CPTnet
6 March 2008
HEBRON UPDATE: 1-7 February 2008

Team members during this period were Tarek Abuata, Jean Fallon, Jessica
Frederick, Barbara Martens, Doug Pritchard, Dianne Roe, Paulette Schroeder,
Kathie Uhler, and Mary Wendeln

Friday 1 February 2008
Doug Pritchard, Tarek Abuata, and members of International Solidarity
Movement (ISM) went to the burial of two Palestinian youth from Beit Ummar,
killed recently ( See 7 February 2008 CPTnet releases, "BEIT UMMAR: Tragedy
in Beit Ummar, Part I--a closer look," and "BEIT UMMAR: Tragedy in Beit
Ummar, Part II--rest in peace?") Abuata, Pritchard, and the ISMers joined
the front section of funeral procession. As they approached the village
gate (which the military had closed), a shot of live ammunition came from
the direction of the Israeli soldiers. Palestinians had not provoked the
attack, but a few Palestinian youth started slinging stones at the soldiers
after the gunfire. Soldiers responded with tear gas, plastic bullets, and
live ammunition. Abuata and Pritchard went to a rooftop, where they could
see tear gas rising, about thirty Israeli soldiers entering Beit Ummar, and
military jeeps blocking every entrance to the village. CPTers later heard
that Israeli soldiers wounded fourteen Palestinians with plastic bullets and
live ammunition.

In the evening, Zleekha Muhtaseb informed CPTers that the Israeli military
were holding her and her mom at the Mosque checkpoint. Muhtaseb said she
yelled at the soldiers for not letting them pass through the mosque gate,
and then they tried to prohibit them from going through a different gate
(Gate 7). The commander arrived, whom Muhtaseb knows well. He told
Muhtaseb, “There was a mistake. The soldiers didn’t understand what you
were asking of them. Of course, you can go through Gate 7. I will take you
there.”

Sunday 3 February
Jessica Frederick joined three ISMers for a meeting at the Palestinian
Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD). The group discussed difficulties of
life in Palestine, and the need for a commitment to nonviolence to change
the situation. The Palestinians said: “We reflect the violence [we
experience from Israelis].” One Palestinian said he heard an Israeli say, “I
hope [for a time when there is] no Palestinian around the world,” and
Israeli graffiti, saying, “The good Arab is the one who is dead.” One
Palestinian summarized his commitment to nonviolence: “They [the Israelis]
kill me? Ok. But they did not kill the idea.”

On her way home from the meeting at PCPD, Frederick observed Israeli
soldiers holding three Palestinian men at the Beit Romano checkpoint for
five or ten minutes. The soldiers detained another man briefly.

In the afternoon, Pritchard, Dianne Roe, and Mary Wendeln visited a
Palestinian family who had moved out of the Bab il-Khan in the Old City, two
years ago after settlers from neighboring Avraham Avinu settlement set fire
to the family apartment complex. Now only one family is left in the area,
and they are vulnerable to harassment from the nearby Israeli settlers.

Monday 04 February
Frederick and Paulette Schroeder went to the police station to file a
complaint regarding the settler’s attacking them (see 20 February CPTnet
release, "HEBRON UPDATE: 16-31 January.") After Frederick described the
incident to the officer taking her complaint, he asked for any additional
comments. She said she wished she could drink tea and talk with the boys
who attacked her; maybe if they could talk and get to know her, they would
not want to attack her or others. The police officer said, “You can do
that. Start an investigation.” Frederick asked for more details, but the
police officer said the chances that the boys would talk with her were
unlikely. He told her when they come into the police station, they do not
answer the questions he asks them. As Frederick left, the officer said,
“God bless you,” and she returned his blessing.

At the police station, the CPTers spoke with a Palestinian mother and son,
who said soldiers entered their home and stole 3,000 shekels.

As the CPTers left the police station compound, a man approached them and
asked if they had seen a boy in the compound. They had, and Frederick
offered to wait with the man until authorities released the adolescent.
They waited a few moments, until the man told them they could leave. As
they were walking home, the man and the boy passed them in a car.

When Frederick and Schroeder passed the Yatta Road checkpoint on an
afternoon patrol, an Israeli military jeep drove by, beeped at the CPTers,
and said over the jeep intercom, “CPT go home. CPT go home.”

A Palestinian friend came to the apartment in the afternoon and said he
heard two Palestinian suicide bombers died and killed one Israeli woman at a
shopping mall near Dimona. He also brought news that the Israeli government
has given settlers permission to renovate a house they are occupying.

Tuesday 05 February
A Palestinian informed CPTers the Israeli military closed the mosque gateway
into and out of the Old City. The Israeli military said they closed the
gate because a Palestinian youth had a knife. After about an hour, a jeep
took him away. Two women at the checkpoint told Frederick they were waiting
for two hours on their way to work.

Barbara Martens learned from a local shopkeeper that on the previous day the
Israeli military circled part of Hebron and cut off access at Halhul. The
shopkeeper told Martens the Palestinian children threw stones at Israeli
soldiers stationed on rooftops, who fired live ammunition at the children.
The ammunition wounded some children, and an ambulance took them to the
hospital. The shopkeeper waited an hour and a half before taking a longer
way home.

Schroeder and Kathie Uhler visited the Al Mahawer Charitable Society, which
provides a safe place for children to play and to develop positive
self-images and relationships.

At the Yatta Road checkpoint Frederick, Muhtaseb, Roe, and Wendeln noticed
two Palestinian men standing against the wall. One man said they had been
standing there for about an hour and half, and another said soldiers
detained him for three hours. Soldiers released the men approximately
fifteen minutes later.

The CPTers and a translator visited a local Palestinian family. In April
1996, Israeli authorities demolished their home. The family still owns
land, but the separation barrier Israel is building may annex their land
into Israel. If this annexation happened, they would not rebuild their
home. The mother spoke of her daughter who lives in Jerusalem without a
Jerusalem permit, and how she must sneak into and out of the city. Once,
when she was pregnant, she entered the city in a bulldozer. The family
seemed pleased at the prospect of CPTers visiting their home regularly, in
case soldiers or settlers harass them.

Wednesday 06 February
Frederick and Art Gish stood at the mosque gate for school patrol. Over the
course of forty minutes, Israeli border police searched six adults' and ten
children’s school bags.

Jean Fallon, Wendeln, and Uhler worshipped in solidarity with the nuns in at
the monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption. Last Ash Wednesday, men
attacked the monastery. The perpetrators were recently released from
prison. CPTers learned of suspicions the attack was intended to pressure
the monastery to sell their land to the Israeli government.

Thursday 07 February
During school patrol at the Yatta checkpoint, several Palestinian boys had
to open their schoolbags for inspection. Martens showed a soldier the
letter from the Civil Administration, stating, “Security checks are
performed on all residents, apart from schoolchildren on their way to
educational institutions. These children pass through the checkpoint near
the containers. . .” The soldier claimed not to know about this decision,
and only children whose bags look suspicious are made to open them. Martens
noted the day before six little girls had to open their bags, and that it
seemed unlikely all these girls’ bags looked suspicious. The soldier said
he had to make sure children were not carrying knives because “they could go
and attack the Jewish houses nearby.” When Martens pointed out that to do
so, the children must pass through one of several additional checkpoints,
the soldier had no answer.