Hebron, Sansana (Meitar Crossing), Sun 17.6.12, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

Sansana-Meitar crossing

At 7 AM there was still a line of laborers and a line of people going to visit relatives in Israeli prisons.  There weren’t any significant delays.

Hebron

We saw people detained by the Border Police at the checkpoints in front of the police station and at the Cave of the Patriarchs.  They were detained for long periods, up to 30 minutes.  At the police station checkpoint there were ISM observes who told us that during the past two weeks Border Police soldiers had beaten youths.

For 30 minutes we observed detainees at the checkpoint in front of the Cave of the Patriarchs.  One youth was required to give his cell phone to the Border Police soldier.  The soldier apparently checked the recent calls and the names that appeared, and the youth had to call his brother who came and was also checked.  Then the youth had to fill out a form and received a summons for interrogation.  The purpose of all that may have been to impress Ofer (active, notoriously harassing settler), who was there with his video camera and whose racist and belligerent comments invited that response.  

Prohibited construction

It was very sad at Bassam’s. 

Here’s what he told us:  On May 28, the day after Shavuot, settlers (led by Anat Cohen, Baruch Marzel and Moshe Levinger) from Kiryat Arba and accompanied by soldiers and police came and stopped the construction of the second floor of his building (bassem has it all documented with a video camera provided by B'Tzelem).  They also tried to go up to the roof and demolish what had already been built.  A tractor removed the construction materials that Bassam and volunteers had carried up from in front of the building.  Bassam:  “They let us move all the materials and only then the bulldozer came and removed them.  They ordered us to remove the rest of the gravel that had remained in front of the building.  They forbade us to go up to the roof, lest we continue building, God forbid."

Baruch Marzel pulled a knife on Bassam in the presence of the army and the police, who did nothing.  He has a building permit from the Hebron municipality.  On Wednesday there will be a meeting about it in the municipal building. 

On the walls of the building and along the street homemade signs have been posted, reading:  “Stop building terrorist nests on the route to the Cave of the Patriarchs.”  Bassam keeps the documentation in his workshop.

Signs calling for “Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria” have recently been posted everywhere.  That’s being applied literally in Hebron.