CPTnet
12 April 2008
Hebron Update: 16-22 March 2008

On team during this period were Art Arbour, Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, JoAnne Lingle, Dianne Roe, Mary Wendeln, and Jessica Frederick.


Sunday 16 March
The Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), CPT delegates and Palestinian partners celebrated Palm Sunday with an action in Abu Dis/Eizeriya. They processed in the path that Jesus traveled from Bethany to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Participants carried olive branches, palm leaves, and signs reading, “Stop the Wall,” and “Where could Jesus go?” This path took them to the Bawaba Gate checkpoint, where Palestinians with permits can pass into Jerusalem. Israeli border police at the checkpoint threatened to fire tear gas at the worshippers and denied them entry into Jerusalem. The group had a worship service outside the checkpoint, with speeches and readings from Scripture about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The Palestinians told the border police that they were worshipping on their own land, and that they had a right to do so. Soon after, the group left the area, because they feared collective punishment for the action. The group continued to worship at a religious community that is now practically surrounded by Israel’s separation wall. Soon the Israeli border police arrived and told the group to disperse.

A woman from Sabeel told the border police that she and the other Palestinians had the right to worship. The border police asked her, “Are you praying against the wall? ” She said that she was praying against the wall, and against the barriers that separate Palestinians from each other. The border police threatened a local Palestinian identified as a leader of the action.

CPTers Arbour, Friesen, Lingle, Roe, and Wendeln entered Jerusalem through another major checkpoint, serving as a witness for those who could not travel to Jerusalem. CPTers handed out 1000 leaflets with the message “Where could Jesus go?” Thousands of pilgrims on their walk from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem took note of the banner, which depicted a wall preventing entry into Jerusalem and asking the question, “Where could Jesus go?”


Monday 17 March
Arbour and Wendeln were on patrol at the Yatta checkpoint where soldiers searched over fifty children and adults. Wendeln presented the soldiers with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) letter that clearly states schoolchildren’s bags should not be searched. The soldier immediately threw the letter on the ground and stood on it.

An elderly Israeli resident of Jerusalem asked CPTer Roe to facilitate a meeting with an Arab friend from Beit Ummar with whom he had lost contact more than thirty years ago. Roe arranged the meeting. They met at a junction of Route 60 and then rode back and forth between checkpoints so they could have a conversation and exchange gifts.

Lingle went to Beit Ummar to visit a Palestinian friend. Three days before, he had attended a conference for Israelis and Palestinians at the Dead Sea. On the way home from the conference, the bus stopped in Jerusalem. He had not received permission from the Israelis to go to Jerusalem since he was a child. Because it was Friday, he was able to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Wendeln and Roe responded to a call from a Palestinian friend. The CPTers discovered that Israeli soldiers had confiscated the key to a newly remodeled home in the Old City. Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) had just finished remodeling the home, and had given permission to this Palestinian family to resume residence in their home when the Israeli military confiscated the keys, barring them from taking up residence in their home.


Tuesday 18 March
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and a photojournalist from the United States visited CPT. After a rooftop tour, Wendeln and Lingle took them on a walk through the mosque gate to the Yatta checkpoint. The final stop was the Resistance Cafe for an interview with the proprietor.


Wednesday 19 March
In response to a phone call that the Israeli army was about to demolish a house, Hebron team members Benvie and Friesen hurried to At-Tuwani. When they arrived, CPTers and the At-Tuwani men were divided into two groups, one on the top of a roof, and the other group in front of the village mosque. About 11:00 a.m. an army jeep drove through the village and out again without stopping. By mid-afternoon, the villagers felt it unlikely that the military would begin a demolition so late in the day. The team later learned the Israeli military demolished eleven structures in the agricultural villages of Qawawis, Imneizil, Ad Deirat and Umm Lasafa.

In Hebron, Roe, Wendeln and Lingle went to Old Shalala Street, where a settler had thrown a brick from the rooftop of the Israeli settlement, Beit Hadassah, injuring a Palestinian. A soldier stood by and watched from his post without intervening or calling an ambulance for the Palestinian.


Thursday 20 March
Wendeln and Lingle went to the home of a Palestinian family facing eviction in Hebron’s Old City. When they arrived, they saw two settlers in the house accompanied by a group of fifteen to twenty Israeli soldiers. Other Israeli soldiers were posted on nearby rooftops. Wendeln asked an Israeli soldier why the settlers were allowed into the family home. He refused to answer, or to remove the settlers. Eventually the soldiers and settlers left, but immediately another group of soldiers and Israeli police arrived. The family said that they had owned the building for 1,000 years. HRC was in the process of renovation work on part of the building and the family had moved some of their belongings into the newly renovated rooms.

The Israeli soldiers told the father to tell the CPTers to leave. The police then arrested the father and a Palestinian activist, evicted the other members of the family and welded the doors shut in the newly renovated part of the building.

After the family’s eviction, they had to live in one room across from their house. Although the father was released from jail the same day, he was told he had to pay a fine or go back to jail. He had no money, so the police sent him back to jail, but later released him again.

Roe met Bishop Gumbleton and a photojournalist in Beit Ummar, where they spoke with the family of the imprisoned former mayor of Beit Ummar, Farhan Al Qam.

Friesen and Arbour slept in Palestinian homes to be present in the event that Israeli settlers celebrating Purim might harass Palestinian families and damage the Cordoba school. The settlers made a lot of noise, but no violence occurred.

Friday, March 21
At the mosque checkpoint, the Israeli army was unusually slow in allowing Palestinians on their way to prayer to pass through the metal detector and turnstile.

Saturday, March 22
Arbour and Friesen observed a military jeep on the street next to the sweet shop half way to Beit Romano. When asked what they were doing, the soldier replied that HRC renovation was not permitted. One of the soldiers had a muzzled dog on a leash.

While Friesen and Lingle were on night patrol near the Ibrahimi mosque, an Israeli policeman in a jeep told Friesen that they were in a closed military zone and had had to leave the area. When the jeep left, Lingle asked the two Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint to see a copy of the military order. They said they did not have one. Lingle then said, “Since we’re volunteers and not soldiers, we don’t have to follow orders.” A Jewish man coming from the synagogue asked Friesen where he was from. Before he walked away, the man said to Friesen, “Welcome.” The soldiers ended the conversation by saying the Israeli settlers in Hebron do not like the soldiers.