CPTnet
December 21, 2001
Hebron Update: November 26-December 2, 2001
Monday, November 26. No curfew.
11th day of Ramadan.
Two Swedish women, part of the World Council of
Churches
team evaluating possibilities for an ecumenical
observer
presence in the West Bank, visited the team.
Members of the CPT delegation from the U.S. and Canada
visited Palestinian families in Beit Ummar, Al
Sendas, and the
Beqa’a Valley overnight. The families are matched
with North
American churches and groups through CPT’s Campaign
for
Secure Dwellings (CSD).
Tuesday, November 27. No curfew.
12th day of Ramadan.
Wednesday, November 28. No curfew.
13th day of Ramadan.
CPTers Benno Barg, Rick Polhamus and Greg Rollins
heard
explosions and left the apartment to investigate.
Several
Palestinian children were throwing stones at Israeli
soldiers
behind the Ibrahimi Mosque, and the soldiers had
responded
with percussion grenades.
Returning from Bethlehem, CPTer JoAnne Lingle
challenged
soldiers who asked for her passport at the Bethlehem
checkpoint, showing her CPT identification instead.
She
pointed out that passports should only be necessary
when
crossing recognized international borders. The
soldier
insisted on seeing her visa, and Lingle showed her
visa but not
her passport.
Thursday, November 29. No curfew.
14th day of Ramadan.
CPTers Le Anne Clausen, Claire Evans and Polhamus
traveled
to Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, for a meeting. The
trip, which
takes about 30 minutes under normal circumstances,
took three
hours. Because of roadblocks, their taxi tried one
route after
another over back roads to get out of Hebron. Going
through an
orchard, the vehicle passed an Israeli army tank,
which shot a
canister of tear gas at it.
Returning to Hebron in the evening, the taxi was
stopped at the
Arroub refugee camp, and passengers were ordered to
get out
and walk. However, in a few minutes the vehicle was
allowed to
continue, and picked up the passengers. At the
Halhoul
checkpoint, passengers were required to disembark once
again,
walk over a machsoum (roadblock of dirt and rocks),
and catch
another taxi to Hebron. As the passengers walked
toward the
machsoum, an Israeli soldier shot a percussion grenade
toward
them, but no one was hurt.
Reuben Penner, a member of the recent CPT delegation,
rejoined the team from Jerusalem. He reported that he
had to
walk from the checkpoint near Gush Etzion settlement
to
Halhoul (a distance of about 3 miles) because
Palestinian taxis
were not permitted on the main road.
On evening patrol, Penner, Polhamus and Rollins saw
Israeli
soldiers enter a Palestinian home in Hebron’s Old
City. When
the CPTers asked about the situation, soldiers
guarding the door
told them to leave the area. However, the three
chose to stay
until the soldiers came out of the house. When CPTers
asked the
residents what had happened, they were told that
soldiers often
do such random checks in peoples’ homes.
Friday, November 30. No curfew.
15th day of Ramadan.
CPTers Mary Lawrence and Lingle joined 40-50 Israelis
in
Jerusalem for a “Women in Black” peace vigil. The
group has
met every Friday since the first Intifada except for a
few weeks
in 1993. A counter-demonstration of about 15-20
Israelis was
held on the opposite side of the same square.
While shopping in the market near Bab iZawiye (in H1,
the
Palestinian Authority-controlled part of town) about
10:30 a.m.,
Evans and Polhamus saw Palestinian Authority riot
police
dragging away a man. The man and police were followed
by
about 50 other men. The CPTers questioned Palestinian
shopkeepers, who said the scuffle had to do with
orders to clear
produce vendors from the streets and in front of shops
in Bab
iZawiye. Many vendors had relocated into this area
when Israeli
settlers destroyed parts of the market in the H2
(Israeli
military-controlled) section of town after a settler
baby was
killed by a Palestinian in April 2001.
In the afternoon, Rollins observed clashes between
Palestinian
youth and Israeli military in the area of the market
between H1
and H2. He was joined later by Evans and Penner, who
saw an army jeep pull up, and a soldier get out and fire a
percussion
grenade away from them into the street that was
deserted except
for stones littering the pavement .
Sunday, December 2. No curfew.
17th day of Ramadan.
The team was shocked and dismayed when they woke to
news
that 10 Israelis had been killed the previous night
and some 180
injured by two suicide bombers and a car bomb in West
Jerusalem. Because of the subsequent closure imposed
on the
West Bank, most of the team was not able to attend
church in
Jerusalem.
About 1:30 p.m., the team learned of a bus bomb in
Haifa that
had killed thirteen Israelis. A Palestinian friend
met Clausen
and Rollins near the team apartment and said: ” I’m an
Arab but
this is disgusting. You want peace? You don’t do
this. You
make peace with your neighbors on the street because
the people
in the offices don’t care. This was a dirty thing to
do.”
Shortly after this exchange, eight to ten Israeli
settler women
and girls tried to enter the Palestinian market from
Shuhada
street near the CPT apartment. An equal number of
Israeli
soldiers prevented them from entering. Shortly
afterwards, some
soldiers suggested to shopkeepers that they close
their stores.
About 3 p.m., on their way to stay overnight with a
CSD family
in Beit Ummar, CPTers Anita Fast and Rollins were
stopped at
the Halhoul machsoum by Israeli soldiers. The
soldiers said no
one was allowed to leave Halhoul, and fired tear gas
at some
Palestinians who had gone around the machsoum another
way to
get to their village. When Rollins challenged their
actions, one
soldier replied, “We aren’t doing anything wrong. We
are good
soldiers.” After seeing Fast’s and Rollins’s CPT
identification,
they allowed them to pass on foot.
While on the road, the CPTers came across a
Palestinian
Hebron-Beit Ummar bus that had been stopped by an
Israeli
Army jeepload of soldiers. The soldiers had ordered
all the men
out of the bus and were checking their identification.
Fast and
Rollins stood among them watching and taking photos.
Within a
few minutes the soldiers allowed the bus to continue.
Rollins
and Fast got into the crowded bus and road the rest of
the way to
Beit Ummar.