A day in Hebron's Old City

Friday, May 27 

We went out on patrol tonight.  Christian Peacemaker Teams here in the Old City of Hebron goes out on patrols three times a day.  CPTers looks for Israeli military soldiers who are also out on patrol and then follow them to watch how they treat Palestinians and to try to intervene when possible.

First we came across some Palestinian kids with a soccer ball and we kicked it around with them a bit.  These are ancient streets of cobblestone.  The solid metal doors on the shops on both sides of the narrow streets are closed at this time of the night.

We moved on, moving through these narrow, windy streets, and almost immediately encountered an Israeli patrol – 6 soldiers – coming our way.  Three of us who are on this delegation were out with Paulette, a Franciscan nun, who is on the longer-term CPT team here in Hebron.  We followed her lead, which meant turning around and following the soldiers.  Almost immediately they stopped two young Palestinian men and detained them.

These soldiers are young and armed.  Most of them are probably around 20 years old, the age of my nephews, Josh and Jordan.  Except I’ve never seen Josh and Jordan walking around in military fatigues with loaded machine guns at their shoulders.

The soldiers are harassing these young men and examining their i.d.’s because one of them is dressed in the black uniform of the local Palestinian police, and he is not supposed to wear that uniform in this part of the city.  Paulette starts talking to the two young soldiers nearest us, one of whom speaks good English.  She’s fairly confrontational, asking why they are harassing the Palestinian young men, and telling the soldiers that this only makes matters worse.

An hour later, the two Palestinian men are sent on their way and our CPT group goes home.

This was not a comfortable evening for me.  Being in that tense situation with 20-year-olds carrying loaded machine guns whose barrels pointed at us and others as the soldiers turned this way and that was not comfortable.  It never felt like they were on edge and were going to fire.  I don’t think the Palestinians felt like they were in danger, but the harassment and hassle is huge. 

Why does CPT do this?  Well, having an international presence watching these incidents can help keep soldiers on their toes and can help detainees get better treatment.  You never really know, but it seems to help reduce harsh treatment, and the Palestinians here are very happy to have CPT here.

That wasn’t always the case.  When CPT started here some 16 years ago, the Palestinians didn’t trust them.  Who were these people trying to rent an apartment?  Israeli settlers trying to sneak in?  Israeli secret service of some sort?  The Palestinians were very suspicious, said Hami, a Palestinian man with whom we spent the afternoon.  But when the Palestinians saw that the CPTers were willing to stand by them when settlers threw stones and when soldiers harassed the Palestinians, trust began to form.  Today everybody in this area knows those people who walk around with the red hats – the CPTers – and Hami went on and on about how helpful it has been to have CPT here.

This all ties into one of the purposes of a CPT delegation like ours.  We work with the long-term CPTers to try to reduce abuse and harassment, to get in the way, to document human rights abuses.  

Another major purpose of this delegation is to hear stories and to learn, to hear the stories of suffering told by the local people, to hear the stories of Israeli soldiers who have bravely stepped forward to tell the truth to the public about what happens in the West Bank, to hear the stories people like Hami who have decided that the best way to pursue their cause is through non-violent resistence.

I heard so many stories today that I want to share, but I’m tired, and if you’ve read this far you are probably tired to!