CPTnet
30 September 2005

HEBRON: Israeli settlers threaten shopkeepers and break into shops in Old
City

by Jerry Levin

Late Thursday afternoon, 29 September, CPTers Anne Montgomery and Jerry
Levin locked themselves inside the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) apartment
and watched as about twenty settlers refused to obey Israeli soldiers who
were ordering them to leave the Old City. (At the time CPTers Christina Gibb
and Dianne Roe were away at a meeting.)

The incident began around 4:30 p.m. when Montgomery, walking near Avraham
Avinu settlement, encountered soldiers trying to stop settlers from menacing
Palestinian shopkeepers. Angrily declaring that Palestinian youngsters had
thrown stones, attacked a settler boy and stolen a goat, the setters had
rushed through a nearby gate that is usually locked. They became even more
furious when the soldiers would not back up their claim.

Meanwhile, other settlers pushed their way through another unlocked heavy
mesh metal gate outside the CPT apartment, and two settler boys broke into a
newly opened poultry shop. Using her cellphone, Montgomery, unable to make
her way safely to the CPT apartment, alerted Levin, who was inside. Stepping
into the street, he started snapping pictures. Seeing the camera, several
nearby settler men rushed angrily at him; so he stepped back inside and
locked the door.

Going to the roof and seeing no Israeli police, he called the Tel Rumeida
station. A dispatcher said he knew about the disturbance but "the army is
there and will take care of it." Levin replied that the army was not
succeeding. The dispatcher, without answering, hung up.

By then, Montgomery, following a soldier, had been able to get back to the
apartment. After about a half hour, when it looked to the CPTers as if the
soldiers were successfully persuading the settlers to leave, five young
settler boys slipped past them and darted further into the Old City.
Shouting furiously, a couple of soldiers dashed after them. Other settlers,
including spokesperson David Wilder continued to mill about irately and
uncertainly in the street below. When Wilder started taking pictures of
soldiers trying to stop settlers from proceeding, a soldier shouted angrily
at him to stop.

The CPTers again called Tel Rumeida police to complain about their absence.
A few minutes later, police suddenly appeared alongside the soldiers who
earlier had chased after the elusive settler boys. Each soldier was
clutching a kicking, squirming boy while dragging and pushing them back
through the gate. Shadowed by other soldiers, the remaining settlers
sullenly filed out too.

The soldiers slammed the gate shut. Then for about another hour several
settlers continued to hang around glaring at soldiers still standing guard
in the street. Palestinian men came to repair the metal doors and locks to
the shop that settlers had broken into. Israeli police brought two settler
boys back through the gate to see the damage they had caused. After dark the
soldiers securely padlocked the gate, and the last of the settlers left the
area.