Report #9 - Nights Of The Furies

by Jerry Levin
Ibillin, Galilee, Israel
December 12, 2002

At about 7:00 early Friday evening November 15th two CPTers passed through the always guarded Special Security Zone surrounding the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs. Suddenly they heard gunfire which seemed to be coming not too far beyond the Mosque in the direction of Kiryat Arba, the large settlement of ultra nationalist and religious Jews. Within seconds they heard answering shots but louder, which meant that Palestinians had probably fired first and that the military was firing back.

Suddenly four soldiers dashed tensely by in the direction of the shooting-their guns at the ready. "What's happening," a CPTer called out, not really expecting an answer, but he got one from the soldier bringing up the rear. "Welcome to Hebron," the trooper muttered as he raced by.

Minutes later the CPTers reached the Christian Peacemaker Team apartment, where within an hour the first inaccurate reports from the field began to make their way on to the internet and broadcast outlets. Several worshipers, soldiers, border policemen, and civilian armed security guards, it was being reported, had been ambushed, killed, and wounded.

Early the next morning several CPTers went to the scene of the shooting and offered condolences to the many settlers gathering there and also to many of the soldiers and Border Policemen stationed in the area. Settler tempers naturally were short. When I said, "Shabbat Shalom," to one who was carrying his young son on his shoulders, he kicked me just below the knee. Coincidentally it was the same man who months ago had screamed at me: "Our God will kill your God!" His reaction, however, was the only negative response that entire day to CPT's repeated words of empathy (except for some pre-adolescent settler kids who threw stones, but were finally shooed away by soldiers).

At midmorning, Amira Hass , the bold, blunt Haaretz correspondent, who for many years has lived in, reported from, and reflected in print on the debilitating impact of the occupation on the Palestinians in first Gaza and now the West Bank, called to ask if CPT would accompany her to the shooting site in the afternoon. By mid afternoon they were back in time to hear an Israeli Army officer explain to Israeli and international journalists that no worshipers had been killed, because their military guards had already safely escorted them back to Kiryat Arba. However, armed civilian resident security guards racing to the sound of the first shots were among the dead and wounded. Clearly the ambush was a traumatic event for the military and the settlement, "We made many mistakes