May 2, 2006 TUESDAY
By Mary, ISM

At 11.20am, a photographer accompanied Baruch Marzel returning from the Jewish cemetery. This
photographer harassed me with his camera close to my face for 15 minutes. I appealed to soldiers, who
halfheartedly asked him to stop. Two settler boys started to throw stones at another international human
rights worker who was trying to film the event. I tried to escape behind soldiers but he followed me
everywhere I went. Afterwards a soldier told me that if I ignored the camera in my face, the man would
have stopped sooner. He expected this of me, even though he agreed that I had done nothing to provoke the incident.

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At 12.50pm, a 14 year old girl and 6 year old boy from the Al Azzeh family came from school to walk
along the track beside the Tel Rumeida settlement to their home. The soldier on duty outside the
settlement refused to let them pass. They told the soldier that they go that way every school day, which
is true. There was a Supreme Court order in July 2005 allowing this. The soldier refused to believe that
the court order existed and said that his commander said there was no such court order.

The soldier kept trying to push the children away down the hill. At one point, I got between the soldier and the girl. The soldier is tall and was standing over her and almost touching her, which was very inappropriate.

The army was called but did not help. After one hour, the police came and the children were allowed to
continue to their home.

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At 3.30pm, I was called to the checkpoint. The checkpoint was closed and CPT workers were there with
a tour group of 25 older international Christians. Their bus was waiting outside the checkpoint but they
were not allowed through to it. After fifty minutes, the tour group gave up trying to get through and walked up the steep Tel Rumeida Street to a road block, while the bus took over ten minutes to get there. This was very demanding for some of the people who were quite old. Opening the checkpoint often seems to be at the whim of the soldiers.

When they left, the soldiers decided to be troublesome. An Australian, who had his passport checked
earlier in the day by the same soldiers, had left it in the apartment. The soldiers detained the Australian
and insisted that someone get the passport. Then they held the passport until the shift change at 6.15
pm. Calls to Machsom Watch and the Army District Command did not help. At the shift change, we found
that the passport had not been checked although held for nearly two hours.

May 6, 2006 SATURDAY

At 2:30 PM, six settlers in their 30s, with white kippas (One settler had the Kach symbol, a fist inside of a
Star of David, on his kippa.) approached Mary, a 75 year old international HRW sitting at the top of the
Tel Rumeida hill 70 meters from the Tel Rumeida settlement. An Israeli male HRW, age 21, went over
immediately and sat next to Mary. They surrounded the HRWs and asked questions aggressively, such
as “Where are you from?” “What are you doing here?” “What, you like Arabs?” They were also cursing
them.

The oldest settler, approximately 40 years old, got close to their faces and whispered “I like to kill Arabs.
I like to kill Arabs.” Then another settler punched the male HRW in the face, who was still sitting down.
At that point, the soldier located 6 meters away approached and did and said nothing.

At about the same time, the oldest settler grabbed Mary’s purse off of her that was strapped to her body, threw it on the ground and kicked it 10 meters away. Then the other HRW got up and picked up the purse.
He began to return, then a settler came and kicked his right leg very hard from the side. Then the soldier told the settlers to leave the HRWs alone.

The settlers spat on both HRWs repeatedly. Then the settlers insulted the HRWs to the soldier in Hebrew. The soldier hugged the settler and said “I understand.” The soldiers did not say anything to the HRWs or ask if they were ok or call the police. 10 minutes later the HRW called the police and told them of the attack. The police said “come to the police station and file a complaint.” The HRW replied told them that he had no way to get to the police station.

Then the police said that a patrol car was on its way and he could speak to them when it arrives. HRWs
waited there for 1 and 1/2 hours but no police car came to the area at all. Then the HRW called the police station again to ask why they had not come. The police answered that a patrol car came and saw that everything was ok and left. The HRW told the police that he still wanted to file a complaint. The police said to come to the station.

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From six o’clock in the afternoon two new soldiers got on their shift on top of Tel Rumeida hill. Immediately HRWs noticed them because they were screaming loudly to all passing people, elders as well as children.

As HRWs decided to watch the soldiers from a distance they saw one of the soldiers pick up small stones from the ground and shoot them at Palestinian children with a slingshot. A 75 year old female HRW went to talk with the soldiers, to try to stop them. As she left, the HRW continued to witness the soldier slingshot rocks at Palestinian children. The soldier’s behavior appeared to indicate that he was either drunk or under the influence of drugs.

