Carole is an Australian woman, regularly volunteering with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron.
To follow her blog – go to http://abirdonthewire.com/
Or see below for a recent post:
It was a good, slow start to the day as there was no school today so we didn’t start until 9am. It was my turn to organise and lead worship but one team mate slept in so it was just 2 of us. We read a piece from The Prophet on Prayer and then listened to a couple of minutes of music by Hildegard to Bingen.
At 0930 we meet with the EAPPI team to follow up on the meeting we had had with UNICEF requesting us to monitor what effects the occupation by settlers of the Rajabi Building is having on children going to school. It is common for children to be attacked by adult or child settlers. I ask myself why people do such things.
Then we settled into other things before we needed to go and monitor checkpoints near the Ibrahimi Mosque at 1200. I decided to go shopping for some household things and had only just got into the souk before noticing a group of soldiers coming through. This isn’t an entirely unusual event as they often practice manoeuvres in the market place. I decided to stand and observe what they were up to and was joined by EAPPI.
After a short while the soldiers appeared to move off so I went about my shopping. On my return some ten minutes later I found a group of 6 soldiers very near to the CPT apartment. Once more I stood and observed them. They entered the first poultry shed then the second where they spoke to a young boy. He went off and the soldiers moved about a bit then took up positions with some of them hidden. I phoned my team-mate to come and join me. The boy returned with his younger brother whom a soldier quickly grabbed by his wrist. He was then surrounded by the other soldiers and after questioning him and speaking to a soldier on the roof top began to lead him away. I was filming the incident whilst my colleague followed closely and we asked them why they were taking him. It is illegal to arrest 
children under 14 without an adult with them. But this does not deter the soldiers and I ask them and I ask myself why? (see below video taken by Carole of incident)
They lead him to the settlement of Beit Romano and in total held him for 20mins which would have probably been much longer had there not been such a gathering of people outside the gate.
We missed going to the Mosque as we always try to have some kind of debrief and wanted to get the video out as soon as possible.
Whilst we were having lunch we received a phone call to say that clashes between Palestinian youth and soldiers was taking place at the junction of H1and H2. I ask myself why? Two of my colleagues attended while I stayed at base.
After supper my colleague and I walked along the road that settlers use to walk from the settlement of Kiryat Arba to the synagogue which is in part of the mosque. Many soldiers line the road to ‘protect’ settlers some of whom carry guns. I ask myself why?
As we walked back two young Palestinian boys were riding their donkey home and a 
soldier tells them “It is Shabbat you must walk”. The boys ignore him – this is their resistance. Then a little further down the road they were once again told to get off – this time they did. I ask myself why?
At what we thought was the end of our days work, 5 Palestinian youth stop us and with aid of my friends smart phone translator app we find out their 18 yr old friend was beaten by a settler and had been arrested and was detained in the police station. We tried to get the police to speak to us but they refused. We could only do the next best thing and inform the Palestinian Authorities and then go home.
I ask my self why many times but especially today.
Please also ask why and ask your politicians why we allow this to continue.
