CPTNET
HEBRON: Feb. 8-19 Update
Feb. 22, 1998
Sunday Feb. 8,
On her way to go shopping team member JoAnne Lingle passed a soldier
whom other team members had seen treating Palestinians with
contempt. She said, "Good morning. How are you today?" The
soldier replied, "And a bad morning to you." Later in the afternoon,
team members passed soldiers at the Israeli settlement o Beit
Hadassah talking to two small boys. It appeared that the solders
were ordering the boys to kneel on the wet ground and that the boys
were refusing. The boys finally left without complying.

Monday, February 9-Sunday February 15

Team members and members of the CPT-Rebuilders Against Bulldozers
delegation helped to set up and attend the Sabeel Palestinian
Liberation Theology Conference at Bethlehem University. Speakers
included Edward Said, Hanan Ashrawi, Mark Ellis, Uri Davis and other
notable scholars, politiicians and church leaders. Team members
hosted two groups of conference attendees on Sunday.

Tuesday, February 17
In the afternoon, the CPT-RAB delegation accompanied a group of
Israeli women from Bat Shalom to the home of a woman near the
settlement of Abraham Avinu. This woman has suffered repeated
harassment from soldiers since a checkpoint was installed on the roof
of her house. (See previous update.) The Bat Shalom women,
including Knesset member Anat Ma'or, expressed solidarity with the
woman and promised to intervene with the authorities on her behalf.
On their way to a meeting in the Kiryat Arba settlement, the CPT-RAB
delegation passed a car at a checkpoint. Settlers had thrown a large
rock through the passenger window. It was still on the seat,
surrounded by broken glass when the delegates passed. A woman sat
inside, obviously shaken, and clutching her leg. When CPTer Kathleen
Kern asked Sara Reschly about how to contact TIPH (Temporary
International Presence in Hebron) Observers, the soldiers at the
checkpoint said, "You don't need to call TIPH." The TIPH observers
arrived promptlyand the delegates went on to their meeting.

Wed. Feb. 18
Following up on information from local observers, CPT Delegation
member John Worrell went onto a roof next to guard outpost of Avriham
Avenu settlement where he watched and surreptitiously photographed
the excavation of a tunnel designed to connect all of the Heron
settlements to each other and to the Ibrihimi Mosque. Israeli
authorities have denied the existence of this tunnel--much as they did
the Jerusalem tunnel under the Haram esh-Sharif, whose opening
provoked riots throughout the occupied territories last year. The
existence of the Hebron tunnel is, however, now becoming public
knowledge here. Worrell, an archaeologist with a long history of
excavations in Israel and Palestine, was particularly incensed at the
destruction of unique archaeological and historical information caused
by these excavations in a place where historical evidence is regularly
misused for political ends.

The team and delegation went out to an area near Yatta where
approximately 45 Bedouin families are slated to lose land because of
the expansion of settlements in the area. The delegation and team
members helped to rebuild rock walls around a sheep pen that an IDF
bulldozer had destroyed.

Thursday, February 19
While on night patrol with Hebron team members, CPT-RAB delegates
chatted with a soldier who told them that before 1929, the population
of Hebron was largely Jewish with a small minority of Arabs scattered
on the outskirts.

Friday, February 19,
The CPT-RAB delegation concludes with a partial Via Dolorosa similar
to one used to close the Sabeel conference. The team and the
delegation, meditated on the sufferings of Jesus as they stood on
the roof of the CPT apartment building, across from a checkpoint near
the mosque, and at the house of Wahid Zalloum, whose house CPT
members saw destroyed and attempted to help rebuild.