The soldier continued to yell incoherently at no one in particular. A patrol of soldiers passed nearby and the HRW stopped them and told the commander what she had witnessed. The commander took the slingshot from the soldier and questioned him. The soldier took back the slingshot from the commander and denied the charges. The patrol left and the soldier kept his slingshot.

For the rest of the evening, until 10:00 PM the soldier continued to yell at passersbyers. He yelled at no
one in particular “I like your coos (pussy). It is small and tight.”

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Palestinians reported to Tel Rumeida Human Rights Workers (HRWs) that on Saturday, May 6, the night
before the eviction of settlers from the house they occupied, settlers burned three cars belonging to
Palestinians who live in the area. The cars were parked near olive groves located behind the Tel Rumeida settlement.

This is an area that settlers often frequent and where some of the worst attacks happen against Palestinians. This is also where HRWs have received many complaints of settler adults attacking
Palestinian children on Saturdays, while they play outside.

One family who lives closest to the area where the cars were parked witnessed the attack and said that
settlers burned the cars while soldiers were present.

May 7, 2006 SUNDAY
REPORT BY MARY, ISM

Today, we were not sure what would happen. The Israeli police, border police and army were likely to be
removing three settler families from a Palestinian house near the old city.

At 7am, there was a call from EAPPI to say that the checkpoint was closed to them and there would be no school. I saw some children in school uniform on the street so went out. There were border police at the crossing, who said that the children could go where they wished. Then the two Abu Aeshah girls came out of their house opposite the Tel Rumeida Israeli settlement. They go to the Cordoba school, which EAPPI usually cover.

I called for two internationals to join me and followed the girls to the Cordoba school. A lad was being held at the checkpoint. He was facing the wall so I took a photograph of him and was going on to the Cordoba school when a soldier called out from the checkpoint. So I went over to talk to him. He had detained me for a short while two days before, for photographing the checkpoint with 3 settler children illegally within it.

He said he was just checking the lad’s ID and I said that I took the photo because the lad was facing the
wall. The soldier said that the lad could turn round.

I then went on to the school with the other internationals. The teachers were not allowed through the
checkpoint by those soldiers. The soldiers have a lot of power because the checkpoint is a closed military zone. The headmistress, who lives within Tel Rumeida, came to the Cordoba school and sent the children home.

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At 7.45am, I needed to see the Abu Aeshah girls safely home, so hurried up the hill after them. They
waited for me on the street to the Tel Rumeida settlement. I walked with them as far as the soldier outside the settlement and watched them go further. Two border police were coming down past them and they seemed safe. Then the older girl called out to me and pointed to Sara Marzel, who was coming outside and running towards the girls threatening them. I alerted the border police, who yelled at Sara to stop. The girls started to run. Sara stopped and laughed at the frightened girls.

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HRWs received a report that a 20-year-old Palestinian man was attacked today at 3:20pm in the olive
groves behind the Tel Rumeida settlement.

There were three adult settlers, at least one with a gun, who threw stones at him and left. One stone hit his leg.

May 13th, 2006 SATURDAY
Report by Mary, a 75 year-old ISM volunteer in Tel Rumeida

At 11am, I was at the Tel Rumeida crossing waiting for children to come from the Qurduba school. The
Palestinian Abu Aeshah girls, who live near the Israeli Tel Rumeida settlement came. I accompanied
them towards the settlement. The soldier outside the settlement told me to stop and go back. I said that I
would go back if he would watch the girls to their house. There were Israeli settler children outside. They
often attack the Palestinian children. The soldier seemed more interested in watching me than the
children and did not help.

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At 11.15am the Al Azzeh children arrived. They walk along a track next to the settlement. There were
settler children at the entrance to the settlement, so an EAPPI human rights worker walked up to the
track with them. The settler children started to throw stones at the Palestinian children so other EAPPI
human rights workers and I went up too to stand between the Palestinians and the stones.

The soldiers tried to push the children back to the crossing for safety instead of controlling about 8 settler children, who were throwing stones. I came between the soldier and 14 year old Palestinian girl. It is not right that an eighteen year old soldier should be standing with his body so close to a young girl, who is already under attack.

More soldiers came but the stone throwing continued further along the track and the Palestinian children
were not able to pass. Three TIPH workers arrived to observe the incident. Finally the police were called
and came quickly. They were able to control the situation and the children were able to reach their
homes.

