by Aida Hayes

Hebron/Palestine  On Monday, 3 August, CPTers Lorin Peters, Paulette Schroeder, and Aida Hayes walked to Tel Rumeida in the evening to meet a member of the CPT Advisory Council.  They used the street leading to the Council members’ house, which passed the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida, and tried unsuccessfully to find a way past Tel Rumeida settlement to the house.  Palestinian and Jewish houses in the area are completely separated; metal walls, barbed wire, and a locked gate surrounded the Palestinian home they wished to visit.

As they looked for another entrance to the Palestinian house, they tried to walk through the backyard of an adjacent Palestinian home.  As they approached, settler men and women came out of the house, which they had evidently taken over, yelling things to the soldiers about CPT and demanding the soldiers stop the CPTers.

A group of about eight soldiers in the backyard told the CPTers they could not go that way.  Hayes said, “We are no security risk to these settlers.  We are Christian Peacemaker Teams.  We are completely nonviolent.”

“Yes, we know,” the soldier said.  The team asked for an alternative route to the house, where they had an appointment to meet other Palestinian residents of the area.  Meanwhile, settler women began yelling insults about the three, about CPT, and about the U.S.  One large woman began photographing the team members up close and calling them names.  Schroeder began photographing the settlers.  A young settler woman tried unsuccessfully to grab Schroeder's camera.  

Hayes told the soldiers the team members wanted to leave, and asked, “Which way can we go?”  The soldiers directed the three CPTers out past the occupied house and ordered them to wait in front of the military camp.  As they walked near the occupied house, a settler dropped an egg on Hayes’ head from upstairs.  It broke all over the CPT hat and splattered down the back of her shirt.

Hayes asked Schroeder to take a picture of the hat and shirt.  The soldier told them to put the camera away, to avoid escalating the situation.  They put the camera away, but Hayes said, “You allowed them to photograph us, but you won’t allow us to use our camera.”
The soldiers were calm throughout the incident, talking quietly to the CPTers and to the settlers, but they did not attempt to restrain the settlers.  When they police arrived, they took information from the CPTers’ passports, and then walked the CPTers out of the area.