Kata Mester, a journalist for Free Speech Radio in New York, was with us during the fracas with the Israeli Army. She filed a report from the CPT apartment that night over their Internet connection. You can listen to it here or at the end of this day's report.

Kata Mester reports from Hebron

At 7:30 this morning we left the CPT apartment in the Old City of Hebron to connect up with a group of farmers who need to get to their fields but have been prevented from it by Jewish settlers and the Army. Five of us started out: Diana Epp-Fransen (CPT, Canada), Kathy Kamphoefner (CPT, U.S.), Heidi Higgemann (ISM, Germany), Kata Mester (Journalist, U.S. and Hungary), and me (ISM, Canada). We didn’t know whether the curfew had been lifted or was going to be lifted, but as we walked up toward the market, it became apparent that it was being lifted. This meant that we were able to get a taxi to the first barrier, which would have been a long walk. 

Not only is the West Bank split into hundreds of segments by checkpoints, but these ad hoc barriers, bulldozed into place by the Army, also split the cities. I don’t know how many I climbed over today in Hebron. This bridge becomes very dangerous at times. The Israelis begin shooting at people crossing at arbitrary times, and people quit trying to cross, then some time later they quit shooting, so people start crossing again. If a person didn’t know better, you’d think the Israelis are terrorizing the Palestinians. I Think the Israelis are are terrorizing the Palestinians.

Another taxi ride and another barrier to climb and there we were with the farmers who needed to go to their fields. They have been trying off and on for a month to get to their fruit crops of grapes and plums, but the settlers and the Army run them off. Today they had permission from the local Israeli Police Captain to go to their fields, so they had high hopes. We were along since the Palestinians think the Israelis will listen to foreigners but not them.

We were moving along cheerfully up the road, which makes its way along a side hill with grapes on either side, when an old lady came over the barrier at the top of the hill, screaming Yahoud, Yahoud (Jews, Jews). She was wailing and holding her head, and shouting in Arabic that the Yahouds had stoned her. You can see for yourself. You can see the houses of the Jewish colonists in the background living in new houses built on confiscated land and protected by an Army camp. There are 30 families in this settlement but similar (and much larger) settlements have been built in many places in the Hebron area, all in direct violation of international law.

Just about this time an APC with three troopers on top, with their M-16 assault rifles at the ready, arrived and started shouting, "GET OUT." We shouted back that we have an injured person. No matter. We were told to get off the road NOW. Since the farmers had written permission from the police to be there, we tried to reason with them; the farmers, the CPT people and even I went up once to talk to the guy in charge on the APC. These were particularly belligerent soldiers. He told me, in good English, that I had to leave the road, NOW, and since he had the guns, I backed off. Some of the farmers were trying to argue also, and it came to a standoff.

The lead CPTer with us, Kathy Kamphoefner, is an incredibly brave woman besides being a college teacher, a Quaker, and a pacifist. She has been coming to Hebron for the past seven years, speaks Arabic fluently, and can get by in Hebrew. She called the police captain on her cell phone, then went up to the APC and tried to get the commander on top of it to talk to the Israeli police captain. He took her phone, and gave it back to Kathy without a word. She then called the police captain and found out that the APC commander had said this is a closed military zone that we must leave. The police cannot interfere.

There was still some milling around, but that ended when the troopers decided they had had enough (about ten minutes), and threw one of their hellish percussion bombs, then fired a few live rounds in the dirt, and finally dropped a smoke bomb. The smoke blew back at them, and they backed up and went where all APCs should go—up the road and away.

As we started down the road, the ambulance from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society pulled up, and our old woman was taken away. We then just sat there a while trying to figure a next move. The two CPTers decided to walk up to the Army camp at the top of the hill to put our case to them, since we were pretty sure the APC did not come from that camp. Waving their passports, American and Canadian, they approached the gate, but were turned back. 

We had been there about two hours, and there seemed to be no hope to get in. The farmers told us there was another road that we could try in the afternoon. The seven Internationals were invited to the home of Ahmed Aqil, who had contacted the CPT in the first place. After climbing over a couple of barriers, we got to a beautiful house and vegetable garden perched on land owned by the family for hundreds of years. Ahmed and his brother had built this back in 1975 when it was possible to get building permits from the Israelis. More recently when he was in Saudi Arabia and making good money, he decided to build a separate house on the family land next to this one. That was five years ago. He still cannot get a permit. 

I can’t close this without remarking on the hospitality of Ahmed and his family. He took us all to his home, showed us the vegetable garden, then his wife and daughters prepared an absolutely gourmet meal of chicken, rice, salad, and mixed vegetables served with the ubiquitous flat bread. Ahmed has five brothers and two sisters. A medical doctor in Jerusalem, an Electrical Engineer in Hebron, a Pharmacist, an English teacher, and a mathematics teacher. The two sisters are also teachers. The Palestinians put a high value on education, also for the girls of the family.

Ahmed has a real problem right now. His ID, his internal passport so to speak, was in the PA headquarters waiting to be renewed when the Israelis blew up the building and his ID with it. Who knows how and when he will get a new one, and from where? Sharon has dismantled almost all of the institutions of Palestinian government by now.

While we were at Ahmed’s, word came that the Israelis were shooting at the bridge again so we would not be able to get back to the CPT apartment, and had planned to stay with Ahmed and family. Later in the afternoon we were informed that the shooting had stopped, and we could go home.

Kata Mester reports from Hebron