AL-KHALIL: An open letter to Bill Clinton from the Christian Peacemaker Team in
Hebron

8 May 2011



To: The Honorable William J. Clinton
55 West 125th Street
New York, N.Y. 10027

From: The Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron
c/o CPT
P.O. Box 6508
Chicago, IL 60680

An open letter to President Bill Clinton from the Christian Peacemaker Teams in
Hebron

Dear Mr. Clinton,
In 1997, USAID renovated Shuhada Street in Hebron and the water, sewage and
electrical infrastructure of Hebron's Old City. The U.S. undertook these
renovations as part of the Oslo II Hebron Protocol with the stipulation that
Shuhada Street, once the main thoroughfare in Hebron, would remain open to both
Israeli and Palestinian traffic, and that Old City residents would have the same
supply of water and electricity that the Israeli settlers in Hebron did.

Members of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron were witnesses in 1997 to the
attacks Israeli settlers made on the Palestinian laborers and USAID engineer
David Muirhead. As you probably know, these attacks and Israeli-imposed curfews
caused the renovations to end up costing U.S. taxpayers twice as much as
projected. Shuhada Street has never fully reopened, and it has been years now
since Palestinians have freely walked on it. The alley where our apartment has
been since 1995 once teemed with commerce; now only our neighbor, a small shop
selling pigeons, and we are left.

More urgently, the USAID water and electricity, which were supposed to serve
both the Hebron settlers and the residents of the Old City, are no longer
available to the Old City residents. Some of our neighbors recently went ten
days without water�water that you guaranteed them when you supported the
Hebron Protocol.

We know you must feel grieved that your attempts to promote peace between
Palestinians and Israelis during your presidency have come to naught, and we
know you care about Israeli security. But a very small positive action you
could take is insisting that the Israeli government live up to its commitment to
provide the same supply of electricity and water to Hebron's Old City that it
provides to the Hebron settlers. Doing so will not harm Israeli security and
will make an enormous improvement in the lives of the struggling and
impoverished Old City residents.

With hopes for peace and human rights,
Christian Peacemaker Teams-Hebron