CPTnet
Hebron: Update April 3-15

Tuesday, April 3
During the night settlers broke into a Palestinian wool store beneath Beit
Hadassah and vandalized the merchandise. They also raided a mosque in the
old city and vandalized it, throwing around garbage, copies of the Koran,
and the carpets on the floor. Curfew was lifted that day from 9:00 A.M. to
5:00 P.M..

Wednesday, April 4
Five nearly completed Palestinian houses were demolished by the Israeli
Defence Force (IDF) in Wadi Ghuus. The IDF said the reason for destroying
the homes was that they had been build illegally. Rick Polhamus, Greg
Rollins, and Pierre Shantz went to observe and try to get in the way of the
bulldozers. CPTers were unable to get close enough to block the destruction
because of the heavy IDF presence. Shantz was slapped and pushed by a
boarder police officer while observing the demolition from a neighbouring
building. He was then detained. Subsequently Polhamus was kicked in the leg
by the same soldier. At the police station Shantz filed a complaint and was
released. An investigation into the incident is said to be under way.

Rick Carter and local journalist Kawther Salam went to an action in Tel
Aviv put on by Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, and Gush Shalom. It
called for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) to pull out of Hebron.

Curfew was again lifted from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..

Thursday, April 5
Polhamus filed a complaint against the soldier who kicked him the day
before. Curfew was lifted from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..

Friday, April 6
Rollins and Shantz went to a Palestinian Friday prayer march and solidarity
gathering at a school in Abu Sneineh. After praying, roughly one hundred
men marched through Abu Sneineh up to the top where they dispersed. Curfew
was lifted from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..

Saturday, April 7
Rollins and Shantz spent the day planting tomatoes in the Beqa'a valley at
a friend of the teams. Previously the field had held cauliflowers, but they
had been ripped up by settlers from Harsina. These farmers depend greatly
upon their crops and lose thousands of dollars when their fields are
destroyed. Curfew was lifted all day.

Sunday, April 8
After church Polhamus, Rollins and Shantz took part in the Palm Sunday
procession from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. This march openned the
Easter week in Jerusalem. Along with thousands of Christians from dozens of
countries and denominations, they entered the city waving palm branches and
singing and dancing.

Tuesday, April 10
Shantz attended the court case of a friend of the team who had pushed and
hit an Israeli soldier on April 2. The attack came when soldiers tried to
move him and other Palestinians away from a blown up store that had been
blown up by settler youth. He is currently engaged to be married and also
brings in a large part of his family's income. He was sentenced to two
months in jail.

Team members met with people from Beit Ummar to discuss future actions in
the area.

Wednesday, April 11
The team hung a banner on top of Abu Sneineh that said "The Veto Kills,"
before holding a press conference denouncing the US veto of the UN
resolution calling for unarmed international observers in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Because the neighbourhood of Abu Sneineh is often used by
Palestinian snipers to shoot down into the Hebron settlements, it becomes
the target of massive IDF retaliation with tanks, mortars and heavy machine
guns. CPT believes that an unarmed international presence there would
decrease volence in the area, and therefore keep Israeli soldiers from
collectively punishing the neighbourhood in retaliation.

After the press conference Roe spent the night with the family of Im Anis
on Abu Sneineh, who experience repeated shooting attacks on their house.
While she was there Im Anis pointed out to her the difference in sound
between Palestinian gun fire and that of the IDF. Four families were
huddled together in one room.

Thursday, April 12
The team went to Jerusalem to attend various Easter services. Rollins went
to a meeting with George Rishamwi from the Rapprochement Centre, and the
mayor of Halhoul to discuss plans to symbolically remove the Halhoul road
block the following week. Roe returned to Abu Sneineh for the night.

Friday, April 13
Good Friday. On the eve of a week of actions planned by Palestinian and
Israeli peace groups, Polhamus and Holmes went to a meeting at the
Rapprochement Centre in Bethlehem to discuss civil disobedience and
possibilities of arrest.

Saturday, April 14
The team took part in a march on the Bethlehem/Jerusalem check point to
call attention to the fact that Palestinians are not allowed to pass
through it. Palestinian peace groups and internationals on the Bethlehem
side and Israelis peace groups and internationals on the other, were both
stopped several times by IDF soldiers, but each time managed to simply walk
around, under or though them, before meeting in the middle. Because the
groups refused to show any aggression, soldiers did not stray outside of
using minimal resistance tactics, and no arrests were made.

Sunday, April 15
Easter Sunday. Members of the team took part in a sunrise service on the
Mount of Olives before a team lunch to say good bye to Shantz. Shots were
fired from Abu Sneineh at 6:10 P.M. and curfew was declared. At the
beginning of the shooting, Moshe Levinger's son was almost hit by a
sniper's bullet. Enraged by this, settlers attempted to get into Abu
Sneineh but were stopped by soldiers. Heavy Israeli fire hit into Abu
Sneineh about every twenty minutes until 1:00 A.M. the following morning.
During the shooting Im Anis called from Abu Sneineh to say that two women
of her family were injured by IDF shooting and that the ambulance was
unable to coming into the neighbourhood while shooting was going on. During
the call, however, the ambulance was able to make it in.

Also during the shooting, from the team's roof, Rollins, Holmes and
Polhamus witnessed a settler shooting up into Abu Sneineh from one of the
balconies of Avriham Avinu.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite
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