Hebron/Tel Rumeida and Balata Refugee Camp

May 16, 2010

Hebron/Tel Rumeida and Balata Refugee Camp

It has taken me far too long to report on my two days in Hebron and the visiting of prisoner families in Balata Refugee Camp. However, going back to work the day after I returned, dealing with jet lag (the first time in my life that I’ve experienced it) and dealing with my knee problems (had surgery on Friday) I’ve just not had the time I needed to get this report out.  Today, I rectify that. 

On Wednesday, April 28, Rocky and I went to Hebron to visit the ISMers there and see what they had been working on. Hebron (al Khalil in Arabic) is the largest city in the West Bank, the population including 163,000 Palestinians and approximately 500 illegal Israeli settlers who have settled in the Old Quarter of the city – Tel Rumeida. Their presence and their aggression (throwing feces and garbage down on their Palestinian neighbors), has forced many of the shops in the Old City to close. What was once a thriving souk (marketplace) looks like a ghost town. 

Closed shops

There are 2,000 soldiers stationed in the Old Quarter, H2 – under total Israeli control, to “protect” these illegal settlers. These illegals are free to do whatever they please, including walking around with machine guns and tearing down the steep hills at high speeds while Palestinian children are going to school, while their Palestinian neighbors (30,000 of them) are not permitted to drive at all – imagine Arlington, VA setting up illegal settlements in Washington DC and not permitting the residents of WDC to use the streets – they would be solely for the use of  the Arlington crowd. 

A large part of this area also has cement blocks in the roadway as another ugly reminder that Palestinians are not allowed to drive. 

 

Another cement roadblock

Because of the attacks on Palestinian homes, the Palestinian homes in this area have bars across the windows.  

Palestinian homes with bars on the windows

Fearing for their lives, Palestinian children in Tel Rumeida remain indoors and do not play in the streets like normal children. Due to the presence of the illegal settlers and the soldiers, Palestinian children are accompanied by ISMers and CPTers (Christian Peacemaker Team) past the checkpoints (16 of them in this small area of H2) on their way to school. 

 

On Thursday morning, Rocky and I stood near one of the checkpoints and monitored in order that the children could get through safely and on their way to school. Though only a few school bags were searched that morning, it is a regular occurence for young children to have their bags searched at the point of a gun. While Rocky and I stood guard, one of the two soliders had his gun pointed at the children with his finger always near the trigger – to see the little kids with fear on their faces scuttling past these soliders as fast as they could was heartbreaking. Imagine your child going off to school and having to pass soliders, cocky trigger-happy soldiers, who point their guns in the face of your child.  

Hebron checkpoint

Hebron Soliders

In addition to school monitoring and accompaniment, ISMers in Hebron also give English lessons to the children and young adults. Rocky and I visited the one of the classes taught by ISMers Bea and Philip.  Boys and girls are taught separately and both look forward to their classes with excitement and and anticipation. 

   

Waiting for English lessons to start

Waiting for the girls' class to be over and theirs to begin

While we monitored the soldiers as the children went to school, one of the soldiers approached Rocky and asked him why he was there and what group he represented. Not wanting to say that he worked with ISM (ISM is hated by the Israeli Army), he replied that he was with Australian Human Rights. When the soldier asked for his documents to prove that, Rocky responded that there were no documents because he was not with a governemental group or a member of the police, he was there to protect human rights. As the soldier walked away, he told Rocky that he too was there to protect human rights. Rocky and I had a good laugh over that one. It reminded me of the soldier in 2007 who was occupying a Palestinian house, essentially holding the family (which included two young girls) captive, and who told me and the other ISMers that were trying to get the family released, that we had nothing to worry about since they were “the most moral army in the world.” Its scary when people actually believe their own lies.

 

Later in the day, we were back in Nablus and headed for Balata Refugee Camp  to visit some of the famililes who had sons in prisons. Almost 50% of all Palestinian families have had a family member in an Israeli jail – it becomes almost a rite of passage, an Orwellian rite of passage. Arrests can be made for any kind of resistance, armed or non-violent, for suspicion of such activity, or just because the soldiers have the power to do so. Once arrested a Palestinian can be held in Administrative Detention for six months without any charges brought. After the six months, another six can be added, and at the end of that period, another six, ad infinitum. Some Palestinians have spent years in Israeli prisons without ever having had charges brought against them.

The first family we visited had three sons in prison.

Collage of the family's imprisoned sons

One of the nephews of the family had just been recently released from several years in prison. Another family’s oldest son had been murdered by Israeli soliders and the mother proudly showed us a picture of her and her son while he was still alive.

Marwan - recently released from prison

Mother with son before he was murdered

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