Hebron settlers decry "Activities of Leftist Organizations"

The extremist settlers whose occupation of Hebron's Old City has been growing and strengthening for decades have recently convinced the Israeli military to exclude not only most Palestinians, but also members of Israeli Peace groups and International Christian Peace groups from what they term "the Sterile Zone." In the process, the settlers have put out literature labeling groups from Peace Churches (CPT) and the World Council of Churches (EAPPI) as "antisemitic Christians [who] encourage terrorism and endanger the lives of soldiers and civilians alike" and who "engage in constant provocations and incitement."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11 July 2008

Recently, settlers in Hebron have increasingly demanded that the Israeli police remove Israeli and international peace and human rights organizations from the H-2 area of the city. Soldiers and settlers have succeeded in preventing two Israeli Breaking the Silence tours from entering Hebron, and police have informed CPTers they may not be in any of the areas where they might have contact with settlers—areas in which settlers attack and harass their Palestinian neighbors. Below is a section from the brochure that the settlers have been handing out to tour groups, entitled, "Inequality & Discrimination in Hebron. In contrast to the false anti-Jewish, and anti-Israeli propaganda, here are the real facts: FACTS." A photo accompanying the "Activities of Leftist Organizations" section in the brochure (quoted below) shows TIPH observers standing in front of a person who is hiding his/her face. Its caption reads, "TIPH observers cooperating with left-wing anarchists." Information on the various organizations cited has been added in brackets.

"Various international and anti-national organizations have targeted Hebron for hostile activities.

"Most of these organizations are funded by anti-Israel foundations, enemy states and European governments. They disseminate falsehoods and conduct propagandistic field trips, media shows, tendentious visits with VIPs, and sundry provocations in order to substantiate what they call "discrimination against Arabs.

"For example, the international Solidarity Movement (ISM) [http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/ ],a blatantly pro-Palestinian-Arab organization, floods Hebron with "anarchists"from all over the world to harass the security forces that are charged with protecting the Jews in the tiny Israeli zone. Organizations such as Ecumenical Escorters [Meaning members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. http://www.eappi.org/], Christian Peacekeeping Team [http://www.cpt.org], among others engage in constant provocations and incitement. Groups of antisemitic Christians encourage terrorism and endanger the lives of soldiers and civilians alike. Israeli leftist organizations such as B'tselem [The premier Israeli human rights organization, see http://www.btselem.org/English/], Machsom Watch [an Israeli women's organization that monitors the treatment of civilians at military checkpoints. http://www.machsomwatch.org/en], Sons of Avraham [http://groups.google.com/group/bnei-avraham/web/cover-page—english], and Breaking the Silence [http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_e.asp] love to tour the city with groups of Israelis, non-Israelis, and diplomats, inciting against the Jews of Hebron by giving false, warped presentations.

"Especially grave is the fact that these organizations act in full cooperation with the observers of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), even though TIPH is supposed to be objective and to refrain from provocations. Furthermore, these organizations act with the cooperation of Palestinian disrupters of order and marauders to undermine the operations of the Israeli Defence Forces.

"The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) [http://www.acri.org.il/eng/] recently joined the activities of the Left in Hebron, acting continually by legal means to breach and trample the Jewish citizens' rights to life and safety."

The full text of the brochure is available {here}

In reality, the presence of volunteers from these peace groups reduce violence in downtown Hebron. EAPPI's activities include:

- Participate in the daily life and work of Palestinian and Israeli civil society, Churches and Christian communities.
- Be visibly present in vulnerable communities, locations or events, e.g. near Israeli settlements and the wall/fence, schools and homes, fields & orchards.
- Actively listen to local people's experiences and give voice to peoples' daily suffering under occupation and write or speak about these experiences in their reports and public speaking engagements.
- Monitor the conduct of Israeli soldiers (e.g. at checkpoints and other barriers and during demonstrations and other military actions) and contact relevant organizations and authorities to request intervention.
- Engage in non-violent ways with perpetrators of human rights abuses.
- Produce high quality, first-hand written materials, testimonies and analysis.
- Report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that EAs witness and document and use these reports to inform governments and intergovernmental bodies and press them to take action.
- Engage with the media locally, nationally and internationally.
- Be part of international advocacy and networking activities that highlight the human rights situation in Palestine.

CPT's activities include:

- Monitors treatment of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks.
- Intervenes during Israeli military invasions of Palestinian homes.
- Continues regular visits, along with Israeli peace activists, to Palestinian families facing harassment from Israeli settlers
- Provides daily accompaniment for Palestinian children walking to and from school
- Accompanies Palestinian shepherds and farmers to fields where they are exposed to assault by extremist settlers
- Joins Israeli peace groups to replant olive groves destroyed by settlers
- Joins Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in acts of public nonviolent resistance to Israel's construction of a "security wall" which cuts through Palestinian territory.

Unfortunately, without access to the "Sterile Zone," peace groups will not be able to monitor and, in some cases, prevent the daily abuses of human rights that are inflicted there. The settlers have already succeeded in driving out most Palestinians from "the Sterile Zone:" over 200 shops have been shut down and only four Palestinian families still have access to their homes in the district. If the settlers have their way, Hebron's "Sterile Zone" soon may be entirely ethnically cleansed of Palestinians.

Report from Christian Peacemaker Teams Reprinted with Permission

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune

Hebron's "Sterile Zone": Martial Law Tightening

The Israeli Military has recently taken further measures to reduce the safety and access of Palestinians to the Old City in Hebron by forbidding members of Christian Peacemaker Teams and Israeli peace groups from accessing what the military terms, "The Sterile Zone." The military presence in much of Hebron (H1) is similar to that of other Palestinian cities, but the Old City (H2) is quite different because of the presence of Israeli settlers, some of the most right-wing of all settlers. Because of the settlements, the IDF troops severely restrict the access of Palestinians to the Old City. According to B'Tselem and the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, "violence, arbitrary house searches, seizure of houses, harassment, detaining passers-by, and humiliating treatment have become part of daily reality for Palestinians and have led many of them to move to safer places".

