Report: Christian Peacemaker Team In Hebron
Reageer (0)26-7-2010
Hebron – Finding the way to the Christian Peacemaker Team (or CPT for short) office was not easy. We eventually found our way down Chicken street, so called for the chicken market which used to flourish just a couple of years ago. Now, every shop is closed down. At the end of the street is a 6 foot high stretch of barbed wire, with around 8 feet of concrete behind it.
Our guide, a local named Salaam, shows us a doorway, right next to the wire, where a sign clearly says 'Doctor's surgery'. However, with further inspection, there is a doorbell with CPT written above it, next to the rather misleading sign. After around 5 minutes of waiting, a call comes down to, "come on up."Our contact was the mildly eccentric and extremely hilarious Gary, a Californian native who has lead the team for 6 years during each summer. A confirmed heavy metal "freak", his first offering to me is thanks, for being from the country that invented Black Sabbath, the Clash and Elvis Costello. He met us wearing a pair of slightly too small shorts and a bright blue t-shirt with 'Peace and Love' written on it. He had managed to take time out of his schedule to talk to us and show us the headquarters.
After an offer of water, gratefully accepted, he proceeded to explain the workings of the CPT. Using both Biblical references and a keen grasp of philosophy, he explained to us not just the day to day routine of CPT or its history but also his personal take on life. A staunch evangelical, the first thing we hear is that the Soldiers are his enemy, based on the reference in the Gospel of Matthew to "Evil People". "The adjective-noun agreement is important, it tells us that Jesus saw not just the evil in people but Evil People". He applies this message to the Israeli soldiers and Settlers alike, based on his experience of them.
However, Gary is no unrefined anti-Semite. He is very clear in saying that despite their flaws and their status as his enemy, he loves them too, in accordance with the Gospel. What really makes the settlers evil though, is that they have stolen the land from poor people and shut down businesses and wrecked families, something I can testify to as well, having seen, from one house, a burnt-out shop, a closed off area of the Souq, a burnt out house where a mother and daughter were killed by molotov cocktails, and the son of the family I met, who was blinded when a settler threw another molotov cocktail into their house.
His time spent with the Black Power movement is another reason for his latent anarchism, along with his work in Poland during independence from communism. The organisation of the CPT, in his words, "is not communist. We're not communists." but the charity's structure does owe a lot to the Leninist structure of decentralisation. The ethos is that each of the 4 outposts (2 are in Palestine) are autonomous, able to make their own decisions on what exactly needs to be done. This gives the organisation the opportunity to be flexible whilst maintaining a Christian ethos. That Christian ethos includes every denomination, from "conservative theologist to, I don't know, non-believing Quaker".
So, what does CPT do exactly? They monitor the soldiers' behaviour, escort the children to school, document abuse and illegal activities by settlers and soldiers alike and help prevent home and business demolition. Gary likes his job because it is, "100% pacifism, 100% activism". They sit in with families who receive demolition orders (or, more normally, evacuation orders) to their homes, often for days, and he can't stress enough the importance of having an international prescence in Hebron.
When he's out of the office he likes to follow the soldiers: "They ask me, "why are you following me?" So I tell them, "I'm patrolling. I'm patrolling you, you're patrolling me." Surprisingly, he hasn't been hurt yet by a soldier, although he has been hit by several stones and rocks. This threat doesn't seem to scare him: "I've only been fearful twice in my life. Once, in an alleyway full of junkies in Cancoon, and secondly, having a piss at a Black Sabbath concert next to 2000 bikers who had been drinking Whisky all day."
A more useful service that the CPT perform is the daily shuttle to school. CPT staff escort the children who live off 'shuhada' street to and from their schools due to intolerable violence towards them. Gary recounts a couple of stories of children having sewage poured over them, rocks thrown at them and even adult settlers hitting them. The CPT escort service has prevented much of this violence, as has the fact that all CPT staff step out onto the street with a camera ready.
This action means that the volunteers are able to document all the abuse they see - from the checkpoints and beatings to general unfriendliness. The camera empowers the volunteers and conversely, makes the Israeli soldiers less likely to attack Palestinians, not surprising as the sight of a trained CPT volunteer with their ubiquitous red hats and a camera pointed means that any aggression is going straight on the CPT website.
Another service ties in with the documenting service that CPT provides - that of helping Palestinians through Israeli checkpoints. CPT uncovered evidence of repeated unnecessary delays, caused by soldiers who merely want to toy with the Palestinians. What the CPT do is get on the backs of the soldiers at the checkpoints. "They (the Israeli Soldiers) bug them (the Palestinians), so we bug them right back." The tactic doesn't serve to eliminate the problem, although Gary tells us that the time spent by Palestinians at these checkpoints is cut drastically when a foreign prescence is nearby.
CPT also serves as an awareness group, not only giving tours of all Hebron, including the Settlements, but also staging non-violent organisations in the USA, Canada and the UK too. Their work is simply to reduce the violence found in the World, and where better to start than Hebron?
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