Al-Khalil (Hebron): Opening Doors?

Last August, CPT suspended work in the Old City of Hebron, primarily for lack of personnel.  Since then, a Palestine Project Refocusing Committee conducted a thorough process of evaluating, consulting, and envisioning a rejuvenated presence for CPT in the region.

A new al-Khalil (Arabic name for Hebron) project proposal calls for maintaining the current work in at-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills, placing a four-person team in al-Khalil and opening a new Palestine Project office. The committee also recommends forming smaller mobile teams to respond to invitations from villages in the Nablus, Bethlehem, and Jordan Valley areas.

The proposal underlines structures for healthy, sustainable teams including competency in language and technology skills and commitment to undoing oppressions.

The work of the Palestine team would be guided by a council of Palestinian advisors and enflesh the team’s mission statement which reads: “We are a faith-based organization that supports Palestinian-led, nonviolent, grassroots resistance to the Israeli occupation and the unjust structures that uphold it.  By getting in the way’ of violence and educating in our home communities, we help create a space for justice and peace.”

Implementing any of the phases of the proposed al-Khalil project depends on sufficient funding.