Cassandra Dixon travels to Hebron with CPT

  Most recent update - 2-12-12. Cassandra Dixon, WNPJ member and contact for Mary House of Wisconsin Dells, is returning to the West Bank to volunteer again with Christian Peacemaker Teams, this time for two months in the city of AlKhalil, also known as Hebron. In past years Cassandra has been in Tuwani, one of the villages south of AlKhalil, where Palestinians face violence, and the threat of violence, from both Israeli settlers and from the military as they seek to remain on their land.  The situation for Palestinians living in AlKhalil in the old city area and surrounding rural neighborhoods is much the same.  CPT’s work in AlKhalil began in 1995 in response to harassment suffered by Palestinian schoolchildren  as they walk near Israeli settlements on their way to school in the old city neighborhood.  CPT’s hope is that the presence of internationals and the documentation of harassment, violence, and human rights abuses will accomplish a lessening of violence. WNPJ will post updates of her work in Hebron. This photo (above) is of homes demolished 1/25 by Israeli bulldozers near Hebron. Read more below.....with links on how to contact Cassandra directly.

Israeli settlers have taken over  buildings and land, and created settlements within this Palestinian city.  What was once a neighborhood walk to a neighborhood school is now a trip through checkpoints and metal detectors, past armed settlers and soldiers, for both schoolchildren and their teachers.  Schools which were established so as to be centrally located to the Palestinians whose children attended them are now isolated from the neighborhoods they serve.   At times children face long waits at Israeli military checkpoints, where they must pass through metal detectors and gates in order to reach school.  Often they are confronted by angry adult settlers on their way to and from school.  

Businesses, families and agricultural work are also continually impacted by the presence of both Israeli soldiers and settlers in Palestinian neighborhoods.  In the market area of the Old City merchants have stretched netting above the streets to catch the stones and garbage thrown down by settlers from windows of settlement building overlooking the streets.  Soldiers frequently move through the neighborhood, entering homes and schools, leaving children interrupted and afraid. 

Since 2009 CPT has also provided accompaniment to AlBowereh, a rural neighborhood of about 340 Palestinians in northeastern AlKhalil.  AlBowereh lies directly opposite the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and the Israeli outpost “Hilltop 26”, which was constructed on Palestinian farmland.  Settlers have erected seven buildings in the outpost, and regularly attack Palestinians, including the neighborhoods 174 children as they walk to school.  Settler harassment of AlBowereh has included physical assault, the uprooting of grape vines and destruction of other crops, vandalism, and intimidation. In addition, due to the proximity of Road 60 and the settlement, the Israeli military has placed demolition orders on almost all the remaining homes in AlBowereh.

Seven-year-old AlBowereh resident Amar Zatari was attacked by two settlers from the Givat H Harsina
settlement as he walked home from school with two relatives. The two young men threw stones at the
three boys and, along with a dog, chased them. In his panic to get away Amar tripped and fell on his face.
His twelve-year-old brother ran back, scooped him up and raced to the safety of the closest house. When
Amar’s father attempted to file a complaint the next day the police insisted on interviewing the young
boy and when the seven-year-old Amar did not have a picture of his attackers they dropped the case.
CPT maintains a presence in AlBowereh while children are walking past the settlement on their
way to and from school,  and responds to calls from residents when their homes or fields are
threatened by settlers.   Through providing international accompaniment, CPT hopes to support residents
in their efforts to remain on their land, in their homes, and in their schools without responding with violence to the
threats they face. 
 
 Sometimes accompaniment provides the documentation villagers need to press the legal system of the
occupying power for justice.  Sometimes it results in international pressure for justice, and sometimes it
just means that if these children are afraid on their way to school, at least they know that someone is
watching and will know if they don’t arrive safely today.  Accompaniment can help to mitigate the
terrible imbalance of power faced by Palestinians who live and work daily in the shadow of Israeli
settlements and outposts, and open up a space for the work of nonviolent change. 
 
In the face of all the violence and injustice our earth and her people are experiencing this work seems
small.  But as I look for ways we can address injustice – particularly injustice that is accomplished with
the help of financial aid from our own country – I find that the work CPT is attempting to do in Palestine
still seems crucial to me.  If we don’t create non-militaristic ways of addressing injustice, we will forever
resort to military responses.  

So I’m traveling again, and am asking for your help.  I’m grateful to all of you for your
encouragement, kind thoughts, and financial help in the years I’ve volunteered with CPT, and as always I
find it hard and embarrassing to ask for money.  But the truth is that without your help I probably would
not earn enough in a year to take several months off and also meet CPT’s travel costs.    The cost of
volunteering with CPT is $3000, which covers airline tickets and the cost of maintaining teams in the
field, including rent, in-country transportation, translators, phone and food.  

I’m very grateful to you for helping me to volunteer with CPT for the past six years, and it’s not easy to
ask again.   I know that for most of these are some challenging years, and that all of us are stretched
more thinly than ever.  CPT’s work for alternatives to violence feels so important to me now, though, that
I am indeed asking.  As our tax dollars continue to pour into the pursuit of war in Afghanistan and our
production of newer and more complex weaponry continues unchecked, I am hoping that you’ll help me
to keep volunteering with this experiment in nonviolence. You can make checks out to me, or if you would
like your donations to be tax-deductible, you can make checks out to Mary House, or to Christian Peacemaker
Teams, and write my name in the memo line.   
 
There are photos and more information on CPT’s website, cpt.org, or you can write to them at PO Box
6508, Chicago, Il 60680.  If you would like to hear from me while I am in Palestine, please send me your
email address and I will do my best to keep in touch whenever possible. You can email me at
chrepairs@yahoo.com.  I will be back at the end of March, as would be happy to come and talk about
CPT’s work in Palestine – please feel free to call or email me.
 
 And to those of you who have been so kind as to hire me to repair your homes in the past I would be
grateful for your letting your friends know that I will be looking for work when I return and I would be
grateful for their calls.  For my friends in the Madison area I’ve enclosed a business card, and hope you
will pass it on if you know someone who needs home repairs in the coming months.   
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, for all of your own efforts for peace and justice, and for
your support. 
 
Gratefully & Sincerely,    
Cassandra Dixon, 608-445-0357, chrepairs@yahoo.com, 3579 County Road G, Wisconsin Dells WI 53965
(Mary House is a member gorup of WNPJ - and Cassandra the contact)   Jan. 2012