Soldiers attempt to search Christian Peacemaker Team premises

Donna Hicks, Christian Peacemaker Team. On Sunday 11 November 2007 around 4:30pm Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members Lorne Friesen, Jessica Frederick, Eileen Hanson and Donna Hicks followed a patrol of six Israeli soldiers entering Hebron's Old City. The soldiers turned into the street on which the CPT premises are located, checking doorways along the way. When the soldiers unlatched the CPT street door, Hanson asked them what they were doing, clearly stating they were entering the CPT home and that CPT had not invited them in. When the soldiers and CPTers reached the patio outside the home, the soldiers demanded that the family and guests in the neighboring apartment leave so the soldiers could search the apartment for weapons. Friesen stated that CPT had no weapons. Hanson demanded to see a search warrant and stated again that the homeowners had not invited the soldiers in. While the leader of the patrol communicated with an officer on the radio, CPT's neighbor translated what her small niece was saying: that she was not happy because soldiers sometimes enter her home, that she remembered the night Israeli soldiers told all the men to come outside and they were "rounded up". After further conversations on the radio, the soldiers departed around 5:00pm without searching the premises.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical initiative to support violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about CPT's peacemaking work, visit our website www.cpt.org Photos of our projects are at www.cpt.org/

gallery A map of the center of Hebron is at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/0/5618737E38C0B3DE8525708C004BA584/$File/ocha_OTS_hebron_oPt010805.pdf?OpenElement The same map is the last page of this report on closures in Hebron: www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0705_En.pdf