CPTnet
May 10, 2004
HEBRON UPDATE: April 19-26, 2004
Monday, April 19
No curfew
The team hosted 128 international visitors from the Sabeel post conference.
In the morning one bus load of visitors went to Beit Ummar, where they met
the mayor in the municipality. When they arrived at the Beit Ummar
checkpoint, Israeli soldiers made them wait forty-five minutes before
allowing them through the checkpoint.
Another bus of visitors spent the morning in Hebron. Because the Israeli
army closed the Hebron-Halhoul bridge, the bus stopped under the bridge and
the team arranged for another bus to meet them. Then, they had to walk over
the dirt mound into Hebron. The visitors rode the bus to Palestine
Polytechnic University where students and an administrator, who had been
involved in the nonviolent re-opening of the university last summer,
addressed the visitors from Sabeel.
Tuesday, April 20
No curfew
Wednesday, April 21
No curfew
Roe joined Mary Lawrence and CPT delegate, Phyllis Bergquist, for an
overnight stay in Beit Ummar. In the evening, the host family received word
that their son, who had been imprisoned for at least six weeks, had a court
date in Ofra.
Lawrence and Bergquist were awakened at 1:00am by Israeli soldiers throwing
rocks at the house next door. They witnessed Israeli soldiers taking two
young Palestinian men to prison. (See April 28, 2001 release: "Rude
Awakening.")
Cal Carpenter took the CPT delegation men, Russell Schmidt, Robert Phillip
and Jake Terpstra, to the Beqa'a valley for an overnight visit. On the way,
an Israeli jeep stopped the group and told them that they did not have
permission to walk through the valley because it was a dangerous area. They
took a longer route by the main road to reach their destination.
Jo Anne Lingle traveled to Ashkelon to be present for the release of
Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu served a seventeen and a half year sentence for
revealing that Israel had a nuclear weapons program. Lingle joined a group
of Israelis and internationals who were there to support Vanunu and welcome
him to freedom. Several hundred Israeli counter-demonstrators who stormed
the prison gate before Vanunu was released. They shouted, "Death, death to
the traitor." Israeli soldiers and police joined the counter-demonstration.
After Vanunu was released, the counter demonstrators threw eggs at Vanunu's
supporters, hitting Lingle.
Thursday, April 22
No curfew
Uhler monitored the detention of about twelve women at the Beit Romano
checkpoint. When she asked one of the Israeli soldiers why they were holding
the women, the soldier told Uhler that "It was their time."
Returning from the Beqa'a, Carpenter and the CPT delegates caught a
Palestinian taxi on Road 60. As soon as the taxi pulled over, an Israeli
police vehicle drove in front of the taxi and ticketed the Palestinian
driver for stopping.
Friday, April 23
No curfew
Lingle and Uhler met a group from Global Exchange in Bab iZaweyya.
Saturday, April 24
No curfew
Lingle and Brown traveled to the village of Jinba, in the south Hebron
Hills, to participate in a work day with Ta'ayush, an Israeli-Arab peace
group. More than two hundred Palestinians, Israelis, and
internationals worked on harvesting barley, repairing roads and cleaning
caves in which families live.
Sunday, April 25
No curfew
Carpenter and Lingle responded to a call from Naim Daour, President of
Hebron University. He told Lingle on the phone, "The soldiers have invaded
our university and have taken some students." After the invasion, the
students refused to leave and the soldiers fired tear gas and percussion
grenades. When Lingle and Carpenter arrived the soldiers had left and
university security was closing the school for the day. School
administrators did not know exactly how many students had been taken.
Monday, April 26
No curfew
Lawrence and Brown went on school patrol at the Duboyya checkpoint. When
they arrived at the checkpoint, the Israeli soldiers allowed them to pass to
the other side. They observed children walking to the Qurtuba girls' school
without harassment. After a little while some soldiers approached and asked
them how they had gotten there. The soldiers told them that they must
return to the Palestinian side. Lawrence said, "It is all Palestinian."
CPT received a call from an aide at the Hebron governor's office telling
them of attacks on the Dana family home near Kiryat Arba the day before.
Brown, Uhler and Levin went to investigate the report.
They learned that at approximately 5:00 pm on the 25th, young Israeli
settlers threw stones, spray painted the walls and broke the arm of a young
Palestinian boy at the Dana family home. Six soldiers came to the Dana house
at 8:00pm and forced the family and the neighbors out of the house. At
9:00pm the soldiers returned and stayed for three or four hours. They moved
all the family to one room.
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