Category: Journals

Our group was tired out after the large settler attack yesterday and apprehensive about what might happen over the coming week. We were hoping for a quiet day, and we got that. So here’s a description of a quiet day in Tel Rumeida…

International volunteers from EAPPI, ISM and TRP on the streets at 7am to monitor the children travelling to school in case of attacks by settlers. I stay close to Tel Rumeida settlement to watch the children who live close to the settlement buildings and have to walk down the hill past the settlement buildings and two army posts. There have been attacks on these children, stonings and beatings, but this morning there are none.

More internationals monitor the children as they walk down the hill toward the school. EAPPI accompany the children to school and stay throughout the school day.

At about noon the children return from school. Again, internationals monitor the areas close to Tel Rumeida and Beit Hadassa settlements. I watch for the children walking up past the IDF guardpost towards Beit Hadassa. This is terrifying for the children as they have been attacked in this area many times. Today the soldiers are new and stop them, ask them where they are going and search their schoolbags.

EAPPI accompany several girls who live at a house only accessible on a narrow path alongside Tel Rumeida settlement. This Palestinian family have fought a Supreme Court battle in Israel for the right to use this strip of land and won. However the IDF have placed a roll of razor wire across the path. At one point the family could lift the wire to access the path to their house. Then sandbags were placed on the wire to prevent this. Now the children must step over the roll of wire, opposite the IDF guardpost and the homes of violent illegal settlers to access the path home.

This morning the IDF soldier manning the guardpost did not know about the Supreme Court decision and refused the children entry. International volunteers from ISM and EAPPI tried to explain the situation but the soldiers would not be convinced. The human rights workers called the police and army, and during the wait some settlers emerged and told the troops the children were not allowed to pass. This was an outright lie. The settlers called us “Nazis”.

Eventually a jeep arrived with an officer who confirmed that the children were indeed allowed to walk down the path.

As the children stepped over the barbed wire, a settler remarked to her daughter “I hope they trip”.

This incident highlights a reoccuring problem in Tel Rumeida; new army units are not properly briefed when they take over, and so the soldiers have to learn the ground rules, usually at the expense of the Palestinian residents who suffer yet more delays, searches, and ID checks until the soldiers learn the locals are not the problem here.

Calm returns to the area for all of five to ten minutes, then boom! Boom! Two small explosions, one right after the other, from the direction of the Palestinian souk (market) in the H2 zone, just outside the perimeter. The two bored sentries who man a concrete guard position at the top of the hill are suddenly tense and alert, guns levelled, scanning the streets in front of their position for trouble. From the old souk comes a cloud of pale smoke or dust, and the distant sound of car alarms and horns and confusion. Some kind of bomb, or a controlled explosion on a suspected bomb? We have no idea, and neither have the soldiers, who gradully relax as the cloud dissapates in the gusty air.

The EAPPI workers go off-duty and as always we’re sad to see them go. An hour or two passes and we’re mostly sat at the curbside enjoying the warmth of “sunny intervals” as the BBC would call the mixture of clouds and sunshine. Occasionally we take a stroll down the hill, past the soldiers, and down to the checkpoint. Then right onto the main street, as almost always eerie and deserted. We try to monitor both streets because of possible settler attacks.

Later in the afternoon we see three young settlers walking down Tel Rumeida hill. They seem innocent enough but as they pass they whisper “I kill you”. They meet a Palestinian child near the bottom of the hill and lunge towards him. We shout “Stop” and begin to film, they look at us and quickly move on.

The rest of the day is quiet but as we are crossing the checkpoint to buy food for supper a member of the team is detained and told they will be “arrested”. They are kept there for an hour before being released.

Kids in Shuhada Street

Everyday but Friday, we are out on the street watching as children go to school, which starts at 7.45am. It’s usually quiet, though today about 15 visiting settlers attacked Anna and BJ and 3 EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel) people. They are not badly hurt (one was kicked and another hit on the foot by a stone) and are now still at the police station making a complaint.

I went down to Shuhada street to see them and on the way back called at the house of a doctor. It has been Passover holiday and there was a closed military zone for three days. During that time, soldiers who often use his roof for surveillance hung an Israeli flag from his roof. They went into the kitchen of his house, knocked everything off the bench and attached the bottom of the flag to his kitchen window. They also abused his niece who was studying in the house and damaged the desk she was using.

When I saw the flag yesterday, it seemed like the episode in the film “Sound of Music”, when Captain von Trapp comes home from his honeymoon and finds the swastika hanging from his house! However, the doctor does not have the luxury of pulling the flag down. He would be arrested! I approached a soldier outside the doctor’s house and said the flag should not be there. Baruch Marzel (stood for the Knesset and didn’t get a quota) and two other settlers came past and spoke to the soldier. They called me Nazi etc, which is nothing new. They yelled at me and I probably yelled back! One came up really close threatening but doing nothing. I told the soldier he should be intervening. I said “It is your job to protect this settler from me”! But he obviously didn’t think that the settler needed protecting and nor did I! I usually ignore settlers but was cheesed off about the flag and knew that I was safe. An officer I like was just up the road in his jeep. He had the door open and asked me what was the matter. I told him about the Israeli flag. He didn’t seem to think it mattered. He said that I was lucky with these soldiers because I caused trouble and others might not put up with that. I said that other soldiers might like me too. We decided to agree that we liked each other but didn’t like what each other did!

So today, when I came home, after tea and very nice slice with the doctor and his wife, I rang Neta of ISM to check about the law. I can’t do anything about the flag legally but did ring the DCOs office about. I don’t expect much because I think that the nice officer is from that office. The young women who answer the telephone there are always very nice to me. And I am always polite and thank them nicely. And sometimes I get the result I want! I also had my breakfast of cold fried egg in pita bread and heated up coffee. Then I started writing this. We have a new desk top computer, with internet, so I played a few games too.

At 12.30pm, Andy and I went out to watch children coming home from school. I accompanied two small Abu Aeshah boys up to the soldier, outside the Tel Rumeida settlement. The soldier wanted to watch me instead of the children. But I finally convinced him that I would go no further if he would watch the kids. There were settlers out, which scares the children, but there was no trouble. I pray that the day will come when they feel safe enough to walk rather than run the last stretch. I waited for Samir Abu Aeshah until 2.00pm but he must have been visiting today. Then Andy and I went down through the checkpoint to buy some food. I bought bread, bananas, tomatoes, dates, walnuts and sausage for the cat. By this time it was getting rather hot. So I came inside and Anna and BJ returned from the police station.

Tel Rumeida Checkpoint

I had a call from a man from Al Jazeera wanting to talk to Anna about the attack. He was with a man from Reuters and they were held up at the checkpoint. I went there with Anna. On the way, a young Palestinian man said “You are needed at the checkpoint”! Border police were detaining all the men and checking their ID cards. This has become a daily event during the Passover holidays! I had thought that my being there made a difference and the newsman confirmed this. They could understand what the border police said to each other when I arrived. Nobody is held more than 15 minutes after I get there! But it may be an hour otherwise. So Anna came back with the newsmen and I stayed at the checkpoint for nearly 2 1/2 hours until the border police left. I had a call from a woman at Al Jazeera. She wanted to give me her email so I decided to be cheeky. I borrowed the pen that the border policeman was using to write down IDs. I think he was too bemused to object. Then home and a bit more typing.

Postscript. Two days later the Israeli flag was removed!!