UPDATE
Hebron Update: 1-7 October 2007

Team members during this period included: Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Jessica
Frederick, Christina Gibb, Sarah Shirk, Jonathan Stucky, Kathie Ulher, Mary
Wendeln, with Matt Rasure, volunteer, and Mary Rose, guest from New Zealand

Key events: A shooting near the Mosque checkpoint; direct action in Umm
Salamouna for the International Day of Nonviolence; young man handcuffed and
detained outside the Old City

Monday 1 October 07
Hebron settlers organized events for the festival of Sukkoth, a big Jewish
holiday. The Mosque area was open to Jews only, and there was extra Israeli
military presence in the area. A large number of Jewish visitors came to
Hebron. Concrete blocks created a temporary one-way traffic route. On school
patrol, Jan Benvie, Lorne Friesen, Christina Gibb, Jonathan Stucky, and Mary
Wendeln observed Palestinian children - fewer than usual - pass through the
checkpoints without incident. However, some schools closed early.

Israeli soldiers detained some Palestinian men. The CPTers called ICRC
(International Committee of the Red Cross) and waited until the soldiers
returned most of the men's IDs.

Tuesday 2 October 2007
On mosque patrol, Benvie and Jessica Frederick observed Border Police holding
four young Palestinian men at a checkpoint. The men said the Israeli Border
Police had detained them for over an hour. Benvie attempted to talk with a
Border Police officer, who ignored her. When Benvie telephoned ICRC and TIPH
(Temporary International Presence in Hebron), the soldier picked up the men's
IDs and made a call on their radio. Within five minutes, the soldiers returned
the IDs.

Benvie and Frederick went to the Yatta Road checkpoint where Israeli soldiers
stopped everyone coming through, checking their bags. Benvie and Frederick
heard two rounds of gunfire and then a siren from the Gutnick Center and Mosque
vicinity. Israeli military vehicles rushed to the area. Israeli Border Police
made Benvie and Frederick stand at the Gutnick checkpoint, preventing them from
seeing what was happening beside the mosque. They allowed armed members of the
Hebron Israeli settler community, including a settlement leader with a video
camera, to go through. After 35 minutes, many Israeli security forces departed,
leaving the Mosque checkpoint gate into the Old City closed.

Hisham Sharabati informed the team that Israeli soldiers had closed the other
entrance into the Old City, and they kept it closed for two hours until after
dark.

That evening Benvie, Frederick, and translator Zleekha Muhtaseb spoke with
Palestinians, to learn about the day's events at the mosque. Muhtaseb explained
that some Palestinians were afraid to tell the CPTers what happened, for fear of
receiving trouble from Israeli soldiers. However, several spoke of a "crazy"
young man who walked to the checkpoint with a plastic gun and firecrackers, and
he yelled "Allah akbar" ("God is great"). They said soldiers fired into the
market area. A news outlet reported the gunfire critically injured a
17-year-old man and wounded a 16-year-old woman. One man, who had been in the
mosque area at the time, told the CPTers that Israeli authorities took him to
the police station for questioning. There, the authorities held him for several
hours, beyond the time of "iftar" (breaking the daily Ramadan fast). He said
the soldiers teased him, asking, "Have you broken the Ramadan fast yet? We
have." They then asked him if he saw what happened. He said he had not seen
anything.

Wednesday 03 October
Benvie and Stucky observed two Israeli Border Police at the Mosque checkpoint
making two young Palestinian men raise their shirts to show they had no weapons.

Benvie and Uhler met with a representative of Hebron's mayor to advocate on
behalf of a family at Wadi Al-Ghroos. The family felt the municipality could
alleviate the water shortage they face if a larger pipe replaced the pipe
carrying water from Hebron to the Wadi. Also, Uhler said the families urged the
municipality to pave the rutted dirt road they currently have to use. The
representative said he would speak with the engineers about the water problem,
but paving the road would be more difficult.

Thursday 04 October 2007
During school patrol, Wendeln met a representative from ACRI (Association for
Civil Rights in Israel). When Israeli soldiers checked the children's
backpacks, Wendeln presented them with the paper from ACRI (stating that
children should not be searched going to and from school). The soldier crumpled
it in his hand.

Friday 5 October 2007
In celebration of the International Day of Nonviolence, Joy Ellison, Eileen
Hanson, Gibb, Sarah Shirk, Stucky and Matt Rassure went to Umm Salamouna near
Bethlehem to join a nonviolent demonstration organized by Holy Land Trust. The
group of nearly 50 participants, including locals and internationals, gathered
in front of the Israeli settlement of Efrat. The peaceful demonstration
attempted to share peace messages with the 27 soldiers blocking the road to the
settlement, who refused to receive them.

Benvie, Frederick, Shirk, and Stucky spent part of the day at Issa's house near
the Tel Rumeida settlement to deter attacks from settlers. No one approached
the house.

Sunday 7 October
On school patrol, Frederick and Wendeln observed Border Police at the Gutnick
Center checkpoint searching an Al Ibrahimiyye Boys School teacher's bag. They
detained him briefly to check his ID. Then, the Border Police detained six
Palestinian men. Frederick took pictures and called the ICRC. After a half
hour, they released the men.

Gordon Janzen and Tim Freose from Mennonite Church Canada arrived for a short
stay.

Mid-afternoon, a man came to CPT's apartment to report trouble at the Beit
Romano checkpoint. Benvie and Frederick, with Freose and Janzen went to see
what was happening. The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) arrested one of the young
men, aged 18. When CPTers arrived, they found him handcuffed and in a holding
cell. An older man arrived and spoke with the soldiers, who soon after released
the young man. Palestinians in the area told the CPTers that two Palestinian
men had been fighting and the IDF detained one of them.

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 The same map is the last page of
this report on closures in Hebron:
www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0705_En.pdf

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