CPTnet
16 March 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 18 February-3 March 2007

Serving on team for this period were Abigail Ozanne, Dianne Roe, Jerry
Stein, Art Arbour, Janet Benvie, and Barbara Martens.

Sunday 18 February

Abigail Ozanne, when returning from a walk, saw a soldier showing a patrol
of new soldiers through the souq.

Monday 19 February

At around 10:00 a.m., a Palestinian from Hebron Rehabilitation Committee
called to say that settlers were trying to destroy a mosque in the old
vegetable market. Ozanne, Dianne Roe and Jerry Stein arrived to find
Palestinians in the souq appearing nervous and angry. The CPTers joined
Palestinians, journalists, and TIPH on a roof over looking the old vegetable
market.

In the market, about forty-five to fifty settlers were trying to get past
thirty to thirty-five Israeli police. One settler used a microphone to
broadcast his views and prayers. Other settlers engaged the police in angry
discussions.

Ozanne and Stein, after seeing a group of settlers run to another part of
the market, left to find out where they had gone. At gates on the southern
edge of the Old City, Ozanne could see settlers trying to get past several
squads of soldiers. After a few minutes, the settlers left. A squad of
soldiers then ran out the gates and through the souq. They went up on the
roof that the Palestinians had been watching from and cleared it of people.
Some settlers were still in the market but the situation seemed quieter.
The CPTers returned to the apartment just before noon. By that point, the
settlers had left.

Tuesday 20 February

Janet Benvie and Ozanne walked up Shuhada Street without incident during
afternoon patrol. Two Palestinian women and a young girl tried several
times to walk past the checkpoint down from the Ibrahimi Mosque. A settler
was nearby waiting for a ride and a settler was in a car a few meters down
the street. As long as they were there, the soldiers kept the women from
walking towards the girls' school. When the settlers left, soldiers allowed
the women to continue.

Wednesday 21 February

On school patrol, the team met a video crew from the Palestinian Department
of Education in Ramallah arriving to video the children going through the
checkpoint. Soon about eight soldiers congregated, insisting the crew could
not film. Barbara Martens talked to one of them and said repeatedly that
anyone can legally photograph soldiers when they are on active duty.
Finally, the soldiers left. Two returned to hassle the principal by asking
for his documents.

Martens met with Palestinians about a project proposal for the Sports
Program for Street Kids. Hebron Mental Health agreed to fund a football
(soccer) team of ten-twelve year olds.

Ozanne and Stein went with a Palestinian to visit families in Wadi Ghroos.
One family's home backs onto the fence of Harsina settlement. In 2002, a
Palestinian tried to enter the settlement through the fence near it. The
army killed the Palestinian and subsequently built a second fence farther
out from the settlement, effectively annexing many dunums of Palestinian
farmland in the name of security. The family now cannot gain access to
their five dunums, which is the majority of their land.

The family explained that they have problems with settlers every Saturday.
Settler children come and throw stones from the other side of the fence and
have broken many windows. The fence is wired with sensors so that the
settler security and police know if anyone touches it. Then they send police
or security to find out what happened and cause trouble for the family. The
fence is also equipped with hidden cameras and special lighting. A security
guard drives by every half hour. The parents no longer allow the children
to play in what is left of their back garden to keep them away from the
fence.

Friday 23 February

Benvie and Ozanne went with Heidi Schramm and Sean O'Neill of the Tuwani
team to Bil'in for the weekly demonstration. That Friday's demonstration
marked the second anniversary of weekly demonstrations against the
separation barrier. (See 26 February 2007 CPTnet release, HEBRON/BIL'IN:
"I'm Ok"--CPTer lightly injured by grenade at Friday demonstration. View
photos at http://www.cpt.org/gallery/album02
<http://www.cpt.org/gallery/album02> <http://www.cpt.org/gallery/album02
<http://www.cpt.org/gallery/album02> >)

Saturday 24 February

On school patrol on Shuhada Street near the Ibrahimi School, a group of
settler boys between the ages of ten and fourteen swarmed a Palestinian
student of about thirteen or fourteen near the Gutnick Center checkpoint.
Fortunately, the soldiers from the checkpoint immediately intervened,
pulling one settler boy away, as Benvie and Martens ran up to get in the
way. The soldiers walked with the settler boys, and intervened again to
prevent a ten-year-old from attacking another Palestinian schoolchild who
had just crossed Shuhada Street.

Benvie and Stein went with a translator to visit families in Beqa'a valley.
The International Committee of the Red Cross held a meeting a few days ago
to talk with the families whose homes the Israeli government has targeted
for demolition. The CPTers went to renew contact with known families and
also to find out more about threats of home demolition. They met several
families who have lived under the threat of home demolition for five years.
A large extended family lives in one home, with a family of eight living in
one room. They had saved enough money to build their own home, but were
afraid to do so.

In the mid-afternoon, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers
requested that the team come to Shuhada Street near the checkpoint, because
settler youth were attacking a Palestinian woman, and an ISMer who moved
between. Roe and Martens responded, but by the time they arrived near Tel
Rumeida, the soldiers had managed to disperse the settlers. One ISMer was
detained by the police but later released.

Sunday 25 February

A Palestinian from the UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) intended to visit the team in the afternoon, but telephoned
to say that the UN would not give him security clearance to visit H2 that
day because the date marked the anniversary of the 1994 massacre in the
Ibrahi