26 April 2006

Just before I arrived back here last Friday, there was an attack by Jewish settlers on the internationals – Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) - who were escorting Palestinian girls from school.

The settlers on the hill, Tel Rumeida, opposite us across the settler-only road, seem to be escalating deliberate attacks on their Palestinian neighbours, and on the internationals who live in a flat right there. The CPTer involved during the school patrol is 79, and the oldest CPTer. She was hit on the elbow by a rock, but only a bit bruised fortunately. The soldiers and settlers are all trying to get the internationals on Tel Rumeida to move out, but they are determined not to budge.

Today on school patrol there, 2 of us had been talking to a group of three Israeli women, who come regularly to visit the settlers in support of them. Voices were somewhat raised, but not seriously. It was the end of our patrol, and we were about to leave, when the soldier at the checkpoint called to us to show him our passports, and demanded that that we hand them over to him. He was a real bully, well known to the ISMer with us. When the other three came up a moment later, he took their passports too, and kept them (and so us waiting there for them to be returned), for two and a half hours! It was only when he went off duty that the next soldiers returned them, and we got back home, having wasted most of the morning, and much in need of hot coffee.

Weather is much like Dunedin when I left – today overcast, a bit of drizzle, and I’m glad of my coat, but other days are quite warm. But not really the weather for cold showers yet (we have to boil the jug for any hot water).

Christina Gibb