CPTnet
March 23, 2001
Hebron Update: March 10-13, 2001

Saturday, March 10, 2001 - curfew imposed at 5:00 P.M.
During a tour given by three CPT members to five visitors with
Mennonite Central Committee, three Israeli male settler youth blocked
their path on Shuhada Street as they approached the settlement of
Beit Hadassah, saying, "Go back you Nazi." As Israeli Defence
Force (IDF) soldiers removed the settler youth, they asked CPT
members and visitors to retreat a little and wait a few minutes. Soldiers
then asked CPT members and visitors to consider taking another
route, which they did.

At around 4:30 P.M., CPT members heard shouting in the street below,
and upon investigating, saw about 50 settlers walking and running
along Shuhada Street. As a few members looked on from the street
entrance to their apartment, a male settler youth ran past and threw a
rock into the market at Palestinians. Soldiers grabbed him and brought
him back to Shuhada Street. Another male settler assaulted a
Palestinian man splashing clear liquid on him, from what appeared to
be a vodka bottle. Shop keepers started closing up shops, and curfew
was imposed shortly thereafter. CPT members witnessed male settler
youth, some of them apparently drunk, hurl stones in the market, and
stomp on vegetables as they marched through largely empty streets.

While this was going on, members positioned on the roof of the CPT
apartment observed machine gunfire coming from a soldier station, on top of
the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu, directed at hilltop homes in the
Palestinian
neighborhood of Takrouri Mountain next to Abu Sneihneh. They also witnessed
two tank shell attacks on the same homes from a military base established in
the school yard of Osamma Bin Munqeth. The shooting and shelling lasted
approximately 45 minutes.

Over the next two days, sources confirmed that the gunfire
started when a Palestinian gunman shot and injured an Israeli settler in
the leg in front of the settlement of Avraham Avinu. Settler attacks on
Palestinians, including the beating of Palestinian journalist Mazen
Dana, known to CPT members, were also reported on TV. The team heard
additional gunfire throughout the evening. Settler youth marched through the
empty market area, shouting and upsetting vendor stalls.

Sunday, March 11, 2001 - curfew
At about 7:00 A.M. the upstairs neighbours rang the women's
apartment doorbell. Soldiers had prevented the two younger children
and their older sister who goes to Hebron University from going to
school. Dianne Roe went outside attempting to intervene. A soldier on
the rooftop across the alley said "No, they must go back inside."
Another member of the team reported that the older sister was
eventually able to slip out undetected.

Four CPT members went to Takrouri Mountain next to Abu Sneineh
to investigate the results of the shelling and gunfire of the previous
night. The father of a family was shot in the head as he was standing
inside his house. He is now recovering in Alia Hospital. Children
coming home from school greeted the members and showed them
collections of bullets and shrapnel, and spent time searching for more
pieces lying in nearby fields and lodged in trees and buildings. One
child's chin was bandaged, the result of shrapnel from the night
before. Members also observed and documented the gaping holesin the two
buildings which had been shelled.

On the way home from the visit to Takrouri Mountain, members
witnessed a settler parade in front of Avraham Avinu on Shuhada
Street, and Palestinian youth throwing stones and rolling burning tires in
the direction of soldiers stationed at the foot of the street leading up to
the neighborhood of Abu Sneihneh.

Monday, March 12, 2001 - curfew
Israeli doctor Kate Sugarman with Physicians for Human Rights
responded to Roe's call for assistance regarding Khaled Al Najjar,
lying in intensive care at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, after receiving a
gunshot wound in the stomach by settlers on Friday, March 9. Without his
identity card and number, hospital attendants were unable to contact the
family. Knowing family members by the same name in Yatta, Roe contacted them
to advise them of Al Najjar's location, and the wheels were set in motion
for the family to apply for
permits to visit Al Najjar.

CPT members Pierre Shantz and Greg Rollins travelled to Ramallah to
participate in a 500 person march and action organized by the faculty
and students of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah to remove three road
blocks of bulldozed rock and earth set up by Israeli military, effectively
sealing off Ramallah. Demonstrators carried signs in English and
Arabic calling for an end to the siege. In spite of approximately 50
shots of tear gas used by the military, jubilant demonstrators were
successful in removing the three roadblocks using their bare hands
and a front end loader. To prevent the front end loader from being
shot at, demonstrators encircled it, as it moved from one road block to
the next. After approximately 20 minutes of sitting and standing in
front of one dismantled road block area, demonstrators prevented the
military bulldozer from replacing it, effectively forcing the bulldozer to
turn around and leave the area. The event was heavily covered by the
media.

One of the team's translators was stopped by IDF soldiers as
she exited the CPT apartment with three team members. The IDF
attempted to prevent her from leaving, insisting that she return up the
staircase. However, after approximately five minutes of arguing, they let
her
go. Other CPT members observed IDF soldiers detain the young
woman from the neighbouring apartment for approximately 45 minutes
and check her identity card, before permitting her to enter the
apartment staircase. At approximately 5:00 P.M., IDF soldiers turned the
father of the family away at the street
entrance to the apartment building.

Dianne Roe and Rebecca Johnson visited the Department of
Education for the Northern Hebron District (including the city of
Hebron), and a girls school to obtain information regarding the effects
on students of Israeli military imposed curfew, closures, shooting and
shelling. The Director of Education and head mistresses of the school
confirmed that schools were forced to officially close for the month of
October and part of November, with teachers directed to go to closest
schools during this time period and teach any students that were able
t