CPTnet
June 30, 2003
HEBRON UPDATE: June 21-28, 2003

Saturday June 21 2003
H1 curfew lifted 9 am- 4pm
H2 Total curfew *

Kathie Uhler and Joanne Lingle met members of Ta'ayush, an
Israeli/Palestinian peace organisation, and travelled south together to the
Palestinian village of Al Twaneh. CPTers heard that Israeli settlers have
been using the Palestinian water cisterns there for ritual baths. The
settlers have also frequently prevented Palestinians from harvesting their
wheat and Palestinian children have to walk a seven kilometer detour long
way round to school because settlers have blocked the main road.

Two Israeli soldiers prevented CPTers from going with the Palestinians to
the cisterns, saying the area was a closed military zone.

Paul Pierce, Kathy Kamphoefner and Sue Rhodes met a delegation of US
University professors in H1 and joined their guided bus tour around the
outskirts of the city.

Sunday June 22nd 2003

CPTers led worship at the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem.

The team heard that the Israeli army had killed the leader of Hamas
in Hebron during the night, and declared curfew for the entire city.

Kamphoefner and Rhodes left Jerusalem at midday to try the return journey.
The first taxi driver had to take a difficult eastern route. Passengers
then
climbed three earthen barriers to the next taxi, walk a high
treacherous path and finally cross a highway to the last taxi.

The other CPTers made the same journey but encountered the Israeli army at
the treacherous section. The four soldiers screamed at Palestinians,
preventing them from passing, and pointed their guns at them. They also
chased Palestinians away from the checkpoint and fired warning shots in the
air. CPTers took turns talking to the soldiers and attempting to de escalate
the situation.

Monday June 23rd 2003
Curfew lifted 7am - 3 pm in H1 and 7 am - 2 pm in H2

The Governor of Hebron held a celebration to honor CPT and Greg Rollins'
release from prison. The team and members of TIPH, another international
observer team, attended.

Rollins and Lingle spoke to twenty-five children at the Library on Wheels
for Non-violence and Peace about the work of CPT and the power of
nonviolence.

Tuesday June 24th 2003
Curfew imposed all day in H1 and H2

BBC news reported that the Israeli authorities had arrested one hundred and
thirty Palestinians in Hebron during the night.

Kamphoefner and Lingle met a French delegation of four who were in Hebron to
collect information and make links with Palestinian and other organisations.
As the CPTers returned to the apartment with the delegation, they saw many
Palestinians running in panic from the Bab iZaweyya market area and they
were invited to take cover with Palestinian friends of the team. They later
learned that the army had been firing tear gas.

When Kamphoefner and Pierce
walked the delegation out of the Old City, the army threw tear gas in their
path, just ten meters from a crowded apartment building. The CPTers heard
children coughing inside.

Wednesday June 25th 2003
The team was told that curfew would be lifted in H2 all day. The army
imposed curfew in Bab iZaweyya by 10.30 am.

Anderson and Rollins were near Beit Romano when they met two women who are
close neighbours of the team. The women, an elderly mother and her daughter
asked for accompaniment through the checkpoint. The soldier initially
denied entry to both women but when the older woman said she was going to
hospital in Jerusalem he started to radio for permission.
Another soldier arrived and said the older woman could proceed with CPT but
the daughter would have to stay even though he knew she wanted to go to the
hospital in Hebron. A radio call then came in denying the older woman
permission. Both women were weeping and decided to give up trying
to get to the hospital

In the evening Israeli military jeeps drove round proclaiming curfew,
shining spotlights into people's homes and throwing percussion grenades.

Thursday June 26th 2003
Curfew lifted from 9 am - 4 pm in Hebron

The team heard shooting at 11 pm and at 1 am and four distant explosions at
2 am.

Rollins, Pierce and Satterwhite went to visit the site of a home that the
Israeli army had demolished at 2 am. The owner's son is a member of
Hamas whom the military had arrested and imprisoned eight months ago. Before
his arrest, the army came to the home but he was not there. The army set
fire to the inside of the home.

CPTers saw that not only was the house completely demolished but that the
blast blew out the walls and cracked the ceiling of the house next door.
Sixteen to twenty people are now homeless as a result of this demolition.

Lingle and Anderson visited a friend at the Municipality who said that the
problems of getting to and from work or school or shops is a constant source
of anxiety. She also told them that many of the one hundred and thirty
people detained on Tuesday are still in detention in tents at the police
post near Kiryat Arba.

Friday June 27th 2003.
'Tight' curfew in H1 and H2 all day

Kamphoefner, Pierce, Satterwhite and Rhodes visited friends in the Beqa'a
Valley by walking two kilometers of farm roads and through vineyards to
avoid the Israeli army.

The return journey was more difficult. The CPTers encountered the army
firing rubber bullets and percussion grenades at Palestinian youths on Jabel
Johar. A Palestinian family, old friends of CPT who formerly lived below
Kiryat Arba, invited the CPTers in until the firing ceased.

Anderson attended the wedding of a young Palestinian woman from Al Sendas, a
friend of the team's.

Saturday June 28th 2003

Anderson and Rhodes watched new Israeli soldiers trying to impose curfew at
Bab iZaweyya. Palestinian women refused to be turned back and walked past
the confused soldiers. Palestinian shopkeepers closed their shops but
insisted on sitting on stools outside their shops. The soldiers did not
object to Anderson and Rhodes taking photographs.

Soldiers detained Kamphoefner and Pierce for one and a quarter hours at
Beit Romano checkpoint while the army conducted a military operation in the
Old City. Their journey to Jerusalem took four hours, because the army had
closed the main road to Palestinian traffic and they had to walk for part of
the way.

At 10.30 pm Rollins and Anderson saw the Israeli military using a green
laser beam in the Jabel Johar area and then watched as several grenades were
launched from a t