CPTnet
19
November 2012
AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Clouds
darken over Palestine
On 14 and 15 November, three Christian Peacemaker Teams
members attended a peace conference in Jericho
in which Israeli and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations and activists
discussed the future of a Palestinian state and the pursuit of peace
in Israel and Palestine.
The conference’s opening day was marred by the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, a Palestinian political
activist and Hamas military commander reportedly poised to sign a ceasefire
agreement.
Israeli activist Gershom
Baskin (who was involved in the dialogue with Hamas to secure the release
of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit)
said he had been working closely with the Egyptian military on a proposed long-term
cease-fire agreement with Israel, one that Jabari, although not a man of peace, had been ready to sign to bring
stability to the region.
Last month’s announcement that 2013 elections would be moved
up from October to January, and the subsequent cementing of a right-wing political
alliance, raise questions about the motivation for Jabari’s assassination.
Israel’s Operation
Cast Lead invasion of Gaza in
2008 also took place just before an election.
The air strike that killed Jabari and his bodyguard in his car took place during
ongoing diplomatic negotiations and just hours after Jabari had received a draft of
the proposed agreement, according to Baskin. This, combined with the military’s
admission that they had been watching him for over three months waiting for the
opportunity, begs the question of Israel’s longstanding
claim that they have no partner for peace.
A ground invasion into Gaza would
be horrific. Operations in 2008 killed 1300
Palestinians, many of them women and children. The current bombing’s
repercussions can already be felt throughout the West
Bank. Youth in Hebron — in
anger aroused by the occupation, feelings of powerlessness and not being able to do anything to alter the situation or to help their kin
in Gaza — threw
stones and set tires on fire on Saturday, 17 November. In turn, soldiers used
tear gas, percussion grenades and skunk water. Tension pervaded the old city as
youth and soldiers played cat
and mouse.
That night, a Palestinian man told two CPTers in Bab il
Baledeyya that soldiers were holding four men in the neighboring settlement of Beit Romano. Looking in through the gap in the metal gate, the
CPTers saw two blindfolded young men sitting cross-legged on the ground with
their hands tied behind their backs. They had been held for at least an hour. After
another twenty minutes, soldiers removed their blindfolds and plastic hand ties
and pushed them out of the gates laughing and saying “good bye”. CPT spoke to
the two young men who said that they had no idea why they had been held and
that the soldiers had taken them from their homes. The young men also said that
soldiers had arrested and taken away two of their friends.
