In 1962, the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS) was established in Hebron to take care of orphans.  Today the charity serves 7000 children.  Some 240 boys and girls aged 5-18 live at two orphanages, while thousands of other children, many of whom have lost at least one parent, receive schooling, food and clothing from the charity.  To support their work with the children, the ICS runs several small businesses including a bakery which provides bread to the orphanages, a sewing workshop where students produce beautiful coats and dresses, a warehouse which stores goods from foreign donors, and a 30-unit apartment building.

In late February 2008, the Israeli Army issued six military orders of closure and eviction for ICS properties, claiming the charity is working for the militant group, Hamas.

"At first we thought maybe they were just taking the business side of the charity, but now, after we appealed to the Israeli High Court, our lawyer realized the orders mean they really want to close everything, including the three schools and two orphanages," said Rasheed Rasheed from the ICS.

CPT helped organize a press conference on April 7 to publicize the impending plight of the orphans.  Seventeen-year-old Nibaal Shriteh, who lives at the Al-Shar'iya Girls Orphanage, spoke to the gathered media.  "I am talking to you today from this place, from my home, from my school, from my class.  But tomorrow I may be talking to you as a lonely, lost person from the street."  

A week later, the Israeli military began implementing some of the closure orders.  On April 14, soldiers entered an ICS-owned bakery, wrecked the oven, and took all the display cases, refrigerators, fixtures, equipment and most of the inventory valued at over $43,000 (U.S.).

CPTers and other internationals spent several weeks sleeping at the girl's orphanage hoping to forestall such a raid on the sewing workshop housed on the first floor.  However, on April 30, at 1:00am, Israeli soldiers looted the workshop of all its sewing and processing machines, office equipment, rolls of cloth, finished clothing, and supplies.  CPTers witnessed and documented the raid, filming as some 40 soldiers emptied the workshop's contents worth $45,000 (U.S.) into two large trucks.

CPTer Art Arbour decried these efforts by the Israeli military in its campaign to close the orphanages, saying, "How can grown men do this to little children?"

"Our kids are terrified when the soldiers come," said Rasheed, "and all they ask is ‘why?'."

The Israeli government has produced no proof of its claim that ICS is connected to Hamas.  ICS legal representative Abd al-Kareem Farah says, "The allegations...are absolutely baseless."  Further, he says that Israeli authorities have no right to confiscate the property since the orphanage is located in H1 - the part of Hebron under Palestinian control according to the 1997 Hebron Protocol (part of the Oslo II Accords).

Statements of support for the orphans have come in from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, from European Union Vice President Luisa Morgentini, and from representatives of other international organizations worried about the fate of the orphans in Hebron.  Please join with them in supporting the orphans.  Write to the Israeli embassy in your country and to your elected representatives to protest this  illegal act by the Israeli military in Hebron.

You can find the Israeli embassy in your country at www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+I...

For more information on the orphanage go to: www.hebronorphans.blogspot.com.  Some information for this report came from Inter Press Service (www.ipsnews.net) and Integrated Regional Information Networks (www.irinnews.org).

The ICS presented CPTers with a certificate reading, "Thanks and Appreciation.  The administration of the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron, its employees, orphans and students are so pleased to extend their thanks, gratefulness and appreciation to all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams for their tremendous efforts, solidarity and protest against the unjust Israeli military decision to confiscate all the properties of the Society.  We highly appreciate your long stay with the orphans at their dorms."