CPTnet
9 July 2009
AL KHALIL/HEBRON UPDATE: June 2009

[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.  Settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]

On team during this period were Jessica Frederick, Donna Hicks, Maureen Jack, Barbara Martens.

Summary
A heavy Israeli military presence continues in the Palestinian city of Hebron.  ID checks at checkpoints are a daily occurrence, as are army patrols through the Old City.  The imposed physical separation of Palestinians from the Israeli settlers makes confrontations between the two groups a rarity.  One exception to this rule is the settler-led tour through the Palestinian Old City each Saturday.

CPT's work
Throughout the month, the CPT team continued meeting with other organizations and individuals active in the area, all of whom welcomed CPT's return to Hebron.  The team also continued reorganizing its resources in preparation for the new Al Khalil (Hebron) project.  In accordance with guidance from the team's new Advisory Council of local Palestinian partners, the team gave priority to regular patrols in areas of potential difficulties from either soldiers or settlers.  Although the team is attempting, where possible, to have Hebronites lead tours of the city, the team continued to host individuals and groups seeking information on CPT's work.


New military installations

Wednesday 3 June
Hicks and Martens observed that the house near Wadi Nasara/Kiryat Arba, formerly occupied by Israeli settlers, is now occupied by Israeli military.  Border Police staff the nearby checkpoint.  Since the closure of CPT's Hebron project, the military has installed roof-mounted cameras in Hebron's Old City and H2 area, directed at intersections close to checkpoints.

Checkpoint incidents

Friday 19 June
During Friday noon prayers, Frederick and Hicks noted that Israeli border police were detaining Palestinian men briefly at the Gutnick Center for ID checks.  One man had a somewhat heated discussion with the police.  He did not have his ID but said that he would get it and bring it back.  The police made him lift up his tee shirt to show he was not hiding anything.

Monday 22 June
At about 5:15 p.m., Frederick and Hicks observed an incident at the Gutnick Center checkpoint between a border police officer and a Palestinian man.  The atmosphere was tense, with the border police officer initially behaving confrontationally with the man, and then backing down.  A local shopkeeper explained to the CPTers that the man, who lives nearby, has lost his ID, but has his ID number; he often receives trouble at that checkpoint.  Today, the border police officer wanted to do a special bomb check with him.  Initially, the man accepted the request, but when he began to feel that this check was about humiliation and not security, he refused.  The border police officers called for their captain, but eventually let the Palestinian go before the captain arrived.

Settlers in the Old City

Saturday 6 June
Local Palestinian partners informed the CPT team that during a Saturday tour, settlers had attacked a Palestinian café in the Old City.

Sunday 7 June
The café proprietor told Hicks that the previous day, young settler visitors had broken three pieces of pottery at his shop and that the Israeli soldiers had done nothing to control them.  Further into the market, the owner of a shop beneath Avraham Avinu said that the settlers were rude, but that the soldiers had prevented them from causing damage to his goods.  Some of the settlers had told women running another shop that they were thieves, because the shops in the Old City belonged to the Jewish community.

Saturday 20 June 2009
While shadowing the settler tour through the Old City, Frederick and Hicks came across some small girls who were caught between the tour group and their way home; they were visibly afraid of the settlers and soldiers.  They asked Frederick to speak to the soldiers to let them go through, because they were late and they wanted to go home.  Slowly the tour moved on, and the girls were able to go home.

Tuesday 30 June 2009
A shopkeeper alerted Hicks and Jack to the fact that a patrol of soldiers was accompanying a settler leader through the Old City.  Later another shopkeeper told Jack of a previous visit, maybe a month before, by a settler leader, accompanied by about fifteen soldiers.  The soldiers went into each shop in the main street and measured its dimensions.

Harassment by soldiers in Beit Ummar

Monday 1 June
Shortly after 3:00 p.m., the team received a call reporting that the Israeli military had impounded cars in Beit Ummar.  In a program of collective punishment, Israeli soldiers have been harassing people in the village since a Palestinian went into the nearby settlement of Bat Ayin and killed a settler.

Destruction in the Beqa'a Valley

Monday 8 June
The team received word before 8:00 a.m. of the destruction of cisterns and irrigation pipes outside Hebron (see 9 June 2009 CPTnet release, "HEBRON: Israeli Civil Administration, military, and police destroy cisterns in Beqa'a Valley.")

Wednesday 10 June
Around 6:00 p.m., a resident of the Beqa'a Valley called the team to say that three Israeli military jeeps were in the area and that the soldiers were pulling up tomato and zucchini plants.  Shortly after, a female settler arrived and took photographs.