Christian Peacemakers Face Deportation After Hebron Demolitions

by Mitchell Kaidy

Arrested, abused, handcuffed and, in one case, restrained in leg irons, the Christian Peacemaker team in violence-wracked Hebron still took time to decry the cycle of violence and repression that threatens hopes for peace.

Two days after the first suicide bombing, Israeli bulldozers arrived in the West Bank city and started crushing five houses, only to find Dianne Roe of Corning, NY and Robert Naiman of Urbana, IL sitting on the rooftop of one of the homes.

Although Naiman’s father is Jewish, Jewish settlers who gathered harangued him as a “member of Hamas.” After forcing him off the roof, they roughed him up, verbally abused him, and jammed his face into the ground. A Palestinian woman journalist and a local youth trying to prevent the demolitions also were injured as they scuffled with police.

It was a rude initiation for Naiman, who had recently arrived to join the American volunteers who have established a permanent presence in Hebron to protect its Palestinian residents from Israeli settler and military violence, but it only got worse. Both Naiman and Roe later were arrested and restrained and ordered not to speak about the house demolitions under threat of deportation proceedings that could hold fateful implications for the five-member team. After spending the night in a Jerusalem jail, Roe and Naiman posted the equivalent of $1,000 bail each. Two other CPTers, Kathleen Kern of Rochester, NY and Anne Montgomery of New York City, also were detained and face possible eviction.

Christian Peacemakers, an initiative of the Mennonite and Brethren congregations and Friends meetings, have stationed teams in Hebron since last summer when they were invited by the mayor. A flashpoint of settler violence, Hebron is the only major Palestinian city still under occupation. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has indicated that despite the Israeli withdrawal promised in the Oslo agreements, he may keep Israeli troops stationed in the tense city indefinitely.

Shortly after the initial suicide bombings, the entire Christian Peacemakers team issued a statement expressing deep regret and disappointment, and condemning “the violent sacrifice of human life to achieve political aims or to express rage of the victims.”

The statement noted that Palestinians in Hebron had also expressed sorrow and dismay over the violence, observing that the Qur’an specifically forbids both suicide and the taking of civilian life.

Although the rest of the world—especially the American media—has chosen to ignore it, the Peacemakers also have pointed out that the renewed cycle of suicide bombings started on the second anniversary of the massacre by American-Israeli settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein at the nearby Al Ibrahimi mosque of 29 Palestinian men and boys at prayer. The first bombing also occurred on the 50th day after Israel’s assassination of one of Hamas’ heroes, Yahya Ayyash, the so-called “engineer” who was said to have masterminded earlier bombings that had occurred before Hamas declared a moratorium on violence last August.

Actions like house demolitions escalate violence.

While being held at the Russian compound in Jerusalem, Roe and Naiman issued statements through their attorney, Allegra Pacheco. Said Roe, “I wish to challenge military laws when they are breaking laws of human conscience and violating Palestinian human rights. Actions like house demolitions escalate violence…and strengthen terrorist organizations.”

Said Naiman, “Apparently my crime is attempting to stop the illegal demolition of a Palestinian home. Whatever happens, I hope this will not discourage others from nonviolently opposing the illegal policies of the Israeli occupation, which continues despite the signing of the Oslo peace agreements.”

Symbolically, on the Sunday following the first Jerusalem bus bombing, the entire CPT team rode Kiryat Yovel-Goren bus #18 for two-and-a-half hours. Except for crowding and a more visible military presence, the ride proved uneventful.

Witnesses confirmed that, despite the protest of local residents and the CPT members, ultimately five houses were demolished and others sealed by Israeli authorities on various pretexts. Soldiers and police initially claimed that the homeowners had never obtained permits. But due process of law was not an issue, and never seemed to have been raised. Palestinians were upset over the double standard evident in the fact that the home of mass murderer Baruch Goldstein still is standing, and is occupied by his family, only a mile or so away from Hebron in the Jewish religious settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Defence for Children International, commenting on the Palestinian children displaced by the demolitions, warned, “These children will come to see life and death as equal; their anger will build up and burst; they will become the ones who strap bombs to themselves. What Israel is doing is creating more terrorists.”

As for the CPT arrests, Boaz Goldberg, spokesman for the Israeli police in the West Bank, told the Associated Press, “They’re disturbing the peace and disturbing police and soldiers in their work. We want to send them back where they belong.”

He made no comment about the Jewish settlers of Kiryat Arba and their branch in the heart of Hebron, many of whose members also are American-born, and who might better fit his description than the Christian Peacemakers, who have seized a no-man’s-land and whose efforts are limited to protecting Palestinians whose ancestors have lived in Hebron for generations.