A Delightful Encounter

At about 7:00 p.m. Doris and I took a walk through the dark, wet streets of the Old City, not feeling hungry enough to look for a restaurant, but needing to stretch our legs.  I expected it to be deserted with all the shops closed, but was pleased to see some stores still open that serve the local residents instead of the tourists.  

When we got to where the street we were on would have taken us into the Jewish Quarter, we took a turn  to see if we could make a loop and return through the Muslim Quarter by another route. I halfway knew where I was going, but soon it looked like we were at a dead end.  A clump of boys were playing there and paid us no mind.  Approaching them, I could see that there was an opening to our right leading to another street. “Street” may give you the wrong impression. These are more like alleys, just wide enough for a car to get through, but barely ever used by cars. On either side are doors or other alleyways or shops, and underfoot are ancient, uneven stones that serve as pavement.

So we took this opening as it headed in the right direction, Doris walking beside me so that we filled the narrow space.  I heard people coming up behind us, but Doris didn’t hear them, so I grabbed her arm to pull her aside to let them pass.  This startled her and made her jump, so one person behind us, seeing our alarm, spoke to us in English to reassure us.  It was a woman carrying a small child, and a man was with her.  She saw I was wearing the traditional Palestinian scarf called a “kafiyya” so perhaps she assumed we were friendly and asked us where we were from. In turn, she offered that she was a math teacher living in nearby Beit Hanina, but was visiting her parents’ home in the old city.

We admired her child, and after a few more pleasantries she invited us for tea to come in for tea.  Well, we knew that this was an opportunity not to be missed, and that the invitation was sincere, as Palestinians frequently offer this kind of hospitality on the spur of the moment.  But we politely said, “Really?”, before following her inside.  We climbed a couple of flights of stairs before reaching her parents’ apartment.  She shooed the kids through one door, shut another door, and quickly tidied up a small but nicely furnished sitting room.  We sat down, and she told someone to bring us tea, which soon appeared from behind a door, brought by her Ukrainian sister in law.  Every once in a while a child would appear, curious or crying, or just overflowing from the adjoining room.  It was clear that we were occupying valuable space, and our hostess explained that there were 21 children plus assorted adults in the next room!  The reason for such a crowd was that it was the eve of their day off, and most 6 of her siblings plus their children were in the family home.

As we could tell that the kids were bursting the seams of the other room, we didn’t let ourselves stay too long, but we were so grateful for this opportunity to see what the average tourist never sees, namely the gracious, overcrowded, tiny apartments of the Old City.  We finally asked our hostess’ name: Sabreen.  She is a math teacher in a public middle school. A graduate of Beirzet University, she spoke quite good English. Her major had been Mathematics with a minor in Economics, and she had a two year post graduate degree in Education. One of her brothers is a doctor and another a dentist. All are doing well, raised in this two-room apartment by loving, strict, and educated parents.  Now Sabreen sends her kids to a private school (International School in Beit Hanina) so they will learn English and have the tools needed to leave Palestine in order to have a future.

We had lots of questions. Mine were about her experience as a public school teacher, because I have heard that the public schools are not good, students there are not motivated, and the atmosphere is chaotic.  This, in spite of there being a strong emphasis on education in Palestine.  What I gleaned from her answers was that the kids are under so much stress every day from seeing soldiers, and being delayed at checkpoints, and living in crowded conditions with parents or single moms who don’t have time to give the children enough attention, that they have trouble in school.  But she gets them to listen to her by first allowing them to talk about how they are feeling. She has 25 students in each of four classes that meet four days a week.  She teaches calculus, algebra, geometry, etc..  She said she loves these kids and they love her, and I believed her because it showed in her beautiful, open face and smile. 

The kids from the other room began to appear one by one, and we knew we had to leave.  But Sabreen wanted to give us her email address, and we readily complied.  Then 4 of the kids showed us the way back to the street, waving and shouting, “goodbye!”

The Strangling of Hebron

HEBRON - NOVEMBER 1, 2015

I haven’t gone to Hebron during this trip, and a group of 6 British women “on holiday” were advised not to go Saturday because it had been declared a day of mourning, including the funeral for 5 recently killed Hebronites.  Instead, three of the women went with me to hear a talk by a human rights activist from Hebron, Ahmad Jaradat.  He concurred with the advice not to go to his city on that day.  The atmosphere would most certainly be charged with grief and anger, and bring hundreds of mourners and enraged young men to the streets.  They would be protesting the unjustified killings by the Israeli army and settlers and the fact that the bodies had been withheld for several days from their families as punishment - which is illegal under international law.  The funeral march to the cemetery would be followed by the inevitable strone- throwing by some of the young men, and the Israeli army would respond with live fire and tear gas. 

