by CPT Palestine
Israeli Border Police ordered CPT’s Hebron team and EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) to leave the area of the Ibrahimi mosque on 30 August.
Israeli forces took the new and more aggressive stance—which also bars the workers from the area around the Cave of Machpelah—as they were conducting weekly monitoring of soldiers and settlers during Friday prayers at the mosque.
Border guards confronted CPT and EAPPI about twenty minutes after they arrived at the mosque. One of them barked, “You will leave! Either you go on your own, or we will force you!”
Although the edict is an apparent order from commanding officers, CPTers have not seen it in writing despite having asked many times. Border Police have enforced the order randomly depending on the individual Border guard and who their commanding officers are at the time.