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REPORTS |
Greetings to you all from Hebron in the West Bank,
I am very sad to report that hope for the
implementation of the Roadmap to Peace in this part of
the world is fading with each day!
Based on (1) what we have seen, (2) what our Israeli
friends have been telling us and (3) what is being
reported in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, it is clear
that SETTLER EXPANSION IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES IS
NOW INCREASING.
All international parties related to the roadmap peace
process should be alerted about the contradiction
about public pronouncements on the "peace process" and
the increased oppression towards the Palestinian
people on the ground.
Yesterday we visited Mohammed whose house is near an
expanding settlement. There have been violent clashes
between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers nearby.
Mohammed's house is now under threat of demolition
even though all sides admit that he is in no way
connected to the violence. He is being constantly
harrassed by soldiers. One day they entered his house
three times to do complete searches of his house. They
are especially targeting him at night so he finds it
hard enough to get enough sleep. He was very exhausted
as we spoke with him. As we talked together there was
a constant roar of tanks and military jeeps as they
tried to impose a curfew on the Muslim holiday in
which the Prophet Mohammed's birthday was celebrated.
In one convoy that went by there were 9 military jeeps
guarding 4 settler cars. As we talked, Mohammed said
"My home is my life. My children are here. Let them
kill me if they want, but give me my home"!
Today we watched for 15-20 minutes as Israeli soldiers
"searched" the knapsack of a little 8 year old
schoolboy. The soldiers very slowly looked through all
of his school books.The little boy stood there quite
helpless during it all.
The pattern is so clear! We see it every day! Harrass,
harrass, harrass the Palestinians until they give up
and leave. If by chance they make any act of
resistance to all of this, a military "security" zone
is declared and the army moves in to take over the
area.
Our own position as members of the Christian
Peacemaker Team is also quite weak and fragile. For
example we do not have the Arabic or Hebrew language
skills that we should have. A few days ago a
Palestinian grandmother came out of her house and
tried to to tell us something. Finally today with the
help of a translator we learned that during a house
demolition in front of her house, her rainwater
catchment cistern was broken. She will soon run out of
water from the broken cistern. However, with all of
her difficulties she could still invite us into her
house and offer us coffee and hospitality.
We are here to report what we see. What we see is
this: There is no evidence of any action by the
Israeli government to promote the roadmap to peace.
Instead all kinds of actions are being done to subvert
the roadmap peace process. The roadmap process has
become a fraud and a smokescreen to cover up what is
really happening all over the the Occupied
Territories. The whole world should know this!
Continuing to search for peace,
Eric
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