26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
A child of about eight years old sneaks past a multitude of soldiers at as they hold back Al Rumeida residents from climbing the hill to their homes. He runs into the corner store, comes out and joyously waves his forbidden purchases at them–a bag of candy—and continues running home. A settler funeral was going on in a Jewish cemetery half way up the hill. Although the procession only took about two hours, Checkpoint 56 at the bottom of the hill was closed for five hours.
Palestinian women on the bus chat happily and endure the wait it takes to fill the bus from Bethlehem to Hebron. A young Bedoin woman with a small child does not miss the opportunity to try to make a sale. She shows the lone tourist on the bus some exquisitely woven money bags and pillow shams. Everyone hustles: it is called survival. Whether it is olive soap, scarfs, kafiyas, watches, Kleenex packages, or bread, Hebron Palestinians hauk their wares daily.
A merchant selling fruit juice noisily liquefies carrot juice five meters from where the supposed Settler Hebron Tour passes. According to the sanctimonious settler, something happened to someone who lived or died some 100 or 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. The merchant grinds on.
A gaggle of children, some as young as four years old, run and bang on metal doorways yelling in unison as they hurry through the old city alleys together with journalists and international observers, only to be stopped at intervals by many soldiers who protect the Saturday Jewish Settler Hebron Tour. A small child pushes his metal cart through the cobblestones. The din is deafening. Local Palestinian merchants sitting in their stalls endure it for the sake of resistance. This has been going on for years. They wait. The Zionist settlers look terrified even though one of the strongest military in the world protect their parade.
They have been taught from a very young age that the Palestinians want to kill them or push them into the sea. It is a tragic drama where the aggressors play the role of victims although in reality, all are victims, either of deception or of cruelty.
A woman merchant is accosted by a gang of settlers during the tour. One tells her that her Palestinian map is wrong: that it should be all Israel. She stands up to them, albeit afraid, and declares it is indeed Palestine and if they don’t like it they can go elsewhere. “We have been here for 64 years, and we will be here another 64 years,” she said, defiantly. And they will.
24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Haiya and her family are originally from a village called Ber Maael know called Mudaeen near what is now Tel Aviv.
Haiya’s brother was a close friend of Ali Khaleefa, one of the young men who was killed when the Israeli army raided the Qalandia Refugee camp on the second of August. He told us he was with Ali just hours before the soldiers raided the camp and killed him.
Haiya speaks.
We were at the funeral and people were so shocked and angry, the army came in the middle of the night right at the start of Ramadan to arrest two boys about 13 years old. And they killed 2 people even though no one there had any weapons apart from the soldiers. The Palestinians from Qalandia cannot forget something like this.
The Israelis are afraid of the Palestinian people, they are afraid because they know that this land does not belong to them, and they are afraid they will lose it. So they shoot at us to make us scared, but it doesn’t work.
Palestine doesn’t have anyone to fight for her, just the people who live in Palestine. We believe that we need a country, but before, the people here did not have any hopes for a state. Every time we are promised our own country, nothing happens. So now the people are trying to do something for themselves.
Obama said in his speech we wants safety for the Israelis first, second, third and last. He says this as though Israel is the victim! But it is Israel who is slowly killing all our people and taking our land.
I think many of the people of Israel want peace, but the leaders certainly do not.
If the UN does not give us a state then, we must fight with the protests and the stones. I think what is happening now could lead to a third Intifada and Israel thinks this too and they are very scared.
I think the settlers are the worst people in the world, they burn our mosques and they burn our olive trees. You know the soldiers they have orders to shoot bullets and drop bombs. But the mustawtaneen [settlers] do what they do because they hate us. Just today in Hebron they killed a child with a car.
The army will never stop the settlers, they say ‘go home’ but it does nothing because they know that the army will not hurt them.
Of course we would love to go back to our land; we hope to go back. Our grandfather is 83 years old, whenever we pass near the place our home used to be, he cries.
24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
September 23 was a historical day for Palestinians worldwide and within the territories, as the Palestinian Authority submitted a bid to the UN to be recognized as the 194th nation of the world. While diplomats and political discussions ensued, a typical dialogue between Palestinians continued in the face of constant illegal Israeli oppression.
Qalandia:
The demonstration started just after the noon prayer. By 5 there were approximately 200 Palestinians. Most of the soldiers were special forces, dressed in black uniforms. The “Scream” a loud siren used to deter demonstrators with its screeching noise, made its second appearance at Qalandia this week. A jeep mounted tear gas launcher was used to fire at least ten tear gas canisters at once. Due to the enclosed environment near the Qalandia checkpoint and refugee camp, escaping the clouds of gas was difficult for demonstrators. After launching teargas rounds, special forces charged up the street firing rubber coated steel bullets into the backs of protesters running from the gas. Red Crescent workers estimated at least 30 people were injured, with one person suffering a gunshot wound to the head after being hit with a rubber coated steel bullet. As late as 8:30 PM, the Israeli army was still firing occasional volleys of teargas from the Qalandia watchtower and on the ground until demonstrators finally dispersed.
