South Hebron

South Hebron hills and Hebron Wednesday 26.5 AM´>/h3>Observers: Hagit B ( reporting) Dana L ( English translation Elena L)6:45 -11:00Sansana-we saw Palestinians and military vehicles and because of the rumors about mistreatment of Palestinians by BP soldiers we went to check things out- We saw nothing. The road to Sansana is on the green line –at the Cp itself the usual jolly settler "helps the soldiers in their work. There are no detainees.Route 60At the turn –off to Yatir forest- a new parking lot protects a bulldozer and the contractor's name is 'kav hatefer' (seam line)- are these the first indications of building the fence? Dahariya –is blocked. Samoa – all the roadblocks have benn raised higher and there is no way at all to descend from there to route 60. Dura Al-Fawwar – traffic flows, the pillbox is manned. Sheep's Crossing – on the Hebron side there is a closed yellow iron gate and only a few pedestrians are about. In general there is very little traffic: a few military vehicles and a few yellow Palestinian taxis.Route 317 and route 356 - there are new earth barriers along the sides of the road wherever passage from it to the fields might have been possible. The harvesting is nearing its end and it seems that the new earth barriers represent a deliberate policy to prevent the Palestinians from using more modern methods. Tractors cant enter the fields. The settlers have no such problem and use combines.The yellow gate at Zif junction is open.Tawwani We saw the new clinic which is waiting for medical equipment to arrive and we also saw the village's the development plans for the village, S' asked us to help in promoting the interests of the village with the civil administration.We had come to the village in order to take 4 Palestinians to the Hebron police at Givat HaAvot ( Hill of Patriarchs) where they were to continue giving testimony about the criminal behavior of the settlers towards them. Two incidents ae involved:One –the theft of kids- between 11 and 15 were taken on Monday 23.5 at 3:30 pm. Two - the settlers ploughed up fields sewn by the villagers- there are photos of settlers' tractor.We phoned from the village to the Hebron police to tell them we were coming and to ask for a police escort from the entrance to Kiryat Arba (otherwise the Palestinians would be refused passage through Kiryat Arba and they wouldn’t be able to get to Hebron police station or they might be detained for hours ) Amitai who is conducting the investigation promised to send somebody- we waited for nearly half an hour near the gate to Kiryat Arba. When the policeman arrived he took the Palestinians in his own car to the station. All of them were holding forms which proved they had been summoned to give evidence. The police had come to the village on Tuesday after the incidents had taken place and had taken down preliminary statements about what had happened. The Palestinians were driven to the police station and we continued into Hebron.HebronHebron with its shuttered shops has the usual depressing aspect. There is very little traffic and a lot of Palestinian kids in the road – it is the end of the school year . The Casba – is almost abandoned- at least this part of it is. A shopkeeper ask us why the Israelis keep on closing one or other part of the Casba. The soldiers seem worried and unhappy to be there. Most of the shocking graffiti on the abandoned shop doors have been painted over in black or brown. Tel Rumeida quarter- more and more houses there are being abandoned by the Palestinians. The Plestininas take out the garbage from the Jewish quarters. Nothng new in all this-just the usual infuriating picture.On our way back we passed by the Patriarchs' hill police station to see how the Palestinians were being treated. We saw the investigators and they saw us – and we left the our cell phone numbers with the Palestinians in case they should need our help. We retuned home.