CPTnet
8 November 2007
HEBRON UPDATE: 15-21 October 2007

Team members during this period included Jan Benvie, Jessica Frederick,
Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Donna Hicks, Sarah Shirk, Jonathan Stucky,
Mary Wendeln, and Mary Rose, guest from New Zealand

Monday 15 October

Jan Benvie and Donna Hicks observed Israeli soldiers in the olive grove
below Issa Amro's house. Hicks asked where they worked before coming to
Hebron. They replied, "Gaza." Hicks said, "That must have been difficult."
One of the soldiers replied emphatically, "It was different!"

Benvie and Hicks observed a group of Palestinian photojournalists and two
TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) observers outside the gate
to the Beit Romano settlement enclave. A photographer said the soldiers
were holding a Palestinian boy of about fifteen years.

Benvie rescued a puppy stuck on top of a shop awning close to the CPT
apartment.

Tuesday 16 October

At the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah checkpoint, two Israeli Border
Police searched the backpack of a Palestinian senior high school boy on his
way to Tariq Ibn Ziad School and detained him for fifteen minutes.

Wednesday 17 October

During school patrol, soldiers performed cursory searches in children's
backpacks at the Yatta Road checkpoint. A very little girl, perhaps five
years old (or younger) tried to bypass the metal detector container by
walking under the bar that blocks the road. The soldier made her turn
around and pass through the metal detector in spite of regulations that
allow school children to bypass it.

Thursday 18 October

During school patrol, Israeli soldiers performed a cursory search of twenty
children's backpacks over the course of forty minutes at the Yatta Road
checkpoint.

Friday 19 October

Jessica Frederick and Hicks joined an olive harvesting action at the Al
Ja'abari property, located between two settlements (Kiryat Arba and Givat
Ha'avot.) At various times during the day, IDF (Israeli Defense Force),
Israeli police, and settlers came to the area. Israeli authorities did not
force anyone (including the settlers) to leave the area, and members of the
settler community spoke with the Israeli soldiers. David Wilder, a leader
in the settler community, arrived armed with a gun and gave a tour to
approximately six or seven settlers. He said, "This is all Jewish land,
ok?. . . This [action] is a big provocation."

Two young Israeli men--one of whom had the traditional long curled forelocks
that some religious Jews wear--began making friendly conversation with the
Palestinians present. The action continued peacefully until two settler
youth approached. One Israeli boy, perhaps eleven or twelve years old,
tried to instigate a fight with the Palestinian youth. Amro stood between
them to prevent a fight. The Israeli young man began speaking with the
settler boy, to deter him from harassing the Palestinians.

More settlers arrived, and one man, wearing a kippa (traditional Jewish
skull cap), began to pick olives from the tree. Israeli police arrived,
followed by members of the Israeli group Breaking the Silence, one of whom
advised Amro to file a complaint against the settler picking olives, who
left shortly thereafter. (See the Breaking the Silence website
<http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp> The Palestinians and
internationals finished harvesting, drank coffee, and departed.

Saturday 20 October

Hisham Sharabati called the CPT office to report Israeli soldiers were
stopping Palestinians from leaving the Old City through the Bab il
Baladeyyah. Mary Wendeln and Hicks went to observe the situation.
Sharabati told them a Palestinian was attempting to move a motorcycle with
Israeli tags onto a truck/trailer. Israeli soldiers stopped pedestrian
traffic until the man returned with the proper documents for the motorcycle.

Returning from a patrol through the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah gate,
Lorne Friesen spoke to a young soldier, who told him that the three soldiers
at the checkpoint were Jew, Christian, and Druse--all of whom were friends.

Sunday 21 October

While in Jerusalem for church, Friesen and Wendeln asked the owner of a
coffee shop in the Muslim Quarter about the celebration of Ramadan and Eid.
The owner replied that everything would be fine if only the Israeli
occupation of Palestine would end.

Israeli border police pulled over the bus on which CPTers were traveling
from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The officers examined the Palestinians' IDs
and permits and the CPTers' passports. They escorted off the bus two
Palestinian women whose papers were apparently not in order.