During October the repessive measures taken by the Israeli army against young protesters have increased in intensity and lethality: 70 Palestinians were killed, many of them without provocation. New weaponry is being tested: rapid firing tear gas guns so that no one can escape the barrage of gas, and protesters are unable to grab the canisters and throw them back at the soldiers; and new chemicals are in the gas, akin to pepper spray.

Captured on video are close-range shootings of non-threatening people, a jeep running over a protester who is then beaten and forbidden medical attention, threats to tear gas an entire refugee camp until all its residents die, etc.  All of these things have happened in the past, but now it is every day, and thanks to video cameras is being documented for all the world to see and for Israel to have to justify.

The talk by Ahmad Jaradat included a lot of the basics I already knew but are worth hearing again, along with some statistics and updates. However, he started by expressing a widely held Palestinian demand:  it doesn’t matter if you have one state or two states  - and everyone knows too states are no longer possible - as long as you recognize the Right of Return. (No politicians can negotiate away the fundamental right of refugees to return to their homeland. For those who say this is a non-starter because Israel won’t allow it, they should be aware that it is the start for any lasting peace in the region.) Ahmad added to this preface the observation that the Jewish Israeli settlements were conceived from their inception in 1967 as the means to take land away from Palestine until there would be no more Palestine.

Hebron is a district that covers 21% of the West Bank and has a population of one million, while the city itself has 170,000. Historically, it is the industrial center of Palestine, with stone being a major resource. However, this potential prosperity has been decimated by Israel dividing the city into two distinct areas, H-1 and H-2. in order to allow settlers to live in the center of the city. 

While the whole city should be in Area A - under complete Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords, H-2 was re-zoned to be Area C where Israel is in complete control.  It includes the Old City and hundreds of small shops.  Although the shops have long been shuttered by order of Israel, 50,000 Palestinians still live there.

Why have the shops been shuttered?  Because a group of radical settlers,  inserted itself into the center of the city, taking over apartments they claimed were long ago inhabited by Jews.  This nucleus has grown to 600, and is protected by an army force of 2,000 soldiers.  They are aggressive, full of venom towards Palestinians, and violent. Interestingly, these Jews are mainly from the United States.  Their presence has resulted in the placement of 33 “security” checkpoints within the city, some are manned by soldiers, others are fences and cement blocks that close off streets.  As you can imagine, such an infrastructure is not conducive to commerce,  to the psychological well-being of the native residents, nor to getting to school, work, medical appointments, meetings, celebrations or funerals.

Which brings us to the present eruption of violence and funerals and more violence. Until a few days ago (October  21)  a few families refused to move out of the two neighborhoods most coveted by the settlers.  They stood their ground against daily attacks on their persons and houses, refusing to give in to fear, refusing to leave their homes.  But one the leaders determined to stay,  Hassem al-Azzeh, a 54 year old physician, died of tear gas inhalation trying to cross a check point to reach a doctor for his chest pains. Now the future of his neighborhood is in doubt.  Already the Israeli army has gone door to door to tell each household they are not allowed to have any visitors that are not family.  Everyone must register with the army and prove they live in the neighborhood.This will exclude international supporters who regularly visit these families. And the army has closed all but one entrance to each neighborhood where they stand guard and check each person’s identity card. One resident told an international activist, “For the people living in the area, it will become like a prison. For people living in Hebron, the closure of Tel Rumeida will mean that the city will be split in two.”

About 5 years ago I was in the home of Hassem upon the occasion of his daughter’s 15th birthday.  I remember having to climb over several obstacles thrown by settlers onto the walkway leading to the house.  In spite of this threatening behavior, Hassem and his wife insisted on having a birthday party and inviting guests.  Now he is dead. Dead because an ambulance could not get close to his house due to similar barriers erected in the roads by settlers, necessitating that he try to walk to where one might be able to pick him up.  Dead because the route to help was full of tear gas.

Being designated Area C, schools in H-2 cannot add classrooms to their schools, and families cannot add rooms to accommodate new members.  Nor can they repair old homes.  Permits are required for all construction, but Israel does not issue permits to Palestinians.  Such are the  fruits of the Oslo Accords, basically a death sentence for Palestine.  Area C comprises 60% of the West Bank, mostly agricultural land and small villages, but also central Hebron -  because there are settlers there.  And to protect the settlers, 22 military posts have been placed atop Palestinian homes in this area.  This is the matrix of control, where almost every move one makes is governed by a law meant to restrict, forbid and disrupt. 

This is the immediate context for the violence, the fear and the anger erupting in Hebron these days.  Twenty from Hebron are among the 70 killed since the start of the repression and resistance on October 3rd. But the larger context which is fueling the youth who throw stones is the Isaeli military occupation, now in its 48th year, which has robbed them of hope for a better future.