HEBRON UPDATE: 1–14 April 2008
April 23rd, 2008
in:
CPTnet
23 April 2008
HEBRON UPDATE: 1–14 April 2008
On team during this period were Art Arbour, JoAnne Lingle, Lorne Friesen, Paul Rehm, Alwyn Knight, Dianne Roe, and Mary Anne Grady-Flores (Intern)
Tuesday 1 April
CPTers spent the night at Hebron orphanages run by the Islamic Charities Society that the Israeli military has ordered evicted. A friend brought the news that the Israeli High Court had delayed the orders to close the Society’s properties for a further four days to give the IDF time to justify their actions to the Court.
Wednesday 2 April
Arbour spent the morning at the University of Hebron with Ulric Shannon, Senior Political Officer for the Government of Canada in Ramallah, participating in a conference for students of French. Later he took a group of ten Britons to At-Tuwani for the afternoon.
While on patrol, Arbour and Lingle saw an old Palestinian woman carrying a heavy sack who was having difficulty walking. A soldier stopped her from going down Shuhada Street, near the Gutnick Centre. When Arbour and Lingle intervened on her behalf, the soldier insisted that she take an alternative route. Lingle linked arms with the woman and was prepared to accompany her along the forbidden route. However, the woman was afraid to disobey the soldier, so Lingle carried the sack and walked with the woman along the longer route.
Friesen and Rehm, accompanied by translator Zleekha Muhtasib, visited a clinic run by the Al-Mahawer Charitable Society in Al-Kassara. Save the Children funds the psychological clinic for children and adolescents. Staff highlighted two problems: the effects of the Israeli Occupation on children and the young age at which women marry. The psychological effects of the occupation include nightmares, hyperactivity, bedwetting, and sleep disturbance. Some symptoms can persist into adolescence.
In the evening, Lingle, Friesen, Arbour and Rehm joined Rasheed for dinner at the boys’ orphanage. CPTers were presented with a certificate reading, “Thanks and Appreciation. The administration of the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron, its employees, orphans and students are so pleased to extend their thanks, gratefulness and appreciation to all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams for their tremendous efforts, solidarity and protest against the unjust Israeli military decision to confiscate all the properties of the Society. We highly appreciate your long staying with the orphans at their dorms.”
Saturday 5 April
Arbour led a group of forty British clergy and laypeople on a tour of Islamic Charitable Society properties, and then of the Old City of Hebron. Soldiers delayed the group at the Gross Square checkpoint for twenty minutes. Soldiers then escorted the group along Shuhada Street to the Yatta checkpoint. They were able to visit the Mosque without incident.
Monday 7 April
Arbour led a group of eleven Americans from Interfaith Peace Builders to At-Tuwani, and back to Hebron for a walk through the Old City. Near the Ibrahimi Mosque, a young Palestinian said that he had not been able to visit his father’s grave in the nearby cemetery since 2000, when soldiers beat him for doing so. A visitor asked if he would feel safer if the group accompanied him. He agreed, and Arbour led the group to the cemetery. He prayed at his father’s grave, and returned to the group with tears in his eyes.
At 1:00 p.m., CPTers met at the Al-Shari’yah Girls’ School and Orphanage for a Press Conference in connection with the threatened closure of premises owned by the Islamic Charitable Society. Speakers included the Society’s lawyer, a representative of the charity’s educational operations, and Art Arbour, on behalf of CPT. Rabbi Arik Ascherman (Rabbis for Human Rights) sent a telephone message of support. A student gave a passionate speech on behalf of her colleagues. Khaled Amayreh chaired the Conference, and provided translation. The media attending did not seem interested.
CPTers and international friends slept overnight at the two orphanages.
Wednesday 9 April
The team heard about a large convoy of military vehicles assembled by the Beit Romano checkpoint. Lingle, Friesen, Rehm and Knight went to investigate, fearing that they were heading for the schools. Lingle and Friesen were able to follow for a while in a taxi. The team learned later that they had gone to the village of Tafouh to arrest a young Palestinian woman.
CPTers invited Rasheed for an evening meal, in recognition of the stress he is under as the team's main contact with the Society. Team members began to discuss strategies to implement if the Israeli military raided the schools and orphanages. Team members agreed that one CPTer should remain in the apartment – to alert other agencies, press – and that the others should deploy as quickly as possible to the various sites. The group also agreed that the first concern was for the safety of the students, and not for the buildings.
