by Janet Benvie

While saying they want peace, the Israeli government continues to erect a plethora of concrete and wire barriers on Palestinian land. These barriers severely restrict movement, imprison whole towns and cities and impoverish the Palestinian population. They choke the life of the Palestinian people and throttle any chance of peace.

This spring, CPTers joined local community activists and Terres des hommes (Tdh): Hebron Community Mental Health Program in supporting a new "Sports for Kids" initiative in Hebron's Old City.

Palestinian boys, aged 10-12, from the Old City formed a soccer team and Tdh provided funding for the uniforms. Their first practice included a game against young adult visitors from "Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace" and the "Palestinian Association in Stockholm." The team meets once a week for practice and hopes to play other youth teams in the future.

On March 9, 2007, Hebron team members held a short memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the death of CPTer Tom Fox in Iraq. Fox was killed after kidnappers held him hostage for four months. During the short commemoration, the group planted an olive tree near the CPT apartment.

About fifty Palestinians, internationals and CPTers met beside the Ibrahimi Mosque, then walked in two groups to a dividing fence outside the CPT apartment. The fence prevents Palestinian access from the Old City market to Shuhada Street.

by Sean O'Neill

Beit Romano, a desolate square located at the entrance to the Old City of Hebron, is another victim of the exodus of Palestinians from the area as the Israeli army and several hundred Israeli settlers have pushed their way in. A large settlement looms above the square. Its smooth new stone stands in stark contrast to the run down Palestinian buildings below. The Israeli army has turned the roof of the shuttered Palestinian shops on one side into an outpost.

"This is the fourth car of mine that Israelis have set on fire in seven years," said Palestinian Hani Abu Haikel, a long-time friend of CPT. "It will cost 2000 shekels ($500U.S.) to fix."

Living next door to the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida, Hani's family has suffered much violence. Settlers have cut down olive trees and grapevines, destroyed property, dumped garbage in their yard and stolen children's toys. Through it all, Hani has remained firmly committed to nonviolence.

by Eileen Hanson

On May 18, four CPTers in coordination with Rabbis for Human Rights and the Israeli group, Ta'ayush, went to the village of Al-Buweib in the South Hebron Hills to accompany local farmers tending their land. Farmers in this area have been unable to access both grazing fields and olive groves due to threats and harassment from Israeli settlers in the nearby settlement of Pnei Hever.

by Joel Klassen and Doug Pritchard

On April 26 in the town of Santa Rosa, eight members of the Nueva Granada Battalion of the Colombian Army arrested Teofilo Acuna, president of the Agricultural Miners' Federation of the South of Bolivar and charged him with "rebellion."

The soldiers took Acuna to the Santa Rosa military base and initially denied him access to a lawyer. They held him at the base overnight, where CPTers were able to accompany him, and then transferred him to Barrancabermeja. He was released ten days later (May 5) for lack of evidence. His lawyer called the whole thing a "frame-up."

by Michele Braley

On May 7, CPT received a call from a mining community leader in Micoahumado reporting that the Colombian Army had put up a roadblock at the entrance to their community and was refusing to allow food or people to move in or out. The Army said they were searching for 32 people including two residents of the community it claimed were guerrilla supporters.

The Army is known to have used extrajudicial methods, including assassinations of civilians, in its hunt for suspected guerrillas.

On March 25, 21-year-old Carlos Mejía and a 16-year-old companion were cutting lumber near the river outside the community of La Cooperativa (Cimitarra Valley, Magdalena Medio region). The young men encountered a squad of soldiers from the Colombian Army's Calibío Battalion and reluctantly agreed to ferry them across the river in their canoe. There, another squad of Calibío soldiers detained, interrogated, and separated the two young men. The 16-year-old managed to escape through the underbrush, evading shots and swimming across the river to safety.

CPTers accompanying CAMAWARI (an Awá First Nation’s governing body) and its constituent communities in the province of Nariño noted a dramatic increase in violence since CPT's first visit in November and December of 2006. Various armed contenders – guerrillas, paramilitary groups, and Colombian Armed Forces – vie for control of the area.

