July 1, Wednesday
Atta Jabber's family and approximately 10 other families living in the Beqa'a
valley east of Hebron lost their electricity on June 30 at about 11am.
Israeli authorities ripped down the power lines near Samih Jabber's place.

July 2, Thursday
CPT'ers visited the Beqa'a valley and noted that the Israelis have completed a
ring road around an undeveloped hill, Jebal Sultan (next to where the Israelis
confiscated land to build a new gas station -see previous release). There were
holes dug every 50 meters along the road, as if for fence posts.

Israeli settler children and Palestinian children were throwing small rocks
and tomatoes in the market area in front of the Avraham Avinu settlement.
Soldiers broke up the confrontation. CPT'ers waited for about 20 minutes
until all of the children left.

A Palestinian woman who lives near the east entrance to Avraham Avinu told the
team that settlers and soldiers bother people there every night until
midnight, and asked that CPT patrol the area more often.

July 3, Friday
CPT learned that a neighborhood youth, Nizar, had been walking with a friend
the previous day when a settler spit on the friend. Nizar retaliated by
hitting the settler, whereupon nearby soldiers came over and started hitting
Nizar.

July 5, Sunday
When the taxi that CPTers were taking to church in Jerusalem stopped at the
checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the CPT'ers noticed the soldiers
at the guardpost eating cake. One of the CPT'ers asked if a soldier was
having a birthday and another CPT'er asked if there was any cake for him.
The soldier who opened the van door went over and got an entire uneaten layer-
cake and gave it to him. The CPT'ers cut the cake into pieces and shared it
with the Palestinian passengers in the van --compliments of the Israeli
military.

As several CPT'ers were on the way back from Bethlehem in the evening there
was a mobile military checkpoint set up on the road south of Bethlehem. One
CPT'er got out and began to write down information in his notebook about what
was going on. A soldier told him to stop, and ripped the page from his
notebook. The CPT'er got back in the taxi, but then the soldier told him to
get out again and asked for his passport. After a brief discussion the soldier
gave the passport back, then ordered the other soldiers to take down the
checkpoint.

The media reported that on the previous weekend, four settler youth, dressed
in kufeyyahs [Arab headdresses] alledgedly rode around on horseback, beat one
man with chains, and smashed windows out of Palestinians' parked cars. [Two
settler youth were arrested; they had to post bond and were placed under house
arrest.].

On the night of July 4/5 someone [four settlers were reported fleeing the
scene] set the Palestinian-owned watermelon stands on fire two blocks away
from the CPT apartment. This was in the same general area where some
Palestinian vechicles were firebombed by settlers about two weeks ago.

July 6, Monday
CPT'ers visited orchards belonging to several families at Ein Shunar, near the
village of Al Duebe outside of Hebron, where the Israeli military had torn up
all the trees and irrigation lines without any warning on June 10.

The team talked with the owner of one of the orchards,
who said that the military had told him this was 'state property,' and that
he had no right to have his trees there. Nearby houses had been served with
demolition notices.

July 7, Tuesday
Tuesday morning, the Israeli Defense Force blew up a parked car [yellow
plates, therefore belonging to a resident of Israel or Jerusalem] just up the
hill from the watermelon stands as a "security precaution"

When team members arrived, the owner was picking up various pieces of his car
and putting them in its back seat.

Several CPT'ers visited a home in the Beqa'a valley that is
affiliated with the Campaign for Secure Dwellings (CSD) program. The children
of the family had invented a house-demolition game, playing soldiers and
Palestinians instead of playing 'house' or 'cops and robbers.'