Report by J
Two of us were walking a Palestinian child home. In order to reach his home, he has to pass by the Tel
Rumeida settlement where settler children and teenagers were standing around, waiting for him to pass
so they could throw rocks at him. This happens on a daily basis, so we are prepared.

We accompanied him so that, hopefully, the rocks would hit us and not the child. I had a video camera
ready to record the rock throwing. We walked up the hill and, predictably the kids started throwing rocks.
There were three soldiers standing around who — instead of controlling the children — came after me.

They asked me to stop filming, I said no. They demanded that I give them the camera, I refused. Then, as the settler children were throwing rocks and me, my fellow ISMer and the Palestinian child, the three soldiers tried to take the camera from me. They were unsuccessful.

While the other volunteer was trying to get the soldiers to control the kids, a teenaged settler girl said
“Jews do not throw rocks, Arabs throw rocks,” and she was standing in front a bunch of settler children
who were throwing rocks at us!

At this point more soldiers arrived. I asked them to control the settler children so the Palestinian child
could go home. They told me they couldn’t control the children. I told them, “All it would take to control these kids is some tear gas or a sound bomb, or, you know, how about some rubber bullets or live ammunition like you shoot at Palestinian kids who throw rocks?”

They kept covering the lens of my camera with their hand and I kept avoiding them. At one point three
soldiers and a bunch of kids cornered me. The soldiers tried to take my camera, and the kids hit and
kicked me. When I used my arms to block their attacks, the settler girls who were attacking screamed at
me “don’t touch me, you fucking pedophile, you’re just filming so you can go home and masturbate to
your porno.” and “The Arabs will kill you if you don’t watch out, just like they kill the Jews.” I said “I am a
Jew and they don’t kill me.” A teenaged settler girl yelled back “You are not a good Jew!”

Eventually, I decided it would be better off if I went up to the apartment to film. That way I would not get
attacked. A soldier saw me retreating, and tried to take my camera again. He was unsuccessful. I began
filming from the second floor balcony of the apartment building. I caught the soldiers and settlers
attacking members of TIPH. As soon as the settlers saw me filming, they started throwing rocks at me
again and yelling they hope the Arabs kill us.
Eventually I went into the apartment to film from the window so I would not have to dodge rocks. The
police finally arrived and the situation died down.

Report by Mary
I told the police and soldiers that there would be other children needing to pass from 12.30 to 1.30pm.
The police said that the soldiers would look after this and that they would be patrolling. TIPH agreed to
stay until all the children were home.

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At 12.35pm, one of the Abu Aeshah boys arrived. I walked with him up towards the settlement. There were now two soldiers on duty outside the Tel Rumeida settlement. They would not let me pass and were watching me instead of the Palestinian boy. I finally convinced one of them to look the other way. The boy got home safely but Israeli settler children were beginning to come to the entrance of the settlement and waiting.

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At 1.00pm, Samir Abu Aeshah arrived. I walked with him towards the settlement followed by another
international with a camera. Israeli settler children came out of the settlement. Girls came right up to us
abusing and yelling at us. Twenty young settler boys threw stones at us. I was hit several times. There
were eight soldiers who pushed us back towards the crossing. They did not stop the stone throwing and
tried to stop any filming. Samir Abu Aeshah ran to hide in his uncle’s house. Another six soldiers arrived
and attacked our person who was filming. They also attacked a woman from TIPH, who was taking
photos. Israel recognizes TIPH and they are allowed film anywhere. I was being hit by stones. As a
soldier was telling me to go back, settler boys were coming round behind me and throwing large rocks at
my back. I was then hit on the head with a rock. Settler children were now nearly to the crossing and still
attacking and I was outside my house.

I called the DCO, saying that I had been hit with 12 stones and rocks and had been hit on the head. The
woman on the line agreed with me that this should not happen. Another army jeep arrived. There were
now twenty soldiers, about twenty violent young settler boys, ten abusive settler girls and many settler
adults including Sara Marzel (wife of Baruch Marzell, founder of the ultra-extremist Chayil Party (Jewish
National Front) ).

Some of the soldiers started grabbing the boys who resisted and kept throwing stones. The girls kept
coming right up to me and abusing me. The settler adults watched and did nothing to help or control
their children. I called the police. When they came they were able to control the situation but there was
still no way to get Samir Abu Aeshah home.

Some of the Israeli settler children and adults walked to the Jewish cemetery followed by an army jeep. I
went in the Israeli police jeep to make a complaint. Sometime later, Samir came out of hiding and walked
home by himself, with no support from the soldiers.

