CPTnet  
23 August 2008
HEBRON UPDATE: July 2008

On team during this period were Tarek Abuata, John Harris,  Esther Kern, Kathleen Kern, John Lynes, Emily McNeill (intern), Dianne Roe, Menno Sattler, and Kathie Uhler.
 
Tuesday 1 July
Kathy Kern led a tour group from Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church along Shuhada Street.  A police jeep pulled up and a policeman asked for Kern’s passport and took the number.  He told her that she as a CPTer was not allowed on Shuhada Street, though the tour group could continue.
 
Wednesday 2 July
Kern, John Lynes, and a translator spent three hours going out to Wadi Nasara and back.  One of the families had a camera that B’tselem (the Israeli human rights organization) gave them, and they had taken footage of settlers throwing rocks and given it to the police and B’tselem.  The nineteen-year-old daughter showed a wound from a rock on her head that had required stitches.  In an open space where children used to play, they could no longer do so, because of the stone throwing.

Older family members were refugees from Faluja, north of Gaza, the site of the Israeli town Qiryat Gat.  Settlers had offered them a lot of money for their land in Wadi Nasara, which they refused to sell.  “Islam is the only solution for us,” said the father of the family.
 
Thursday 3 July
In the evening, Lynes and Uhler accompanied youngsters playing football on the large car park close to the Ibrahimi Boys’ school.  An exceptionally large number of vehicles were parked nearby because an Israeli wedding was taking place in the Ibrahimi Mosque.  The car park attendant – a settler from Beit Hadassah – cooperated cheerfully with Lynes in keeping stray footballs away from the cars.  He recognized Lynes’ CPT hat, but his English and Lynes’ Hebrew were insufficient for significant communication beyond “Toda,” (“Thank you”).
 
Friday 4 July
On their way to the Mosque, Menno Sattler, and Kern took off their jackets because they saw Israeli soldiers demanding that Palestinians take off jackets and belts.  “Since when are you a Palestinian?” the soldier asked them when they came through.

Saturday 5 July
Lynes, Dianne Roe and a visitor from Canada walked north along Shuhada Street to Bab Al Khan.  Roe entered the Waqf apartments to visit the only family still living there.  An Israeli officer stopped Lynes and the visitor before they could follow her.  The officer instructed the sentry to phone and ascertain whether the CPTers were permitted to enter.

Meanwhile civilian police officers told Lynes to tell Roe to leave the home.  He replied that Roe would not feel disposed to comply with his instructions.  They said they would enter the home and make Roe leave.  Roe remained with the family for about two hours before leaving the building in her own time.  She attempted to enter the Old City through a restricted gate but the soldier called her back and admonished her for entering the building without first asking.  Roe told him that not allowing anyone to visit this family was unfair.  The soldier said only CPT was not allowed to visit.  Roe pointed out that the Palestinian neighbors also could not visit, either.  The soldier said that other internationals could visit the woman.  Roe told the soldier she would send other internationals to visit the woman so she would not be alone.  The soldier said he did not know if they could visit or not; he only knew that CPT could not.

Tuesday 8 July
Kern gave a talk and a roof tour to a party of American Christians.  Afterwards Lynes and Roe led them along Shuhada Street.  On the way, an Israeli soldier demanded to see Lynes’ ID.  Lynes showed his CPT membership card; the soldier solemnly copied down the number and allowed the party to proceed.

Wednesday 9 July
Lynes and Uhler visited the Al Mahawer Society in Jabel Johar (Wadi Nasara). Lynes delivered shekels (converted from British pounds) that a friend in England had raised for the center. Two doctors who volunteer regularly at the center spoke with the CPTers. Ninety percent of the patients they see are children. The main ailments are respiratory and congenital. While there, the CPTers could hear children at the center’s summer camp singing and playing.

Thursday 10 July
Lynes and Uhler took part in a major demonstration against the separation wall at Ni’alin. Soldiers shot Uhler in the hip with a rubber bullet.  See 14 July 2008 CPTnet release, “NI'LIN, WEST BANK: Soldiers beat and shoot at nonviolent demonstrators; CPTer lightly injured by rubber bullet,” http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/07/14/ni039lin-west-bank-soldiers-beat-and-shoot-nonviolent-demonstrators-cpter-lightly-.)

