CPTNet
July 31, 2003
HEBRON UPDATE: July 24-29, 2003
Thursday July 24, 2003. No curfew.
G. Scott visited the Ba'qaa valley. A Palestinian farmer complained that
Israeli soldiers had been driving around the valley at night shooting their
guns. While there, the brother of the Palestinians came by with his day old
baby boy. Scott said, "Family members literally shed tears of joy."
Friday July 25, 2003. Curfew 2:00 pm H2
Jim Satterwhite, Paul Pierce, and Kathie Uhler were in the area of Ibrahimi
Mosque as noon time prayers services let out. In addition to the usual
Israeli border police contingent on duty at the checkpoint at the entrance
to the Mosque, they encountered a squad of soldiers a few metres inside the
tunnel leading away from the Mosque. With guns at the ready the soldiers
closely watched Palestinians on their way back from prayers.
In the late afternoon, 15 soldiers conducted a "patrolling the Old City"
drill in the Chicken Market outside the CPT apartment. Some of the soldiers
entered the market through the gate in the fence leading to Shuhada Street.
The drill included some of the soldiers shooting their guns in the air.
Saturday, July 26th, curfew in H2 was called sometime in the late afternoon.
Pierce, Uhler, Jerry Levin, and Sis Levin joined members of a team of Ta'
ayush, an Israeli group, at the home of a Ba'qaa Valley Palestinian farmer.
Representatives from the Hebron Land Defense Committee were also present.
The Palestinians briefed the visitors on the latest crisis faced by grape
growers living in the shadows of the Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba and
Harsina. They said that the latest harassments by settlers, backed by the
Israeli Army and the army's Civil Administration, involved the denial of
access by the farmers to their vineyards in order to spray their grapes and
tie up loose vines.
Also during that meeting the representative of the Hebron Land Defence
Committee reported on a just released field study, which he said documented
565 violations by the Israeli Army and/or settlers during the twentyfive
days since the beginning of the cease-fire. The violations included
beatings of Palestinians, uprooting of trees, crops destroyed, and shops
closed at gun point.
During the day, Satterwhite and JoAnne Lingle visited a UN official living
in the Al Aroub refugee camp. While his house was under construction in
March 2001, he told them, the IDF seized it and turned it into a military
outpost. They left in March of this year. the official said; but when his
family took back possession they found that the structure had suffered
extensive damage: especially doors, windows, water pipes, and electrical
wiring. He said that a contractor estimated repairs would cost US$7,500.
At about 6PM, Uhler on her way back from the Ba'qaa Valley with a
Palestinian acquaintance was stopped in H2 by Israeli soldiers because of
curfew, which had been instated while they were out of the city. When they
explained to the soldiers that curfew prevented them from getting home, a
soldier insisted that curfew was called to protect Palestinians from
settlers, who would be heading home from the synagogue as Shabbat ended. At
the CPTers friend's suggestion, the soldiers got permission via telephone
to lead the two into H2 to a place where they would be able to make their
way home on their own.
Sunday July 27, 2003. No curfew.
Monday, July 28, 2003. No curfew.
Scott and Jerry Levin learned from a Hebron Rehabilitation Committee
official that the Israeli Army lifted its ban on restoration work. He
credited pressure initiated by CPT, other international groups, and Israeli
humanitarian organizations with getting the stopwork order lifted.
At about 5 pm four Israeli soldiers came up the stairs past the CPT
apartment. Satterwhite followed them as they climbed quietly and politely
up to the roof, where they stayed a few minutes looking about and checking
the view in all directions. Then they left: just as quietly and politely.
Tuesday July 29, 2003 No Curfew.
Satterwhite and a visitor encountered six soldiers entering the stairwell
of an apartment in the Old City. Lingle, Anderson, and Levin (Jerry)
responding to Satterwhite's call, followed the soldiers as they made their
way quietly to the rooftop of the building where they spent a few minutes
checking the view. Members of the family said that the soldiers went up on
their roof several times in the past but each time did not entered their
home or disturb them.
Later Satterwhite, Anderson, and the visitor visited the home of the family
in Jabal Johar area, specifically the Wadi Al Nassara neighbourhood, just
outside the southern entrance to Kiryat Arba, whose backyard including its
grape vine had been expropriated the week before to make room for an
expansion of the security area outside the gate. Family members showed the
CPTers the finished fence, which they were told had been quickly erected by
the settlers in early morning hours in order to attract the least amount of
attention.
CPTers also learned from other sources that more than 120 dunams of land in
the neighbourhood was confiscated since last December and lined with fences
in order to extend the security area along the way from the Ibrahimi Mosque
to Kiryat Arba's southern gate.
At about 8PM Satterwhite and Jerry Levin responded to a caller who asked
CPT to check on the detention of two Palestinian men at the Duboyya Street
checkpoint. Upon arrival, the two men told the CPTers that they had been
held for about two hours, because one of the men's ID photos did not seem
to be in order. A few minutes later, the soldiers sent the two men on their
way. Another man whose ID was checked quickly and who was not held by the
soldiers pointed to the chicken wire fence that separated him and the
CPTers from the soldiers and said, "This looks like Guantanamo."
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