Nabi Saleh:
Following noon prayers, peaceful demonstrators found themselves being attacked by Israeli military volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets almost immediately upon their presence. With a skunk water truck present, the “Scream” siren sounded to deter the presence of locals, as the Israeli military shot low to the ground and at close range, about 16-20 meters from peaceful demonstrators. 4 were injured by rubber coated steel bullets while a French photographer sustained a wound to his leg from a tear gas canister.
Qusra:
After finishing their Friday prayers, Qusra residents found that illegal settlers from a neighboring illegal settlement were destroying olive trees just before the national olive harvest season. As locals approached their land to salvage what they could, the Israeli military intervened to defend these illegal settlers, killing Essam Aoudhi and wounding others.
Hebron:
Following an emergency call, international volunteers immediately went to the home of the Sultan family, where the previous settler attacks were documented at Tar Abusie School children. When they arrived on the closed off road for Palestinians, they encountered a collection of vehicles filled with settlers from a nearby large, illegal Israeli settlement off the road. At the entrance of the compound, a soldier awaited them and opened gate. At the end of the group, a soldier enclosed jeep followed behind.
Volunteers continued toward the Sultan family area to see if more settlers had stayed behind. They had left, but the family expressed that the settlers held a demonstration regularly, every Friday about 12 noon to1 p.m. Internationals will be monitoring this area of Hebron regularly this Friday.
Around 5 p.m ISM received another call that the settlers had returned to harrass the farmers in the Sultan family area.
Later that night in the main center of Hebron, a gigantic screen was placed in the street for the town to hear the speeches of all the PA politicos. The town came out for the occasion. A large barbed wire had been placed into the opening of the old city past Checkpoint 56. At least 100 PA police, as well as Israeli soldiers were out guarding. At one point about 300 young men gathered in a street to get into the Old City and possibly the checkpoints, but the PA police held them back. The IDF was ready for them near the checkpoint with about 40 soldiers.
24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Today at 4 p.m. the settlers paraded as usual around the Old City of Al Khalil, or Hebron, from 4 to about 5 p.m. About 5 international observers, as well as members of Christian Peacemakers Team and World Council Church volunteers witnessed the pompous parade. Over 15 soldiers protected settlers during their weekly walk around the market.
“They came into my shop and started to question me about the Palestinian map I have on the wall,” said Nawal, a local merchant as she pointed to a textile map of Palestine she had on the wall.”This woman said that the map was wrong and that this area was all of Israel, I told her that it was correct and if she didn’t like it she could go elsewhere.”
The procession turned into a minor riot as Palestinian children ran and screamed through the old city while soldiers pointed guns at them, as well as several foreign journalists and about 10 observers.
A member of the armed service police videotaped the crowd. Eventually, after stating to no one in particular that Hebron belonged to the Israelis, a rabbi led the procession into their well-fortified compound and were followed by the soldiers.
21 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The Atta and Rudaina Jeber’s farm is situated upon a hill. The area is called Sheik Sherah, in the Beca’a Valley in the outskirts of Hebron, or Al-Khalil. Atta’s family has owned the land since the Ottoman Empire was in power, and he explains that he is part of about 19,000 Palestinians who originally settled the hills when they came from the lands now called Jordan, some 800 years ago.
He will also show you the caves where many of his ancestors were born. It is in this part of Palestine where the Israeli settlers have fought so aggressively in recent years to invade Palestinian lands especially where Atta and his brothers live on two hills now fractured by two large settlements, Gryet Arba and Givat Ha Harsina. Atta and his brothers and cousins have been petitioning the State of Israel to recognize their deeds to the land since 1986. Instead, in 1982 Israel had already confiscated thousands of dunams to build a highway which links Jerusalem in the north to southern towns like Hebron which bring settlers in.
To date they have confiscated about 7,000 dunams and bulldozed the fruit orchards of the families. The confiscation of the land, however, was kept a secret from the Palestinians, Atta said.
“They wanted to bring strange people from different countries,” he said.
According to Atta, the Israeli judge in Beit Il himself is a settler. This struggle has cost the Palestinian families thousands of dollars in legal papers, and lawyer fees, only to give people like Atta and his brothers reprieves of three days or one month or a year, but never a clear permit to remain on their property. Sometimes the families don’t get the permits to keep their houses. When that happens, “You don’t know when they (Israeli Military) are going to come. Sometimes it is about 5 AM, and they come with many soldiers, and they tell us to get out.”
Atta’s two houses were bulldozed twice in the past 10 years.