Standing before one of the major production facilities for depleted uranium (DU) weapons in the U.S., 15 CPT delegates released over 400 helium balloons into the air with a message inside:

"...If you received this balloon, you may have breathed pollutants emitted by Aerojet Ordnance in Jonesborough, TN, a company that makes weapons from nuclear waste left over from the uranium enrichment process. These munitions are used in Afghanistan and Iraq where our troops breathe their poisonous radioactive dust. America's soldiers and their families, along with Iraqi and Afghani families, are suffering from above normal incidences of birth defects, cancers, and symptoms of heavy metal and radiation poisoning. Please help us learn the reach of Aerojet's air emissions by mailing this balloon back to us..."

A CPT delegation focusing on Aboriginal justice issues will travel to the First Nations community of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) and the nearby town of Kenora in Northwest Ontario August 16-26, 2007.

In 1999, the Ontario government granted a 20-year license to Abitibi Consolidated allowing them to clear-cut Asubpeeschoseewagong traditional lands. Grassy Narrows community members started blockading Abitibi logging contractors in November 2002 with CPT accompaniment.

During the month of July, CPT’s Borderlands project will send a four-person team to enact a 3,000-mile Border Witness Drive organized around the migrant experience within the US-Mexico Borderlands region. The team will engage in public witness and connect with immigrant-solidarity organizations as it travels from Tucson, AZ, east to Brownsville, TX, and then north to Washington, DC, culminating with legislative advocacy calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

CPT provides emergency accompaniment for FLOC workers in Monterrey.

In early May CPT received a call from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) seeking emergency accompaniment for their staff and volunteers in Monterrey, Mexico, about three hours south of Laredo, Texas.

by Peggy Gish

We were Sunni Muslim, Yezidi, and Christian. We were two CPTers and two Kurdish Iraqi companions, and had been on a trip together to learn about a community in northwest Iraq that has suffered religious persecution, poverty, and mass displacement. On our trip home, the four of us were kidnapped at gun point. We were held captive in a large sitting room in a family compound in a small village.

by Jim Loney

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, May 23, 2007.

On Nov. 26, 2005, I was kidnapped in Baghdad. My associates and I, all members of a Christian Peacemaker Teams’ delegation, were held by Iraqi insurgents for four months. Tom Fox, a 54-year-old U.S. citizen, was found dead on the streets of Baghdad on March 9, 2006, of multiple gunshot wounds. Two weeks later, Harmeet Singh Sooden, 34, and myself, 42, both Canadians, were rescued along with Briton Norman Kember, 75, by British and U.S. soldiers.

In November last year, we were told that an unspecified number of men alleged to be our kidnappers were in U.S. custody.

Blessed are the Pacifists: the Beatitudes and Just War Theory, by Thomas Trzyna. Herald Press, 2006. Review by Claire Evans.

Rufina Amaya - Presente!: Rufina Amaya was the sole survivor of the 1981 El Mozote massacre. She helplessly watched as Salvadoran soldiers, trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, killed her young children, beheaded her husband, and massacred her entire community. Though she wanted to die herself after witnessing so much horror, she instead plead with God to let her live so that the truth of what happened would not be buried in the mass graves entombing her loved ones. Rufina died of a stroke on March 6, 2007 at the age of 64. Her fearless voice rose above the brutality of the U.S.-sponsored war in her country. Her amazing courage and commitment to working for truth, justice and an end to impunity continued till her final days. Her story of survival and determination will continue to inspire people the world over.

Tearing Down Walls, Restoring Communities

September 20-22, 2007
Toronto Mennonite Church
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

Please accept this donation as a redirection of my federal taxes owed. I am unable in good conscience to fund U.S. military efforts, particularly the current war in Iraq. As a Christian, I follow the Prince of Peace who instructed us to love and pray for our enemies. Along with my many prayers for peace and protests to the government, I also choose to withhold my money from enabling more Iraqi and American deaths through this immoral and illegal war.
Karla Yoder
Washington, DC

Peacemaker Delegations:

• Colombia: July 18-31; September 26 - October 9.
• Northwestern Ontario: Aboriginal Justice Delegation August 16-26
• Palestine/Israel: July 30 - August 11; October 16-28; November 19 - December 1.

A listing of CPTers and delegation members and where they served....

Signs of the Times is produced four times a year. Batches of 10 or more are available to institutions, congregations, and local groups for distribution. Any part of Signs of the Times may be used without permission.