After a 13-year-old process of closures and segregation which began – ironically – with the Goldstein attack on Palestinians in the mosque, and continued through the intifada, there are now 304 closed shops and warehouses – 218 of them shut down by military order. The whole of the "sterile zone" protecting the settlements is closed to Palestinian vehicles. And the central section of Shuhada Street is closed to Palestinian pedestrians, except for four families who still live on this once densely populated but now desolate artery. The term used by B'Tselem and ACRI for the steady Palestinian depopulation of the area is "enforced eviction". Jan Kristiansen, a former head of the (already decade-old) Temporary International Presence in Hebron, described it as "ethnic cleansing".
...
In December 2006, ACRI challenged the ban on pedestrians using much of Shuhada Street, pointing out that it had not been sanctioned by a written military order. The Army agreed it was indeed a mistake and issued a directive cancelling the prohibition. Some prominent local Palestinians were allowed to walk along the street after detention and body searches, and with a substantial military escort. Within a week the Palestinians were again told they were not allowed to use the route.

A few days ago, members of CPT were told that they could no longer give tours in the Old City's "Sterile Zone" around Shuhada Street because they do not have an Israeli guide license. A few months ago, British journalist, Donald MacIntyre took such a tour with Yehuda Shaul, a member of the Israeli peace group, Breaking the Silence. Then he compared what he had seen and heard on that tour with the Israeli military's account:

A tour round the inner city with a senior Israeli military official gives a very different take on Hebron from Shaul's. The official, who insists on anonymity, argues that while Palestinians are restricted in only three per cent of the city, Israelis are either barred or heavily restricted in the other 97 per cent. While ACRI and B'Tselem pointed out that a resident of the Old City wanting to cross one side of Shuhada Street to the other needs to go round the entire city centre and pass through a number of checkpoints, the Army insists that the restrictions on pedestrian movement in the city are "minimal". As for vehicles, the Army says that those carrying supplies like construction materials are allowed through with prior authorisation and that the required detours add only 10 minutes to the journey for Palestinians. The official stresses that the closures are needed for security reasons and insists, "I am responsible for the lives of Palestinians and Israelis. I am not just in charge of the Israelis."

This, of course, goes to the heart of the question of who bears the real burden of keeping the settlers safe. In the words of the ACRI/B'Tselem report, "Israeli law-enforcement authorities and security forces have made the entire Palestinian population pay the price for protecting Israeli settlement in the city." In doing so, it caused "the economic collapse of the centre of Hebron and drove many Palestinians out of the area."

Unfortunately, limiting CPT's access to "the Sterile Zone" has even greater consequences than that visiting internationals might only hear the distorted narrative that the IDF will approve for tours:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli martial law imposes further restrictions on Palestinians, CPTers, Israeli peace groups, regardless of Israeli court decision

5 July 2008

On Tuesday, 1 July 2008, CPTer Kathleen Kern was leading a delegation of Presbyterians up Shuhada Street, when a police jeep pulled up beside her. Kern noted that the delegation was composed of Americans, whose tax dollars had paid for improvements on Shuhada Street, undertaken with the stipulation that everyone Israelis and Palestinians--could use it. The officer said the group could continue, but Kern could not because "CPT and Bnei Avraham" (Sons of Abraham-a group committed to Palestinian and Israeli reconciliation in Hebron) were not licensed tour guides.

On 4 July, when Kern went to meet an Israeli friend, Q., who came on an Israeli bus that stops in the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpelah area, the police stopped both her and Q. They again reminded Kern that she could not go near the settlements, for her own safety, because "the local citizens" (meaning settlers) did not want her around. They then entered Q.'s Israeli ID into a computer aboard the police jeep. Kern told him that she and Q had no intention of going to the settlements. As she and Q. began walking toward the team's apartment, Border Police stopped them and said that Q., since he was Jewish, could not enter the market, the only remaining route to the team's apartment, since numerous entrances have been closed to Palestinians and internationals' use. He decided to catch the bus back to Jerusalem that was arriving in ten minutes, because if he and she tried to enter the market a roundabout way and failed, he would have to wait for four hours to catch the next bus.

As Kern waited for the bus with Q., the police officer who had stopped her on 1 July approached and told her she was not allowed in the area. She noted that he had just mentioned Shuhada Street, not the entire mosque area, and he told her Shuhada Street, the park in front of the mosque, and Tel Rumeida were off limits to CPT. What if we need to go to the police?" she asked, pointing to the station in front of the Mosque. "You can come to the police station," he said. He assured her that Q. would be safe and made a point of telling him that TIPH—a monitoring group authorized by the Israeli government--was allowed to be in the area, just not CPT.

The areas that the police indicated were off-limits include areas where CPTers are present to ensure that Palestinian children get safely to school during the school year, and areas where settlers frequently attack their Palestinian neighbors. The restrictions the police are enforcing on Israeli peace groups also mean that Palestinians in the area will never meet Israelis who support their human rights; they will have connections only with Israelis who harass and abuse them.

In December 2006, the Israeli High Court ruled that Palestinians must have free access to Shuhada Street, but the Israeli military and police continue to maintain the area for settler use only, referring to it as a "sterile" zone.

Report Reprinted with Permission by Christian Peacemaker Teams

Cross-Posted at Booman Tribune and Street Prophets