“My family has been petitioning the Israeli government for a permit since 1983 and we have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees. They do this until you don’t have a cent left. Every time you go to the high court it costs us $1,800 dollars. When they take over our houses, they demolish them and then rebuild for settlers.”
Both Atta and Rudaina were born in 1962, but like the rest of the Palestinian farmers, their weathered faces show the hardship they have endured since the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. They were both seven years old when the Israelis first bulldozed their fathers’ homes.
Rudaina’s brothers then joined the resistance with the P.L.O. One brother spent 16 years in an Israeli prison; her other brother spent three years, and the other spent one. At one point, an uncle and his three sons spent five years in jail.
Atta laughs at the pain. This is life for the families. Their four children go to school. When they are not fighting in court to keep their property, they till the soil, separating the mineral rich dirt from the rocks. They built terrace farming where they grow abundant eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables which they sell in the marketplace. Their white grapes are abundant and their fig trees bend with fullness. Over the years the families have built an extensive irrigation network for their crops and they have a well that has also gotten them in trouble with the State. The well was also bulldozed once. Within the last 10 years, 13 cisterns of all the families have been destroyed. Atta’s irrigation system was also destroyed. But again, the family rebuilds and fixes what the settlers and the Israeli Military destroy. And now, the family must buy their drinking water from the Israeli district authority which sells them their own water.
“They try to steal our humanity,” Atta said, when asked by a visitor to explain what the Palestinians want. He waves his hands, “I’m asking the world to support us in our struggle for humanity. This is all we want. We don’t want help from the world. We have minds and muscles. We have a rich mind. We don’t want a million or a billion dollars. We are not beggars. We have been waiting for over 60 years for this. I can support myself and my family,” he looks down at his wife who is busily making stuffed grape leaves for supper, and he gazes with pride at his daughters nearby working on a computer.
When asked where he learned his English, he proudly states that he worked in an Israeli hotel for 12 years and pointed to a hotel management certificate on the wall. He added that he also speaks some Spanish and German.
Atta and Rudaina have three daughters and one son all of which go to school in Hebron. One of them comes to us with a huge sunflower and breaks it in several parts. Together we pick the seeds and crunch them in silence occasionally looking down the next hill at a gas station across the road in what was also once family land, where the settlers are amassing.
Rumor around the town all week has been that there would be trouble with the settlers. They are incensed that the United Nations this week is considering a petition by Palestinians to declare them a legitimate state. Whenever there has been trouble in any part of the Occupied or Israeli territories, the settlers from the two illegal settlements descend upon the Palestinian families. They have entered Atta’s house and set fires then afterwards prayed. “They are a very religious, you know,” Atta said as he crushes a cigarette butt in an ashtray. The irony is not lost on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) observers. In Hebron in August the Israeli military arrested 200 men when the attacks in Eilat occurred.
Today especially there is talk of problems in Hebron particularly in the old city. Everyone is on high alert. Abuses by the Israeli military happen daily especially at night and around the checkpoints. Atta looks out in the distance and sees a white car approaching.
It is Rabbis for Human Rights activist, Rabbi Arik Acherman. The family is elated. Rudaina and her daughters serve dinner. Both the Rabbi and Atta are on the phone connecting with other Palestinian leaders as they eat. By now about 50 people have amassed at the gas station. In the distance we can see several armored cars and dark figures that turn out to be soldiers. Some people carrying Israeli flags begin walking toward the lands of Atta an his brothers. A regiment of about six soldiers begin to ascend up the road, but stop at a large boulder below the house.
Lara, Atta’s youngest, clutches her father waist. He strokes her head tenderly, looks over and says she is afraid. Meanwhile, Rudaina retreats to a corner of the terrace and begins to pray. Rabbi Acherman sooths the family and observers by explaining that he has spoken to the Israeli military, and they have told him that the settlers would be allowed to go onto state land but not unto private property.
Evening has descended upon this human drama. Rudaina comes out of the house, nervously looking towards the valley. She takes out an automizer inhaler and breaths in. After about two hours, the settlers begin to disperse. Only an SUV with a very,very loud speaker and a glowing menorah defiantly blasts music to the wind. The observers wondered if the driver’s hearing will be permanently damaged by the blasts. Only the soldiers behind the boulders can be seen. Eventually, even they disappear down the road and into the night. Rabbi Acherman takes his leave saying he has to get back to his family in Jerusalem. The children gleefully guide the ISM observers down the hills around to a waiting taxi. They kiss and bid the ISM observers goodby. The last words they hear are al hamdulilah, Praise be to God, and ma’ al salama,[go] with Peace.
A merchant selling fruit juice noisily liquefies carrot juice five meters from where the supposed Settler Hebron Tour passes. According to the sanctimonious settler, something happened to someone who lived or died some 100 or 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. The merchant grinds on.