Tel Rumeida is a tiny Israeli settlement in the heart of the Palestinian town of Al Khalil (Hebron, in the southern West Bank). Al Khalil/Hebron is an area of constant struggle between Palestinians and Religious Israeli settlers and the Israeli Military. Currently there are plans to build a new Israeli-only road to connect Tel Rumeida to the other settlements in the area, destroying part of a Palestinian cemetary and confiscating more Palestinian land in the process (a clear violation of the Hebron Peace Accords).
Hani Abu Haikel, a long-time resident of Tel Rumeida, recounts how his father refused to leave his home in Tel Rumeida due to settler attacks, saying, "I am at the end of my life. I want to stay." Now, Hani also refuses to leave and calls this "the final battle."
The following is an account of some recent attacks, harassment and
difficulties families have experienced:
April 4 - Settlers and Israeli soldiers take over the Siyaj house
April 22 - A settler attacks Mohammed Abu Aisha, with a battery-operated drill.
May 2 - Settlers place razor wire and a tree as a blockade to the front entrance of the Abu Haikel house. Palestinians immediately removed the blockade.
May 3 - Settler cars block entrance to Palestinian Qurtuba girl's school. Settler Anat Cohen slaps CPT member Dianne Roe and shouts while Roe attempts to protect access for Palestinian girls to enter school, "Go to Auschwitz and take all the Arabs with you."
May 4 - Settlers vandalize Dr. Tayseer's home. Settlers stoned the home, cut phone line and the water pipes. Border police were present while the vandalism continued unchecked
More Recent Settler Attacks Against Palestinians In Tel Rumeida:
- March 14 Settlers stone the Al Azzeh family house
- Various Dates Settlers stone the Abu Haikel house and throw rubbish on their garden
- Women and teenage settlers attack Sharabati family sons and detain them.
- Hani Abu Haikel is stoned while picking and spraying his grape leaves
- Rima Abu Haikel, pregnant and in labor has great difficulty going to hospital on cold, wet night, walking through mud to be able to reach a road because regular access is denied.
- Israeli soldiers do not allow Israeli police access to the Abu Haikel family
- May 5 - Israeli soldiers block access to a diplomatic tour group
organized by Hebron Rehabilitation Committee. Diplomats included
representatives of the Palestinian consulates of South Africa, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and United Kingdom, and they were to tour the site of the proposed new road for the use of Israeli settlers from Tel Rumeida only. Israeli soldiers declared the area a closed military zone.
- New racist graffiti can be found all over the area: Ex.:"Gas the Arabs, JDL"
I'm sorry, I don't have a list to compare of Palestinian violence against settlers. That would only be fair I suppose, but in this situation it is clear that the Palestinians are an occupied people and the violence of the Israeli state is far more crushing and institutionalized than Palestinians violence. But in the end violence is violence and it is a never-ending, descending spiral for both populations. That is why it is important for those of us who stand outside of this conflict to do our best to help end it.
Here is one way you can begin:
Please fax, e-mail or send postcards ASAP to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs or State Department and/or Prime Minister or President. Copy your Members of Parliament or Representatives and Senators. Urge them to send a clear message to the Israeli High Court that implementing the Israeli military decree, number t/17/05 of 11 February 2005, violates the Hebron Protocol, which was signed between Palestinians and Israelis in 1997 and expands the illegal Israeli settlement area in Tel Rumeida in direct violation of the Road Map for peace. U.S. citizens, please express your affirmation of the stance President Bush has taken against settlement expansion.
SAMPLE TEXT FOR MESSAGE
Please challenge the Israeli military decree, number t/17/05 of 11 February 2005, that takes the land of Palestinian families and disrupts their lives to add a new settler road in Tel Rumeida, at the heart of Old City Hebron. These Palestinian families have already suffered enormous loss and constant assaults ever since the establishment of the illegal Israeli settlement in Tel Rumeida. This new Israeli military order expands the settlement in
violation of the Hebron Protocol of 1997 and the "Road Map" for peace. The road will destroy historic houses, disturb Muslim graves, uproot long-lived olive trees, and damage ancient monuments in the area.
