CPTnet
July 16, 2003
HEBRON UPDATE: June 29-July 6,2003
Sunday June 29, 2003
No curfew
At Jebel Johar, a neighbourhood next to the Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba,
CPTers documented the new fence at the back of a Palestinian family's home.
Returning to the Old City via the Ibrahimi Mosque gate was easy for the CPT
women, but the CPT men had to negotiate with the Israeli Border Police, who
eventually allowed them to use another gate.
Kathie Kamphoefner, Paul Pierce and a guest took three hours to return from
Jerusalem in taxis, a trip that used to take half an hour.
Monday June 30 2003
Curfew imposed in H2 in the afternoon
Kamphoefner, Pierce, Kristin Anderson and their guest were allowed to visit
both the Muslim and the Jewish sides of the Ibrahimi Mosque. Several
Israeli soldiers had conflicting information as to whether the
internationals could enter, but eventually the necessary permission was
given.
Tuesday July 1, 2003
No curfew
The CPTers heard from a visitor that Israeli soldiers arrested and
imprisoned two Hebron University students causing them to miss their exams.
Anderson, another CPTer and three Palestinians tried to leave the Old City
by the Ibrahimi Mosque gate, but soldiers denied them entry and told them to
try another exit. At the other gate next to the settlement Avraham Avinu,
settler girls came near and threw rocks at the group. Soldiers also denied
the CPTers and Palestinians passage though this second gate.
Jim Satterwhite and JoAnne Lingle saw Palestinians at Al Manara repairing
the holes and levelling the road surface recently dug to a depth of four
feet by the Israeli Army.
Satterwhite, another CPTer, and two international visitors encountered a
patrol of Israeli soldiers in Shulala Street refusing to let a group of
Palestinians lay tiles outside their shop front. When the CPTers and
internationals asked the soldiers if they could do the work, the soldiers
agreed, but the shopkeeper said the tiles needed cutting. At this point the
soldiers detained the shopkeeper and took him to a nearby checkpoint.
CPTers accompanied them to the checkpoint, until the soldiers release him
twenty minutes later. When the CPTers and shopkeeper returned to the man's
shop, his employees had finished cutting and laying the tiles.
A settler with a gun came close to the gate by the CPT apartment and shouted
at Palestinian youths that were tending their chickens. Kamphoefner called
to the settler through the window and he aimed his gun at her.
Wednesday July 2, 2003
No curfew H1 and H2
The team went to lunch at a friend's house near Harsina settlement and saw
how settlers had erected a large fence very close to his house in order to
steal his land. The team took photographs from his roof and heard him
describe how he has tried to reason with the settlers over the years.
Settler boys threw stones at CPTers as they returned to their apartment
through the city.
Thursday July 3, 2003
No curfew H1 and H2
A colleague from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme came to stay with
the team for two days. Sue Rhodes took her for an orientation walk after
looking at the Old City from the roof. They called the Hebron
Rehabilitation Committee Headquarters in the Old City and the Administrative
Manager and the Resident Engineer confirmed that their organisation had
received a 'Stop work' order from the Israeli Army the previous day. Four
hundred builders and other skilled artisans had been sent home and told that
there would be no more work for them until the organization received a
reversal of the order.
On the same day the Israeli High Court had granted permission for the
settlers on Tel Rumeida to continue building on land recognised by most
archeologists as historically and architecturally valuable.
Friday July 4, 2003
Curfew imposed at noon in H2
Saturday July 5 2003
Curfew in H2
Sunday July 6, 2003
No curfew except near Israeli settlements in Hebron
CPT received several international phone calls about their release regarding
the 'Stop work' order that the team had sent out the previous day. CPT
visited
Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) again and agreed to write to UNESCO.
HRC had sent letters to all the Ambassadors or Consuls of the sponsoring
countries who had sent donations to facilitate the work.
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