Thursday 10 April
Arbour led a tour of eight people from Global Exchange on a tour of the Old City.
Knight and translator Rasheed visited the girls’ orphanage to take photos. Team members heard that two IDF officers had visited the sewing workshop that morning. They had taken photographs and asked questions. They had then visited a shopping mall where the girls had an exhibition of their work and told the girls to remove the exhibits by Sunday.
Friday 11 April
Lingle, intern Mary Anne Grady-Flores and translator Zleekha Muhtaseb, went to talk to shopkeepers in Shalala Street. Earlier, soldiers had visited six or seven shops. A tent and saddle-maker told the CPTers that the soldiers had wanted him to raise his hands (he refused), had made him stand facing a wall, and kicked his legs apart. The soldiers threw his stock on to the ground, placed a black tape ‘cross’ above his door, and left. Other shopkeepers told similar stories of soldiers emptying drawers and pulling stock off shelves. Others, too, had black crosses placed on doors.
Lingle and Grady-Flores, with translator Rasheed visited the Al Shari’yah Girls’ School to see the garment-making workshop, and went later to the Al Huda Mall (also owned by ICS) where the store ‘Pretty Woman’ is located. All shops were closed. At Golden Medal Supermarket and the Rahma bakery, shopkeepers told CPTers that soldiers had come to tell them that they must vacate their shops by Sunday 13 April.
Saturday 12 April
A Palestinian student joined Rehm and Friesen on street patrol. Near the Gutnick Centre, they met Noam Arnon, a leader of the settler community. He accused the CPTers of supporting their enemies – "the Arabs" and of doing nothing for the Jews.
Later CPTers talked to workers constructing a Palestinian house. The Israelis will not permit deliveries of materials by Palestinian vehicles. Supplies had to be carried, or delivered by Israeli drivers at considerable extra cost.
Monday 14 April
Arbour, Knight, Friesen, Rehm and Grady-Flores, plus fifteen internationals returned from sleeping overnight in the two orphanages.
Arbour, Friesen and Rehm attended a ceremony at the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee to launch a new Hebron Tourist map.
23 April 2008
HEBRON UPDATE: 1–14 April 2008
On team during this period were Art Arbour, JoAnne Lingle, Lorne Friesen, Paul Rehm, Alwyn Knight, Dianne Roe, and Mary Anne Grady-Flores (Intern)
Tuesday 1 April
CPTers spent the night at Hebron orphanages run by the Islamic Charities Society that the Israeli military has ordered evicted. A friend brought the news that the Israeli High Court had delayed the orders to close the Society’s properties for a further four days to give the IDF time to justify their actions to the Court.
Wednesday 2 April
Arbour spent the morning at the University of Hebron with Ulric Shannon, Senior Political Officer for the Government of Canada in Ramallah, participating in a conference for students of French. Later he took a group of ten Britons to At-Tuwani for the afternoon.
While on patrol, Arbour and Lingle saw an old Palestinian woman carrying a heavy sack who was having difficulty walking. A soldier stopped her from going down Shuhada Street, near the Gutnick Centre. When Arbour and Lingle intervened on her behalf, the soldier insisted that she take an alternative route. Lingle linked arms with the woman and was prepared to accompany her along the forbidden route. However, the woman was afraid to disobey the soldier, so Lingle carried the sack and walked with the woman along the longer route.
Friesen and Rehm, accompanied by translator Zleekha Muhtasib, visited a clinic run by the Al-Mahawer Charitable Society in Al-Kassara. Save the Children funds the psychological clinic for children and adolescents. Staff highlighted two problems: the effects of the Israeli Occupation on children and the young age at which women marry. The psychological effects of the occupation include nightmares, hyperactivity, bedwetting, and sleep disturbance. Some symptoms can persist into adolescence.
In the evening, Lingle, Friesen, Arbour and Rehm joined Rasheed for dinner at the boys’ orphanage. CPTers were presented with a certificate reading, “Thanks and Appreciation. The administration of the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron, its employees, orphans and students are so pleased to extend their thanks, gratefulness and appreciation to all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams for their tremendous efforts, solidarity and protest against the unjust Israeli military decision to confiscate all the properties of the Society. We highly appreciate your long staying with the orphans at their dorms.”