Friday 11 July
The team helped harvest fodder on the Jabari land.  During mosque patrol, immediately afterwards, they encountered two Israeli activists from Breaking the Silence. Israeli settlers had attacked activists on Shuhada Street and requested CPTers accompany them with cameras. A tense walk on Shuhada Street followed, with settlers, some in cars, swarming around, along with a large number of soldiers who clearly didn’t quite know what to do.  McNeill and Roe managed to film from a distance and were able to catch the detention of the two Israeli activists on tape.

Saturday July 12
A Palestinian human rights worker stopped by to view footage that Tarek Abuata had taken of the home invasion in Hawuz (see 15 July CPTnet release, “HEBRON: Israeli Soldiers terrorize seven families in nighttime home raid,” http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/07/15/hebron-israeli-soldiers-terrorize-seven-families-nighttime-home-raid.)  “If CPT was not here,” he told Kern, “no one in all the world would hear about our suffering.”
 
Monday July 14
In the evening, Lynes and Roe accompanied the boys playing football at the car park by the Ibrahimi School.  The car park was filling with visitors to an Israeli wedding, but Lynes was able to cooperate with the car park attendant – this time an armed Israeli student from the Beit Romano yeshiva – in keeping stray footballs away from parked cars.

Wednesday 16 July
In the evening, six football teams, including one comprising CPTers and volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, took part in a championship on the grounds of the Islamic Charitable Society’s Orphanage Boys’ School. Later men from CPT slept in the Boys’ School, and women in the Girls’ Orphanage.

Friday 18 July
Settlers erected a large black tent at Wadi Nasara in their latest attempt to establish an illegal settlement outpost there on Palestinian fields.

Sattler and McNeill attended the aftermath of an attack on villagers in the South Hebron hills.  (See 24 July 2008 release, “SOUTH HEBRON HILLS REFLECTION: Living as an act of resistance-Kiryat Arba settlers steal all belongings of shepherd family,” http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/07/25/south-hebron-hills-reflection-living-act-resistance-kiryat-arba-settlers-steal-all.)

Saturday 19 July
Settlers in the neighborhood of the black tent, guarded by dozens of Israeli soldiers, attacked and intimidated local Palestinians.

In the evening, settler youth harassed three international human rights workers on the route between the old city and Kiryat Arba. They pushed and hit them, broke one camera and sprayed one observer with pepper spray.  McNeill and Sattler approached from Kiryat Arba Road.  Four soldiers in a jeep prevented them passing. Shortly after the jeep left, Palestinians told Sattler and McNeill the settlers were throwing rocks from the top of the occupied house on Kiryat Arba Road. They stood near the house and filmed. No more stones were thrown.  Meanwhile Lynes visited families in Wadi Nasara to see if they had been attacked.  Then he joined the others in Kiryat Arba Road.

Sunday 20 July
Lynes and McNeill visited families in Wadi Nasara close to the Kiryat Arba settlement.  They noted that someone had removed the black tent.

Tuesday 22 July
In the afternoon, forty visitors from an ICAHD tour came to the CPT apartment for a talk and rooftop tour.
 
Wednesday 23 July
Dianne Roe did a tour with three visitors from the United Methodist Church.  Soldiers at Bab Al Khan (see 5 July) did not prevent them from entering the Waqf building to visit the woman who lives there.
 
Saturday 26 July
Harris, Lynes and Roe hosted a young adult tour sponsored by the YMCA.  Dianne took half of the group towards Shuhada Street.  Israeli army and police jeeps encircled the group from all directions, telling them they could not go down Shuhada Street because the day was Shabbat and the group’s presence would provoke the settlers.  When Roe questioned the police further, he said very seriously that he was afraid of what the Israeli settlers might do to the group.  John Lynes led the other half of the group down Shuhada Street from the Duboyya Street end.  They wandered cheerfully past the Beit Hadassah settlement before turning west to Tel Rumeida.

In the evening, Lynes and Roe visited families in Wadi Nasara.  They encountered stone-throwing Israeli youth.  One rock bruised Roe’s leg.

Tuesday 29 July
Team members and delegates responded to a request to intervene when Israeli settler children threw stones into a Palestinian courtyard.
 
Thursday 31 July
Lynes and an intern led an English journalist on the “Biblical” tour of Tel Rumeida.  On passing the house rented by Issa Amro they spotted intruders in the garden.  Assuming these were settlers, Lynes strode in aggressively demanding to know what they were doing.  They turned out to be human rights workers for B’tselem.