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Occupation magazine - Life under occupation

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Hebron Update
By: Christian Peacemaker Teams Hebron
26 January 2010

http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine

HEBRON UPDATE: 1-16 January 2010

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]

On team during this period were Nina Chibi, Johann Funk, Fathiye Gainey (intern), Drew Herbert, Kathleen Kern, and Paulette Schroeder.

1 January 2010

On night patrol, Funk and Herbert came across a squad of soldiers detaining a young man, who was facing the wall with his legs spread far apart. One soldier held the young man’s hands behind the back and pushed him hard against the wall. Two soldiers down on one knee in firing position guarded access in both directions. Herbert asked soldiers why they were detaining the men. When they did not reply, he reminded them of military rules specifying that soldiers need cause to stop anyone. Another soldier said something in Hebrew and the man was released. Herbert and Funk followed them to gate 4/5.

2 January 2010

While Kern was monitoring the turnoff from Shuhada Street to Ibrahimi School, a group of South African Muslims walked by. One man engaged her in conversation, and asked if she was hopeful that something might change here. When she said that she did not harbor much hope, he said, `There is no hope for this place.` She asked him if in the 1980s he would have believed that Apartheid would end and Mandela would be President in the early 1990s, and he said, `Not in my wildest dreams.`

Hani Abu Haikel, Schroeder, and Kern went out to al-Bweireh to do follow-up interviews after the demolitions (See 13 January CPTnet release, AL-KHALIIL/HEBRON: Israeli military demolitions further threaten al-Bweireh neighborhood. http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2010/01/13/al-khaliilhebron-israeli-military-demolitions-further-threaten-al-bweireh-neighbor.)

The three then visited members of the Sultan family, who reported that settlers had attacked neighborhood farmers yesterday, and the settlers sent in the army to demolish the buildings. Settlers are now coming down into the neighborhood and walking between homes, so the Sultans are afraid to invite guests to visit.

At a visit to another member of the Sultan family, who had been an active union leader, they learned about the tortuous process he went through to build a union headquarters on his land, for which he has a deed from the time of the Ottoman Empire. He went to court nine times to get permission and spent thousands of dollars on a lawyer.

In response, he said the Israeli DCO (District Coordinating Office) cut water and electricity to Sultan`s house to punish the family. He now has to buy water.

While out walking, the team came upon a young man from one of the shops in the Old City who was blindfolded behind the gate at the Beit Romano settlement.

(See HEBRON: Israeli military targets Palestinian children for searches and detention. http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2010/01/23/hebron-israeli-military-targets-palestinian-children-searches-and-detention)

The team learned that Israel had refused entrance to leaders of the CPT January delegation and began discussing with the At-Tuwani team how they were going to replace the leaders.

4 January 2010

Herbert responded to a report that soldiers were detaining a nine-year-old boy in front of the gate near the Beit Romano settlement. According to the soldier that Herbert engaged, the boy was detained for flipping off soldiers. A family member of the boy argued with the soldier for a few minutes about the legitimacy of the boy’s detention, at which point, he and a few other young men pushed open the gate behind which the boy was being held, grabbed him, and proceeded to walk away.

5 January 2010

Kern went to the Association for International Development Agencies (AIDA) meeting in Jerusalem. Most of the meeting was about the worrying development of Israel granting only B-2 visas (which would not allow internationals to enter Jerusalem or Israel) to people working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This limitation could eventually mean organizations having to shut down offices in Jerusalem. Aid organizations are already having difficulties working in Area C—the majority of the West Bank, which Israel controls. Participants were adjured to be talking to donors and the diplomatic community about the chilling effect this will have on movement, attracting competent workers, etc. Since the governments providing the aid in this region have directed these agencies to do their work, noted a leader of AIDA, they should speak to Israel about these prohibitions.

Lawyer Shlomo Lecker told the gathering that Israel is legally and morally obligated to let workers into Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is the Occupied Territories and the Geneva Convention applies; in fact, it is illegal for the Israeli Ministry of the Interior to operate in East Jerusalem. Israel signed an international treaty in the 1990s stating it would allow international humanitarian work to continue. He said the worst possible people to run the Interior Ministry are now running it and that “They are lying all the time.”

6 January 2010

After the noon patrol, Funk and Schroeder received word that soldiers were detaining a young boy from their neighbor`s shop at Baab il Baledeyya. They found the fourteen-year-old sitting behind the settlement gate with his father. When Schroeder went up to the gate to peer through the crack to take a picture, one of the soldiers threw or kicked a rock against the tin gate and Schroeder jumped back thinking it sounded like a gunshot.

