police ordered the two eldest boys (nineteen and sixteen years old) to go to the Israeli Civil Administration.

The boys had broken through the gate near the settler areas where they looked for scrap metal to sell. When asked how he feels now, the boy said “Mabsuut ilhamdillah” (“Fine, praise Allah.”) His mother said he was not afraid because of his past experience with soldiers and police. She requested that CPTers help develop some income-generating projects for teenage boy.

Monday January 28
Because of a teacher's strike, school was not in session. Five settler boys, about twelve-years-old, attacked Frederick and Schroeder while on patrol at the checkpoint in Tel Rumeida. The boys ran off with the CPTers’ hats, and then came back when urged by settler leader, Anat Cohen. She repeated to the CPTers, “You make Hamas!” Then the children absconded with Frederick’s glasses and tried to pull the video camera and her purse from her. They kicked, screamed, and pulled all the while Schroeder was trying to protect Frederick and get soldiers, who were about ten yards away, to help. A soldier came and told the kids to go away.

Frederick and Schroeder later filed a report with the police about the settler youth violence and the soldiers’ reluctance to thwart this and assist them.

Tuesday 29 January
Abdelhadi Hantash of the Hebron Land Defense Committee stopped in at the team's apartment. He reported that in the past two days settlers had placed five new mobile homes at the outpost at Karme Tzur the Israeli settlement near Beit Ummar. Just last week, Hantash went on, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert announced he would remove all the outposts. “Now,” Hantash stated, “the Israeli Defense Ministry wants to give the settlers the authority to expand the settlements.”

Wednesday 30 January
It snowed for much of the day; about a foot accumulated. School was cancelled. Frederick, Hanson, and Wendeln went out for a brief patrol. The souq was empty and soldiers had closed the Mosque gate. Hanson asked a soldier several times why the gate was closed, but the soldier ignored her.

Thursday 31 January
Abuata saw settler boys from the Beit Romano yeshiva and Palestinian boys throwing snowballs at each other at the checkpoint area. Everyone was laughing and the Palestinian kids were even throwing snowballs at the soldiers. The fight lasted for about a couple of hours. A few media people arrived. When six soldiers came in from the souq, they yelled at the Palestinian boys to stop throwing snowballs. Abuata called for CPT backup; Wendeln and Frederick responded. The soldiers detained two twelve-year-old Palestinian boys. Abuata stayed with the boys until soldiers released them fifteen minutes later. Settler boys continued throwing snowballs at the detained Palestinians, with soldiers standing by laughing. Abuata reported that, “What had started out, and was for about two hours a fun, laughter-filled atmosphere, turned into a bleak, sad evening.”