RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 April 2011

Passover brings further restrictions on Palestinians

The beginning of the Jewish festival of Passover (Pesach) today saw an exacerbation of the restrictions on movement suffered daily by the residents of the Palestinian city of Hebron.

The Ibrahimi Mosque lies to the east of the Old City of Hebron.  The fourth holiest site in Islam, today the mosque was open only to Jewish worshippers.  All of the gates allowing entrance to and exit from the Old City souq on its east side were locked or barred shut to Palestinian residents and non-Jewish international visitors.

This caused significant difficulties for teachers and pupils.  A lady whose house is on Shuhada Street, the street along which the Jewish worshippers walk, allowed Palestinians to use her house for getting in and out of the souq; she is widely known as ‘the ladder lady.’  In the morning they rang her bell, and walked through her house and down the stairway into Shuhada Street.  The Israeli police on duty in the morning allowed the children and teachers then to cross Shuhada Street on their way to school. 

However, when school ended for the day and the children and teachers tried to make the return trip, Israeli soldiers and police initially refused to allow them to cross Shuhada Street, saying that the Old City souq was closed.  Teachers, a local community leader, and CPTers asked the police to let the children cross.  They pointed out to a senior Israeli policeman that if he did not allow the children to cross Shuhada Street they would have to take a detour of at least three miles.  ‘Let them walk three miles,’ he responded.  An Israeli peace activist contacted the Israeli DCO (District Coordinating Office) to ask them to intercede.  For whatever reason, after a delay, the soldiers and police allowed the children and teachers to cross Shuhada Street, and the ladder lady allowed them to go through her house on their way home.

However, a gate to the Old City was open to some visitors.  During the morning Israeli soldiers accompanied several groups of settler-led Jewish groups through the Palestinian souq.

Passover continues tomorrow.