If not stopped, a consequence of this decree will be to put more pressure on Tel Rumeida Palestinians to move out, thus providing unoccupied homes and lands for takeover by settlers. Evacuated Gaza settlers must not be relocated to Hebron!
We urge you, then, to send a clear message to the Israeli government that implementation of military decree t/17/05 of 11 February 2005 is unacceptable in view of commitments agreed by Israel in both the Hebron Protocol of 1997 and the "Road Map" for peace; it will increase Israeli military and settler control of the area, escalating settler violence and increasing tension in Hebron city.
For further information on this matter, please refer to:
CPT Hebron Release: "Hebron Palestinian Families in Crisis: Settlers Escalate Violence; CPT Offers Opportunities for Reporters to Visit Besieged Palestinian Families", 9 May 2005. The press release may be found at the following link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpthebron/
Hebron Rehabilitation Committee at: Phone: 02-222-3595 / Fax: 02-222-6994 / E-mail: hebronrc@hebronet.com / Web Page: www.hebronrc.org.
Christian Peacemaker Teams at: Phone: 02-222-8485 / E-mail:
cptheb@palnet.com / Web Page: www.cpt.org/Hebron.
Yours sincerely, for peace,
[Your name and full address.]
ADDRESSES
Canada:
Prime Minister Paul Martin, House of Commons, Ottawa ON K1A 0A6. Fax 613-941-6900
Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew, House of Commons, Ottawa ON, K1A 0A6, Fax 613-996-3443
You can mail you MP at the House of Commons address, or find their fax number by looking them up at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/house/members/MemberList
USA:
President George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500, Fax 202-456-2461
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520, Fax (202)261-8577
Senator_____________, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510
Representative_________________, US House of Representatives, Washington DC, 20515
For fax numbers, go to: http://congress.org and enter your zip code.
UK:
Prime Minister Tony Blair, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA
Fax 020-7925-0918
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Downing, Street West, London SW1A 2AL, Fax 020-7839-2417
Find contact information for your MP at
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm.
Hani Abu Haikel, a long-time resident of Tel Rumeida, recounts how his father refused to leave his home in Tel Rumeida due to settler attacks, saying, "I am at the end of my life. I want to stay." Now, Hani also refuses to leave and calls this "the final battle."
The following is an account of some recent attacks, harassment and
difficulties families have experienced:
April 4 - Settlers and Israeli soldiers take over the Siyaj house
April 22 - A settler attacks Mohammed Abu Aisha, with a battery-operated drill.
May 2 - Settlers place razor wire and a tree as a blockade to the front entrance of the Abu Haikel house. Palestinians immediately removed the blockade.
May 3 - Settler cars block entrance to Palestinian Qurtuba girl's school. Settler Anat Cohen slaps CPT member Dianne Roe and shouts while Roe attempts to protect access for Palestinian girls to enter school, "Go to Auschwitz and take all the Arabs with you."
May 4 - Settlers vandalize Dr. Tayseer's home. Settlers stoned the home, cut phone line and the water pipes. Border police were present while the vandalism continued unchecked
More Recent Settler Attacks Against Palestinians In Tel Rumeida:
- March 14 Settlers stone the Al Azzeh family house
- Various Dates Settlers stone the Abu Haikel house and throw rubbish on their garden
- Women and teenage settlers attack Sharabati family sons and detain them.
- Hani Abu Haikel is stoned while picking and spraying his grape leaves
- Rima Abu Haikel, pregnant and in labor has great difficulty going to hospital on cold, wet night, walking through mud to be able to reach a road because regular access is denied.