Saturday 5 April
Arbour led a group of forty British clergy and laypeople on a tour of Islamic Charitable Society properties, and then of the Old City of Hebron. Soldiers delayed the group at the Gross Square checkpoint for twenty minutes. Soldiers then escorted the group along Shuhada Street to the Yatta checkpoint. They were able to visit the Mosque without incident.
Monday 7 April
Arbour led a group of eleven Americans from Interfaith Peace Builders to At-Tuwani, and back to Hebron for a walk through the Old City. Near the Ibrahimi Mosque, a young Palestinian said that he had not been able to visit his father’s grave in the nearby cemetery since 2000, when soldiers beat him for doing so. A visitor asked if he would feel safer if the group accompanied him. He agreed, and Arbour led the group to the cemetery. He prayed at his father’s grave, and returned to the group with tears in his eyes.
At 1:00 p.m., CPTers met at the Al-Shari’yah Girls’ School and Orphanage for a Press Conference in connection with the threatened closure of premises owned by the Islamic Charitable Society. Speakers included the Society’s lawyer, a representative of the charity’s educational operations, and Art Arbour, on behalf of CPT. Rabbi Arik Ascherman (Rabbis for Human Rights) sent a telephone message of support. A student gave a passionate speech on behalf of her colleagues. Khaled Amayreh chaired the Conference, and provided translation. The media attending did not seem interested.
CPTers and international friends slept overnight at the two orphanages.
Wednesday 9 April
The team heard about a large convoy of military vehicles assembled by the Beit Romano checkpoint. Lingle, Friesen, Rehm and Knight went to investigate, fearing that they were heading for the schools. Lingle and Friesen were able to follow for a while in a taxi. The team learned later that they had gone to the village of Tafouh to arrest a young Palestinian woman.
CPTers invited Rasheed for an evening meal, in recognition of the stress he is under as the team's main contact with the Society. Team members began to discuss strategies to implement if the Israeli military raided the schools and orphanages. Team members agreed that one CPTer should remain in the apartment – to alert other agencies, press – and that the others should deploy as quickly as possible to the various sites. The group also agreed that the first concern was for the safety of the students, and not for the buildings.
Thursday 10 April
Arbour led a tour of eight people from Global Exchange on a tour of the Old City.
Knight and translator Rasheed visited the girls’ orphanage to take photos. Team members heard that two IDF officers had visited the sewing workshop that morning. They had taken photographs and asked questions. They had then visited a shopping mall where the girls had an exhibition of their work and told the girls to remove the exhibits by Sunday.
Friday 11 April
Lingle, intern Mary Anne Grady-Flores and translator Zleekha Muhtaseb, went to talk to shopkeepers in Shalala Street. Earlier, soldiers had visited six or seven shops. A tent and saddle-maker told the CPTers that the soldiers had wanted him to raise his hands (he refused), had made him stand facing a wall, and kicked his legs apart. The soldiers threw his stock on to the ground, placed a black tape ‘cross’ above his door, and left. Other shopkeepers told similar stories of soldiers emptying drawers and pulling stock off shelves. Others, too, had black crosses placed on doors.
Lingle and Grady-Flores, with translator Rasheed visited the Al Shari’yah Girls’ School to see the garment-making workshop, and went later to the Al Huda Mall (also owned by ICS) where the store ‘Pretty Woman’ is located. All shops were closed. At Golden Medal Supermarket and the Rahma bakery, shopkeepers told CPTers that soldiers had come to tell them that they must vacate their shops by Sunday 13 April.
Saturday 12 April
A Palestinian student joined Rehm and Friesen on street patrol. Near the Gutnick Centre, they met Noam Arnon, a leader of the settler community. He accused the CPTers of supporting their enemies – "the Arabs" and of doing nothing for the Jews.
Later CPTers talked to workers constructing a Palestinian house. The Israelis will not permit deliveries of materials by Palestinian vehicles. Supplies had to be carried, or delivered by Israeli drivers at considerable extra cost.
Monday 14 April
Arbour, Knight, Friesen, Rehm and Grady-Flores, plus fifteen internationals returned from sleeping overnight in the two orphanages.
Arbour, Friesen and Rehm attended a ceremony at the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee to launch a new Hebron Tourist map.