Testing the non-violent attitude in Hebron
by Issa, 22 May 2007
Dear All,
I am writing this to discharge my feelings by writing to my friends who can understand me.
Today at 9:00 pm, I was walking beside the new settlement in Hebron (Palestinian building which was occupied by the settlers recently). Two settlers with guns came to me stood in my way and started photographing me. I didn’t care. This is normal with me, so I kept walking.
One from the settlers told me, “I will kill you! I will kill and all the Arabs!” The other one asked, “Where is George and Troudy!” (George and Troudy were attacked yesterday by these same settlers, causing them to receive medical attention and one to stay overnight in the hospital).
I didn’t care and I kept walking. When I arrived to the soldier’s post I called to them and I told them: “Please help me, they (the settlers) are telling me that they want to kill me!”
The settlers then lied to the the soldiers, saying that I cut their water pipes. I told the soldiers, “NO, NO, NO, NO! They told me they want to kill me, and lets go and see the water pipes.”
One soldier said: “Shaket, (Shut up in Hebrew), give me your ID!” There were five soldiers, two border police, and three regular soldiers. They said to me, “What do you have in you bag?” They forced me to take out everything from the bag and put it in the ground. I told them I work for Btselem, the Israeli center for human rights. One of the regular soldiers said, “I hate them even more than you!” When I asked why he told me again to shut up.
After they saw every thing in my bag ,they were trying to provoke my feelings and they said many bad words. They finished checking my bag so they told me now we want to search your body. So, they forced me to face the wall and to open my legs and searched me in very violent way. After that I told the soldiers “you know that I am not a terrorist, why are you doing this to me,?”
“Shut up, don’t speak,” he said. Then, they gave me my ID and told me “have a nice day.”
I think they intended to examine my nonviolent attitude. I think I got a “10 out of 10.” But I don’t know next time how much I will get.
They are doing all of this harassment daily in Hebron. For me, each day, they check me and detain me for at least 20 minutes. Some people they converted their attitude from non-violence to violence. I can understand why.
According to the Israeli law the soldiers can do this if they suspect I am a terrorist but the are sure that I am not and they know that I am usually leading Israeli tours and International delegations in the area , all the Israeli parliament members who visited Hebron I led them in the same area.
Injustice + occupation = apartheid
Soldiers = settlers = police = Racism
Edited by Jesus Martinez