Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron[Full Article] In March 2010 the members of the Middle East Committee of World Mission, with the Moderator of the General Assembly, will visit the city of Hebron and the village of At-Tuwani, both in the south of Palestine. These are places I know well, having served in each place with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Our task here is to support the Palestinians’ non-violent struggle for justice. So, what will the Kirk’s visitors see? Hebron is a city about the size of Dundee. It is the site of the tombs of Abraham and Sarah and their children. Part of the city, H1, is nominally under full Palestinian control. The much smaller part, H2, is under full Israeli military control. The Old City, which is where we in CPT live, is in H2. Hebron, uniquely, has small illegal Israeli settlements in H2, right in the heart of the city, as well as on its outskirts. In some streets, at ground floor level there are Palestinian shops, while above there are apartments occupied by Israeli settlers. There is a very heavy Israeli military presence in H2, and Palestinian residents are subject to random ID checks, which can take from a few minutes to over an hour. The Israeli military severely restrict the movement of Palestinians in H2 by locked gates, turnstiles, blocked-off roads, checkpoints, and streets on which Palestinians are not allowed to walk or drive. At-Tuwani is a village of about 200 people. The area in which it lies is under full Israeli military control. The villagers are subsistence farmers. A significant part of their land has been taken over by Israeli settlers to build the settlement of Ma’on and the outpost of Havot Ma’on; both settlement and outpost are continuing to expand. Many settlers in the large settlement blocs in the West Bank are economic settlers, living there because of the financial benefits they enjoy. The settlers in Hebron and near Tuwani are not like that. They are extremists who choose to live in these settlements because they believe that God promised the Jewish people this land, and that it is their duty to occupy it. They seek to take further land or property from the Palestinian owners, first by stopping the Palestinians’ access, and then by occupying it themselves. They regularly use violence to achieve their ends. In Hebron CPT first established a presence in 1995, fifteen months after a Jewish settler, Dr Baruch Goldstein, massacred 29 Muslim men and boys at morning prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque. One part of CPT’s work is daily school patrol. In the morning we do this in the city of Hebron (to ensure that the Israeli military allow children and teachers to pass without undue delay) and at lunchtime we patrol in the village of Bweireh, where Israeli settlers from Harsina settlement harass children as they return home from school. We also undertake regular checkpoint patrols throughout the day in Hebron, and monitor the weekly Shabbat settler tour of the Old City. In At-Tuwani CPTers have lived in the village since 2004. We were asked to stay there because adult Israeli settlers were assaulting Palestinian children on their way to and from primary school. In addition to our daily school patrol work, we also accompany shepherds to graze their flocks and farmers to work their land. Settler attacks on Palestinians and internationals are a regular feature of life there; several internationals have sustained significant injuries. In both At-Tuwani and Hebron there are many Palestinians committed to non-violence, and to non-violent resistance. In a situation of oppression, simply going to school, or to work, or to pray can be an act of resistance. But in Hebron there are sometimes non-violent demonstrations, such as that on 25 February, asking for Shuhada Street to be open to Palestinians, who at present are prevented from walking or driving on it. Non-violent actions are a common occurrence in Tuwani. One day every shepherd in the district came to graze his flock in the very area where Israeli settlers had previously shot at a shepherd and his flock, killing two animals and injuring another. On another occasion the whole village, men, women and children, old and young, worked together to remove a roadblock set up by the Israeli military. As a Christian, I have been made wonderfully welcome in these Muslim communities Maureen Jack, Christian Peacemaker Team Member Back to Top |
