2 January 2010

While Kern was monitoring the turnoff from Shuhada Street to Ibrahimi School, a tour group of South African Muslims walked by.  One man engaged her in conversation, and asked if she was hopeful that something might change here.  When she said that she did not harbor much hope, he said, "There is no hope for this place."  She asked him if in the 1980s he would have believed that Apartheid would end and Mandela would be President in the early 1990s, and he said, "Not in my wildest dreams."

Hani Abu Haikel, Schroeder, and Kern went out to al-Bweireh to do follow-up interviews after the demolitions (See 13 January CPTnet release, AL-KHALIIL/HEBRON: Israeli military demolitions further threaten al-Bweireh neighborhood.)  When Kern asked one of the residents whether the attention CPT has been trying to bring to the situation in al-Bweireh might have been the cause of the demolitions, he said the settlers and army will attack regardless of how much al-Bweireh's profile is elevated.
The three then visited members of the Sultan family, who reported that settlers had attacked neighborhood farmers on the previous day, and the settlers sent in the army to demolish the buildings.  Settlers are now coming down into the neighborhood and walking between homes, so the Sultans are afraid to invite guests to visit.

At a visit to another member of the Sultan family, who had been an active union leader, they learned about the tortuous process he went through to build a union headquarters on his land, for which he has a deed from the time of the Ottoman Empire.  He went to court nine times to get permission and spent thousands of dollars on a lawyer.  In response, the Israeli DCO (District Coordinating Office) cut water and electricity to Sultan's house to punish the family.  He now has to buy water.
While out walking, the team came upon a young man from one of the shops in the Old City who was blindfolded behind the gate at the Beit Romano settlement.  (See HEBRON: Israeli military targets Palestinian children for searches and detention.)
The team learned that Israel had refused entrance to leaders of the CPT January delegation and began discussing with the At-Tuwani team how they were going to replace the leaders.