June 24, 1999
Members of the team attended a meeting in which a Jerusalem City Council
member gave the following statistics:

There are 2,000 families with demolition orders in the West Bank (apart from
Jerusalem), and 2,000 structures with demolition orders in East Jerusalem.
Some of these structures contain more than one family bringing the number
of
families affected in East Jerusalem alone to 4,000. Thus, the total
number of families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank whose
homes are threatened with demolition is 6,000. (CPT is part of a coalition
with Israelis and Palestinians working on raising awareness on the issue of
home demolitions.)

In the afternoon Atta Jaber gave the team a tour of the renovations in the
Old City behind the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Saudi government is funding these
renovations. The Hebron Municipality hopes that Palestinians will move back
into these home -- most of which have remained vacant for many years,
because of Israeli settler and soldier harassment.

June 25, 1999
On a night patrol of Hebron CPTers came upon a group of soldiers talking in
English to a Palestinian who was apologizing to soldiers, explaining that he
"didn't know the situation." The soldiers explained to the CPTers that
they had asked to see the man's Palestinian ID and he said he didn't have
one. Instead he gave them his Jordanian passport. When the soldiers
searched him they found a Palestinian ID and told the man that they would
detain him for 2-3 hours. The soldiers explained to the CPTers, "He lied to
us and now this is his punishment. Today he lies to us, tomorrow maybe he
will be carrying a rock or a bomb."

The CPTers talked to the Palestinian-Jordanian who explained that he was
studying at a university in the West Bank and his friends told him he would
get a better response from the soldiers if he showed them his passport. A
TIPH patrol arrived to observe the scene. The soldiers detained the
Jordanian for another 45 minutes until an Israeli police jeep happened to
drive by. Seeing the jeep, the soldiers immediately let the Palestinian go.
CPT has leaned that soldiers have orders not to "punish" Palestinians --
their role is to provide for security and if they think punishment is
warranted, the are required to call the Israeli police.

June 26, 1999
While giving a tour of Hebron the team noticed Israeli soldiers detaining
two Palestinian youth. The tour group started taking photos of the soldiers
searching one of the youth. When the soldiers noticed this, they yelled,
"No photos!" -- the tour group explained that they were just tourists
"taking pictures of the scenery." One of the team asked the soldiers why
they had stopped the young men, and the soldier responded that he didn't
have to tell her. She then replied, "No, but you have to do the right
thing." The soldiers let the youth go.

The Ibrahimi Mosque was closed to everyone, except Muslims, since it was
the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. Muslims could enter the Mosque through the
normally Jewish-only entrance, and many had picnics in the park in front of
the mosque. Usually these areas are for Jews only.

On night patrol Shady Hakim and Joshua Yoder were invited in for sweets, by
a Palestinian man they met on the street to celebrate the holiday. The man,
who lives near the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida, told Hakim and Yoder
how his house has been damaged by settlers' stones.

June 28, 1999
In a visit with the Hebron municipality, the team learned that two new
wells provided by US AID will be operational in Hebron shortly. The two
wells are expected to add a total of 5,000 cubic meters of water daily,
complementing the 5,000 cubic meters supplied by the Israeli water system.
However, the total daily water need of Hebron is 24,000 cubic meters daily,
so even with the new wells there will still be a water shortage (see
release of June 30 "Twenty percent for thee...")

June 29,1999
The new rotation of Israeli soldiers arrived in Hebron, a Golani brigade.
They demanded that a Palestinian family, whose windows overlook the soldier
camp, leave their home. The soldiers then tried to declare the house
closed for security reasons. However, after several hours of confrontation
the soldiers allowed the family to remain in the home, on the condition
that the windows would be sealed with metal. The case will also go before
the Civil Administration (the military offices administering the Occupied
Territories), which means that the family may still be evicted.

At the entrance to the Old City, near the back of the Avraham Avinu
settlement, a group of Palestinian youth were playing soccer. Soldiers
ordered the youth to move the goal away from where the soldiers were
stationed, but the youth refused. Several more soldiers came. The youth
continued to play; eventually the angry soldiers left them alone.

June 30, 1999
Jim Satterwhite returned for a haircut from a barber he had met last year
on Duboya Street, just up from Beit Hadassah, an Israeli settlement within
Hebron. Satterwhite and Hakim spoke with the barber in his shop in H2, the
area under Israeli control. The barber doesn t make much money keeping this
shop open and Satterwhite wanted to support it. The barber does have
another shop in H1, the Palestinian controlled area of Hebron, where the
majority of his business comes from, but he keeps the shop in H2 open as a
matter of principle and resistance. He commented that his friends say he is
crazy for not leaving his shop in H2 completely.