If the Christmas story were to happen today, Mary and Joseph would have a hard time getting to Bethlehem.

In 2002, the Israeli government decided to erect a physical barrier to separate Israel and the West Bank in order to prevent the uncontrolled entry of Palestinians into Israel. This separation barrier snakes through the occupied Palestinian territories, in effect annexing valuable Palestinian land and water resources.

by Eileen Hanson

At-Tuwani lies at the edge of the Negev desert, so water is a major concern here. Normally the winter rains fill cisterns in the area, which supply water through the dry summer months. People depend on cistern water for their flocks, for household cleaning and bathing. The well is the village source for drinking water. All the cisterns are empty now, and the water level in the well is very low.

by Eileen Hanson

Lately the Israeli army has set up ‘flying’ (temporary) checkpoints just outside at-Tuwani on Friday evenings. Each time the soldiers show up in their jeep and put a string of spikes across the road, CPTers go down to monitor what is happening. We document any searches that take place and prepare to respond in case of abuses.

by Sean O’Neill

One evening a jeep pulled up on the road to Yatta for a flying checkpoint (see previous article), so I took my camera and went down to film. After checking several cars, a tractor, and even a donkey, one of the soldiers struck up a conversation with me.

On October 30, a Red Crescent Society ambulance, escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was transporting Palestinian Hana Abu Haikel from a Jerusalem hospital, where she had undergone multiple surgeries, to her home in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The Israeli military detained the ambulance at the Beit Romano checkpoint in Hebron for two hours before allowing it through to the Abu Haikel’s house.

by Jan Benvie

During the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr (the festival of fast breaking), marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, children receive Eid gifts: new clothes, toys and sweets.

A common Eid gift for boys is a toy gun. Some are water pistols; some shoot little plastic pellets; some look ominously like the real thing.

Settlers Assault Palestinians: Shortly before sundown on September 23, ten Israeli settlers entered the village of Tuba, population 75, in the South Hebron Hills and threw stones hitting a woman and her adult son. Settlers remained in the village for about an hour. Police did not arrive until an hour after the settlers had left. Tuba residents, including children walking to school in nearby at-Tuwani, have experienced ongoing harassment from settlers living in the Israeli settlement of Ma’on, and the illegal (under Israeli law) outpost of Havat Ma’on.

by Michele Naar-Obed

In Suleimaniya, the absence of explosions and gunshots is striking for those of us who worked in Baghdad. Instead, one hears the sounds of children going to school, markets bustling with people and buses running regularly. Families picnic in the large city park. The Muslim call to prayer reverberates from Mosques. Christians attend the Chaldean Church and the sound of Mass spoken in Kurdish and Arabic is fascinating.

by David Hovde, delegation member

On October 27, one of eleven regional “End the Iraq War Now” rallies around the U.S. took place in Jonesborough, Tennessee, home of the Aerojet Ordnance plant which produces weapons containing Depleted Uranium (DU).

by Nathan Buchanan

Buchanan participated in CPT’s September 26 - October 9, 2007 delegation to Colombia.

In recent weeks, canvas-covered work trucks have frequented the streets of Barrancabermeja, Colombia with a different kind of cargo – military recruits.

CPT received this letter from a young conscientious objector in Colombia who worked closely with the Fall 2007 delegation; translated by Michele Braley.

We are the young people of the earth who go through the world with hands united. We do not want another war to poison the night and darken the days.

by Sandra Rincon
translated by Stewart Vriesinga

One year after the Colombian military gunned down small-scale mining leader Alejandro Uribe on September 19, 2006, CPTers joined the 4th Commission to follow up on the human rights situation in the southern Bolivar department (province). The commission was part of an accord between the mining communities and the government, although the government participated very little in the two-day visit.

by Julián Gutiérrez Castaño

Colombian CPTer Julián Gutiérrez offers this mini-primer on the role of paramilitary groups both historically and in the current face of violence in his country.

In recent months, officials of the Álvaro Uribe Government have said that “the nation is not ready to know the whole truth” about the Paramilitary Demobilization Process. This statement exposes the extent of the collaboration between paramilitaries and elected politicians – a phenomenon known as "parapolitics."

CPT seeks participants for a peacemaker delegation to the Philippines February 15-29, 2008. Persons interested in human rights work, committed to nonviolence, and willing to join in team worship and reflection are encouraged to apply.

On October 12, the Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations left the Robertsville Mine site, which they had occupied since June 28, after agreeing to enter a mediation process involving their representatives, the governments of Canada and Ontario, and the uranium exploration company Frontenac Ventures (FV). CPTers, who had accompanied the blockade since September 3, also returned home that day.

by Gene Stoltzfus, director emeritus of CPT

In the early 1990s, I joined a group of six people who went to Miami, Florida where U.S. officials were holding Haitian boat people – refugees fleeing Haiti’s military regime – in federal detention facilities. The authorities denied our group entrance to speak with the refugees.

CPTer Anne Herman (Birmingham, AL) died of lung cancer on November 22, 2007. Anne served with CPT both full time and as a Reservist for 10 years. She began her full-time service in 1997 by spending 6 months in prison for crossing the line at the School of the Americas (torture training school for Latin American soldiers). She worked on teams/delegations in Vieques, Chiapas, Esgenoôpetitj, Oneida, Arizona, Washington, DC (Shine the Light Campaign) and Jonesborough, TN (DU Campaign).

Campaign to Defund the War: The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee urges all who oppose the Iraq war to register and prepare for an April 2008 nationwide boycott and redirection of the federal income taxes that fuel the war. It’s time for taxpayers to join together in nonviolent civil disobedience and show Congress how to cut off the funds for this war and redirect resources to the pressing needs of people. The campaign seeks more than 10,000 war opponents who will publicly refuse to pay a portion of their federal income taxes on April 15, 2008 in order to withhold funds for the war in Iraq. To register or learn more, see www.nwtrcc.org/wartaxboycott/index.html.

After reading through [Signs of the Times] we have found that it is one of the most wonderful magazines. We are grateful to know about the great work you are doing.
Pastor Ruth and Godfrey Nafula
Kenya

Thank you for the campaign you are leading in regard to violent toys. We would like to publicize the campaign within the World Council of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) by putting it on the DOV web site. We are working to promote nonviolent games as real alternatives.
Hansulrich Gerber
Geneva, Switzerland

Peacemaker Delegations:

• Philippines: February 15-29, 2008.
• Palestine/Israel: January 8-21, March 4-17, May 27 - June 9, July 22 - August 4, October 14-27, November 19 - December 1, 2008.
• Colombia: January 16-29, May 14-27, July 16-29, 2008.

Listing of CPTers and their service....

 

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