- Israeli soldiers do not allow Israeli police access to the Abu Haikel family
- May 5 - Israeli soldiers block access to a diplomatic tour group
organized by Hebron Rehabilitation Committee. Diplomats included
representatives of the Palestinian consulates of South Africa, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and United Kingdom, and they were to tour the site of the proposed new road for the use of Israeli settlers from Tel Rumeida only. Israeli soldiers declared the area a closed military zone.
- New racist graffiti can be found all over the area: Ex.:"Gas the Arabs, JDL"
I'm sorry, I don't have a list to compare of Palestinian violence against settlers. That would only be fair I suppose, but in this situation it is clear that the Palestinians are an occupied people and the violence of the Israeli state is far more crushing and institutionalized than Palestinians violence. But in the end violence is violence and it is a never-ending, descending spiral for both populations. That is why it is important for those of us who stand outside of this conflict to do our best to help end it.
Here is one way you can begin:
Please fax, e-mail or send postcards ASAP to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs or State Department and/or Prime Minister or President. Copy your Members of Parliament or Representatives and Senators. Urge them to send a clear message to the Israeli High Court that implementing the Israeli military decree, number t/17/05 of 11 February 2005, violates the Hebron Protocol, which was signed between Palestinians and Israelis in 1997 and expands the illegal Israeli settlement area in Tel Rumeida in direct violation of the Road Map for peace. U.S. citizens, please express your affirmation of the stance President Bush has taken against settlement expansion.
SAMPLE TEXT FOR MESSAGE
Please challenge the Israeli military decree, number t/17/05 of 11 February 2005, that takes the land of Palestinian families and disrupts their lives to add a new settler road in Tel Rumeida, at the heart of Old City Hebron. These Palestinian families have already suffered enormous loss and constant assaults ever since the establishment of the illegal Israeli settlement in Tel Rumeida. This new Israeli military order expands the settlement in
violation of the Hebron Protocol of 1997 and the "Road Map" for peace. The road will destroy historic houses, disturb Muslim graves, uproot long-lived olive trees, and damage ancient monuments in the area.
If not stopped, a consequence of this decree will be to put more pressure on Tel Rumeida Palestinians to move out, thus providing unoccupied homes and lands for takeover by settlers. Evacuated Gaza settlers must not be relocated to Hebron!
We urge you, then, to send a clear message to the Israeli government that implementation of military decree t/17/05 of 11 February 2005 is unacceptable in view of commitments agreed by Israel in both the Hebron Protocol of 1997 and the "Road Map" for peace; it will increase Israeli military and settler control of the area, escalating settler violence and increasing tension in Hebron city.
For further information on this matter, please refer to:
CPT Hebron Release: "Hebron Palestinian Families in Crisis: Settlers Escalate Violence; CPT Offers Opportunities for Reporters to Visit Besieged Palestinian Families", 9 May 2005. The press release may be found at the following link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpthebron/
Hebron Rehabilitation Committee at: Phone: 02-222-3595 / Fax: 02-222-6994 / E-mail: hebronrc@hebronet.com / Web Page: www.hebronrc.org.
Christian Peacemaker Teams at: Phone: 02-222-8485 / E-mail:
cptheb@palnet.com / Web Page: www.cpt.org/Hebron.
Yours sincerely, for peace,
[Your name and full address.]
ADDRESSES
Canada:
Prime Minister Paul Martin, House of Commons, Ottawa ON K1A 0A6. Fax 613-941-6900
Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew, House of Commons, Ottawa ON, K1A 0A6, Fax 613-996-3443
You can mail you MP at the House of Commons address, or find their fax number by looking them up at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/house/members/MemberList
USA:
President George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500, Fax 202-456-2461
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520, Fax (202)261-8577
Senator_____________, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510
Representative_________________, US House of Representatives, Washington DC, 20515
For fax numbers, go to: http://congress.org and enter your zip code.
UK:
Prime Minister Tony Blair, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA
Fax 020-7925-0918
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Downing, Street West, London SW1A 2AL, Fax 020-7839-2417
Find contact information for your MP at
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm.
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