With the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, Part III

by Tony Davies

Nov 2nd 2002

We joined the Christian Peacemaker Team school patrol at 7 am. Soldiers told us that no children could go to school because of the curfew. However, after discussion, they did let though a girl we were accompanying and other girls were also allowed to go to school.

When we got near the boys' school, boys were running out into the road, encouraged by the headmaster. Then two tear gas shells were fired about 70 yards from an armoured vehicle at one end of the street, and another two came from the other end. Two vehicles rushed along the street a couple of times. They go fast partly to scare people but also to reduce the chance of being hit by the stones and bottles which the boys throw at them.We were in the middle of the street where the shells landed. The smoke was unpleasant enough to make everyone run away from it to avoid irritation of the eyes and throat and lungs. It made us feel a bit nauseous and also causes headache. Holding a dry handkerchief to the nose and mouth helped but spitting on the hanky made a better barrier to the gas. People here advise holding a cut onion to the nose as they think it reduces the effects of the gas. Another thing we saw being used was air freshener sprayed onto a tissue.

The headmaster then told the boys that there would be no school today, and asked us in to his office for one of the CPTers to write a report. We were given little glasses of Arab tea: sweet, with mint. He explained that he was closing the school for the day because before we arrived the soldiers had not only fired tear gas shells into the play ground to drive the boys our of the school, as it is surrounded by the school buildings on three sides, but had also started firing "pellets." We think that these must be rubber bullets, but he seemed afraid they would start firing shells. Rubber bullets are in fact metal covered with rubber. Though they are not fired at the same velocity as ordinary ammunition, the do inflict wounds.

The report will be sent to the police and journalists and will be circulated to other CPT contacts. The head said that he is not allowed to speak out about what the army does to his school. He told us that the children are being prevented from attending school about two days a week.

On our way back to the CPT flats, three of us were asked into a school to see a girl of about 8 who was lying on a settee in the headmistress' office. We were told she had inhaled tear gas, which was no doubt true, but by now she was just very frightened. We offered to accompany her home, but she was scared that we might be soldiers too.

In the afternoon we went into a little museum about the presence of Jews in Hebron since the 1880s when some arrived from eastern Europe and Russia. 63 Jews were massacred in Hebron by Palestinians in 1936. The museum was interesting but only put the settlers' side. It is so wrong that the Jews of Hebron and Jewish visitors from outside - as well as ourselves - are able to walk about in the sunshine while the Palestinians were shut up inside their houses.

Passing the house stolen from the owners by settlers, we said 'sabat shalom' (peace on the sabbath), but they did not reply except to spit at us.

Most of the journey back to Jerusalem was by different roads to our outward journey. Some were narrow, rough and steep. At one point we went along a little track through a vineyard and then up a very steep little bank onto a road. We all cheered the driver when we got to the road, after the vehicle had scraped its underside on the bank. The ingenuity of the Palestinian drivers to avoid road blocks and earth banks thrown up by army bulldozers is amazing. My friend says that whenever she goes to Ramallah from Jerusalem the route is different.