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Report by K

Later in the day I was down on Shuhada street with another ISMer and settler children began throwing
rocks at us again. The soldiers made a halfhearted attempt to control them but gave up. I called the
police. The children kept throwing rocks and tried to prevent a Palestinian family from passing.
I went over to where the family was and attempted to escort them past. The kids kept throwing rocks and
the soldiers kept doing nothing.

After I made a second call to the police, they finally showed up and got the children under control. I asked the police officer to remain there to control the children. He told me I should leave if I didn’t want to be attacked. Fortunately though, he stayed and got the children under control. After about 20 minutes, he left and the children began throwing rocks again.

May 20, 2006 SATURDAY

After last week’s attacks, we decided to have four HRWs present to make sure that three Palestinian
children got home safely as they passed the Tel Rumeida settlement. I was going to stay on the roof of
our apartment and film where I had a great view of the street and hopefully not get attacked by soldiers
and settlers like last time.

A little bit of background on this particular situation: there are three Palestinian children who have to walk along a narrow path directly below the Tel Rumeida settlement in order to go home from school.
The settlers consider this a "provocation" and regularly throw rocks at the children as they walk home.
The settlers told soldiers to put razor wire across the beginning of the path and the children have to move it out of the way every day. There is an Israeli supreme court order that allows the children to use this path but soldiers on duty nearby rarely know this and often refuse to help the children get home safely.

Today, Shabbat, is always especially difficult because the settlers are not at work or school and they hang around waiting to cause trouble.

I began filming as I saw one HRW walking with the children up to the entrance to the path and this is what I saw and what the HRW later told me. The HRW walked with the three children up the hill. A member of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniers for Palestine and Israel) was close behind. The HRW started explaining to the soldier on duty that the children must be allowed access to the path to go home. The kids began trying to climb over the wire when several settlers appeared and a settler woman began yelling at the Palestinian children and at the soldier, telling them they were not allowed to pass and that they had to go around.

Immediately on hearing the settler woman, the soldier told the kids that they were not allowed here because this was Israel and that they should go back. The HRW replied that it was an Israeli supreme
court order that they should be allowed to pass! No one gave solid reasons why the children were not
allowed. The HRW then asked the soldier to call for backup because the settler woman hit her and was
shoving her in an attempt to get at the Palestinian kids.

Many settlers were crowding around the HRW and the Palestinian children at this point as they were
trying to climb over the razor wire. One of the settler threw a rock that hit the HRW. The HRW begged
the soldier to ask his commander about the order and he refused.

Eventually the soldiers ordered the two HRWs and the Palestinian children back down the hill where they
would wait for approximately 45 minutes for the right people to show up and allow them home.

At this point there were about fifteen soldiers present and they noticed me filming on the roof. Some
soldiers took my picture and I smiled, waved and blew them a kiss.

At this point the HRW on the street with the children called the District Command Office to try and get
them to order the soldiers to let the children go home. She also called the police.

Another Jeep full of soldiers arrived. Some soldiers were holding the settlers at the top of the hill at bay
but most had positioned themselves in the road so that the children could not pass.

Now there were four members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), four members of
EAPPI, three of us, two Israeli activists, two people wearing UN vests and God knows how many soldiers
present all discussing whether or not these poor kids should be allowed home.

One of the Israeli activists called the police, explained the situation in Hebrew and requested their
presence. They finally showed up.

Eventually someone figured out what was supposed to happen and one police officer, the two UN workers and three or four soldiers walked the children up the hill and over the razor wire.

As soon as the police and soldiers were out of view, an adult settler woman threw several rocks at the
Palestinian children as they walked along the path to their home.

The children got to their home about an hour after they should have.

Report by K.
After filming the incident, I brought the video camera into the apartment to change the videotape in case
the soldiers or police tried to take the camera from me like they had done the previous week.

I hid the video tape in my room and went back out on the street with a new tape in the camera. I then
walked to the olive grove with an Israeli activist. We were in the olive grove for a few minutes when
another Israeli activist called me and said that soldiers had come around to the apartment and tried to
get in. When they could not get in, they went up on the roof. The soldiers asked the where I was. He did
not tell them.

They then said they were off to go "catch" me and wanted the videotape. They headed off in the direction the saw me last going which was up towards the olive grove.