Before the neighbor`s boy was released, four more soldiers brought in two more boys, one eight and the other ten-years-old. They were also accused of throwing stones and the soldiers insisted that the father come from his work outside of Hebron, even though their mother arrived and presented her ID. During the time when Schroeder was asking the soldiers why they had detained the children, the main soldier came out of the gate and showed her spots of blood on his hand. Schroeder saw there was no wound on his hand; blood had been applied. She then told the soldier he was lying about his injury. (See 23 January CPTnet release, “HEBRON: Israeli military targets Palestinian children for searches and detention.” http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2010/01/23/hebron-israeli-military-targets-palestinian-children-searches-and-detention.)

Funk and Schroeder went to a meeting at HRC with EAPPI. During the meeting Funk heard some activity and went outside to film it. The soldiers were searching an SUV with Israeli plates but found nothing. They also stopped two young Palestinian men in a sporty car and found a butter knife. A soldier held up the knife and told the CPTers `Take a picture of this.` When Schroeder remarked that it was a butter knife and not dangerous, he replied, `Don`t tell me what is dangerous.” They forced one of the young men to drive his car to the Mosque soup kitchen and park his car and then took him to a nearby police station. When the Captain of the soldiers saw the knife, he smiled, gave the knife back to the young man and let him go. The soldiers seemed embarrassed.

Soon after, the team encountered three young men whom soldiers were detaining in Friendship Park. When asked why they were being detained the soldier said, `This is a routine ID check.` When reminded that they needed a cause to stop anyone, he responded, `We have information. We have orders to stop all young men.` Funk then took out his passport and showed it to the soldier, saying, `Check my ID, don`t I look suspicious?”

On their afternoon walk, Funk and Herbert came across six Israeli Border Police stopping four young men. Purportedly they stopped the men because they wanted to check their identification. After further probing, the lead officer suggested that Funk and Herbert were not aware of whether the men had done anything and that the only way to know was to check their ID cards. Herbert reminded the officers that not knowing whether the young men had done something is not equivalent with probable cause and that the soldiers need more information to stop people on the street.

7 January 2010

At 11:45 a.m., the team received a call about a home invasion near the Qitoun Checkpoint. Funk and Herbert responded and they made their way to a fourth floor apartment with a local partner who had called them. They found the family confined to the kitchen and the soldiers occupying the front room.

When the door opened, Funk and Herbert were ushered into the kitchen while the partner stood on the threshold and engaged the soldiers. He emphasized that the encounter was not personal but that unless they had a signed Closed Military Order or a search warrant signed by their commanding officer, he and the team would not leave. The lead soldier said, `I am the law, get the f__k out of here,` and, “If you don`t leave in one minute I will do something I don`t want to do.`

After a five-minute standoff, the soldiers left. Herbert followed to ensure they left the building. The resident then took the team on a tour to view the damage. The soldiers had kicked in a door to a small upstairs room, damaging the doorframe, even though the key was visible in the lock.

9 January 2010

Funk and Schroeder monitored an unusually large settler tour through the Old City. At one point, a settler swiped a finger across his throat at those observing the tour. While passing through the Old City, the same settler spit on a shop owner, something he had done before. She began screaming. Two young Palestinian men and a French tourist who spoke Hebrew talked to one of the soldiers. The youth accompanied the soldier back to the shop. When the soldier returned to the group he mounted a platform and announced (according to the French tourist), `If any one of you does anything like that again, I will stop this `show.``

10 January 2010
The military came to CPT`s rooftop again and Schroeder encountered them first. She asked them to leave unless they had a warrant. They said that soldiers on the opposite rooftop had said that children were throwing stones. Since the soldiers were changing their shirts as they spoke, Schroeder accused them of using the stones as an alibi for illegally entering a private residence to change their clothes.

11 January 2010
The CPT delegation arrived back in al Khalil in late morning after two days in at-Tuwani.

Gainey and Funk went to al-Bweireh in the morning. They observed settlers carrying roofing material to a new, more permanent structure on Hill 18.

A policeman briefly detained Gainey and Herbert and informed them that their unofficial status does not allow them monitor soldiers. Specifically, he said the area around the Qitoun checkpoint was off limits. Gainey and Herbert returned to the apartment in a round about way to avoid being stopped again.

12 January 2010
BBC came to interview CPTers at the same time the British paper, The Guardian, arrived to interview CPTers. They wanted to concentrate on American CPTers reflecting on Obama’s first year in office, but Herbert and Schroeder urged them to interview several Palestinian shopkeepers who have stories to tell to the larger audiences about life under the Occupation.