At this point I called a Palestinian advisor and he advised me to get out of Tel Rumeida immediately. I
called another international and asked her to be in the apartment in case the soldiers tried to come in
again. I also asked a friend to get the laptops out of the apartment. I ran out of the neighborhood and my friend came with my laptop and notebook. We decided I should leave Tel Rumeida for a few days.
The international showed up as well with the videotape of the incident that I'd left in my room. We copied
the video tape and then I left for Jerusalem with the original footage.

When I got to Jerusalem, I got a call from another a friend saying that some men in a white Jeep (Shabak) were asking for me by name. Another volunteer told me that earlier some soldiers were going around with a photo of me asking where I was.

I stayed in Jerusalem until Tuesday when I decided to call the police and the DCO and see how serious
they were about talking to me. I called both the DCO and the Police and said "Hi, this is K from Tel
Rumeida, I heard you were interested in talking to me and I was wondering if there was anything I could
do to help you." No one seemed to have a clue what I was talking about so I decided it was safe to come
back.

I was detained twice by soldiers for a passport check right after I got back. Both times they were behaving very fearfully and cautiously around me.

After that I have had no problems.

May 23, 2006 TUESDAY

At about 4pm, while mary and i were sitting on Shuhada Street, two settler boys, approximately 10 or 11
years old walked by and threw two rocks.

One did not hit either of us, the other hit me in the face, bounced off and hit mary.

We called the police, they came about 15 minutes later and more or less told us that there was nothing
they could do.

May 27, 2006 SATURDAY

Two HRWs on Shuhada Street were trying to film and stop settlers as they threw stones at the
Palestinian Qurtuba Girls School. Two settler women, about 18 years of age, then tried unsuccessfully
to rip on HRW’s video camera out of his hands.

About 10 boys, aged between 8 and 18, threw stones as well as kicking and hitting the HRWs. The soldier posted nearby, who was just a few meters away, did nothing to stop the stone throwing despite calls for help. Instead, the soldier left the scene completely. An adult settler with an assault rifle approached and encouraged the children to keep stoning the internationals.

At about the same time, another HRW was harassed and spat on at the top of the hill. The soldiers
watched the event and agreed that it wasn’t OK, but when asked why they had not intervened, they gave no answer.

Later that day three HRWs were attacked by a group of about ten male youth between the ages of 8-15
as they walked down Shuhada Street. The youth spat on them, hit the female HRW in the face, and taunted the soldiers who reprimanded the youth for spitting.

A group of soldiers stood between the internationals and the youth, but the youth just threw the stones over their heads. When the police arrived, they threatened to arrest two of the HRWs if they didn’t leave the area.

May 28, 2006 SUNDAY

At around 19:00 in the evening an Israeli activist and a the boy from the house downstairs were playing
football on the roof. At one point the Israeli activist kicked the ball and it flew off the roof into the street. She ran down to get the ball. When she got downstairs the soldier stationed below the apartment was already on his radio reporting an attack by a ball thrown down from the roof.

The soldier had taken the ball.

“I started talking with the soldier trying to understand what was he doing, still laughing, since i thought he
was joking. How sadly mistaken was I. Apparently the soldier found the incident very serious. He said we threw the ball on purpose from the roof and even tried to make the "attack" seem dangerous by asking me, ”Do you know what would happen if the ball would have hit me!?!"

After a few minutes of negotiations he still didn’t want to give me back the ball and told me to come back
at 22:00, and then i could get it back.”

About half an hour later the soldier started stopping Palestinians on the street, refusing to let them pass
for no reason.

May 29, 2006 MONDAY

At 5:30pm, four settler children were throwing stones at a Palestinian home on Shuhada Street. The two
youngest were less than four years old and the older two were between 7 and 8 years of age. A HRW
approached the Israeli soldier on duty, and asked him to stop the children. The older two settler children
then turned on the HRW, and began throwing stones at him, one of which hit another HRW who was
filming the incident.

The entire incident lasted about five minutes, and ended when the soldier on duty called for backup.

At 7:30pm, a HRW was in the street playing football with some Palestinian children. Ten or twelve settler
children, around thirteen years of age came up the hill, swearing at the Palestinian children. The HRW and a Palestinian man went to stand in the entrance of a nearby Palestinian store. The children threw stones at them, until the soldier on duty shooed them away.

The settlers moved to a nearby Palestinian house, taking a table from the front yard and tossing it into the street. The HRW tried to return the table, at which point the settlers threw stones at him again.