In the afternoon, Funk responded to a request to accompany a small boy to his home. When he arrived, soldiers were standing on the stairway to the roof of a house next to the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu. TIPH was also present. A tourist was loudly arguing with a soldier about his right to take pictures from the roof. The soldier objected to the tourist taking pictures of a military installation (one of the guard posts that dot the rooftops of the Old City.) The soldier refused to talk to TIPH. After half and hour, the soldiers left with the understanding that the roof was off limits to tourists.

Funk and Gainey met several delegates near the Ibrahimi Mosque for the afternoon patrol. Within minutes, the same policeman who stopped Gainey and Herbert the night before stopped to repeat the lecture about CPT’s lack of authorization to be in the area.

When the group returned to the apartment, soldiers, CPTers and several delegates were on the roof. After a brief confrontation the soldiers and delegates engaged in an extended discussion till dinner. The soldiers declined the invitation and followed the delegates down the stairs. (For one of the delegates’ blog on the conversation see http://mideastdelegation.blogspot.com/2010/01/soldiers-on-roof.html)

Funk, a former member of Operation Dove who had worked with the At-Tuwani team, and friends went on night patrol. As they approached the area around Qitoun Checkpoint, a local informed them soldiers were detaining four men at the checkpoint. When they approached and asked the soldiers why they were detaining the men, the soldiers claimed not to understand. They called one of the detained men and asked him to tell the internationals that everything was fine. As Funk and his companions backed away, the men motioned for them to stay.

While they watched from a little distance a border police asked for their passports. When the group hesitated, he called the regular police. The same policeman who had stopped the CPTers in the afternoon arrived twenty minutes later. He repeated the lecture about CPT’s lack of authority and told them they were only tourists and should behave like tourists. He said he had been on vacation in Geneva and had not used his time observing soldiers. Funk explained, `CPT was invited into Hebron by the Municipality in 1995 and our presence has not been a problem.` The police officer threatened stronger action if he saw the team in the area again. Funk replied, `I can`t guarantee we will comply but I will talk to the team and our partners on what we will do.` As he handed back the passports, the border police handed back the IDs of the four detained men and released them.

13 January 2010
Gainey, Kern, and Schroeder went on night patrol. At the falafel stand near the Ibrahimi mosque gate, a young man asked the women to accompany him past the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) office, because of soldiers stopping young Palestinian men there. They indeed came upon a group of soldiers who had four young men against the wall. While Gainey accompanied the young man back past the soldiers, Schroeder and Kern engaged with the soldiers, who said they had stopped the young men, because they never knew when one might be carrying a knife. `You need to let us do our job,` one soldier said, `Kern smiled and said, I`m sorry, but we just can`t do that.` One soldier laughed. Schroeder noted that given how heavily armed they were, their fear of a knife was ridiculous.

16 January 2010
Kern and Schroeder went to Al-Bweireh with Hani Abu Haikel in the afternoon. They met with women of the Dwaik family, who have lived in the neighborhood for seventeen years. They said because of the fence around the Israeli settlement of Givat Ha Harsina, they have not been able to access their farmland for seven years. They used to raise grapes, wheat, vegetables, olives and watermelon. Settlers have also cut down the trees that were on the land and enclosed the family’s well behind the settlement fence. Al-Bweireh residents used to share their water freely with the settlers, before the fence went up, according to the women.

In November 2009 the people of the Wadi came together determined to remove the blockade. They brought all their heavy equipment they could and for three days they had a road that gave them access to the main highway. But then the settlers came and brought a bulldozer and constructed larger blockades. `Anything we have, they will eventually steal it,` said the mother of the family.

When asked what they would like the rest of the world to know, one of the women in the family said, “Tell the rest of the world, we hope to live in peace with others. We want all the people to feel peace in their heart and that God makes the settlers go far away from here. `

When Abu Haikel walked away from the Dwaik family`s home, he said, “We have a saying. Women are a net,` meaning they hold everyone together.

The three then met with another family, the mother of which has severe diabetes. They said that the blockade is a real problem for her because she cannot walk the required distance beyond the blockade to access transportation. The blockade also forces children in the family to carry heavy propane canisters from the local shop uphill a long distance.



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Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical initiative to support violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about CPT`s peacemaking work, visit our website www.cpt.org Photos of our projects are at www.cpt.org/gallery A map of the center of Hebron is at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/0/5618737E38C0B3DE8525708C004BA584/$File/ocha_OTS_hebron_oPt010805.pdf?OpenElement

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