Hebron Early Jan 2005

Monday 03/01/2005

Myself and three other internationals arrive in Hebron to liaise with local land action groups to fight the land seizures as more illegal settlements are built and the plans for the apartheid wall continue.

Hebron has been a divided city since the implementation of the Hebron accords which sliced it into areas H1 and H2, the population of over 120,000 people is all Palestinian Muslim apart from 500 or so Israeli settlers who are protected around the clock by 1200 Israeli soldiers.

We step from our taxi and walk down hill through a busy market to the old city where we will be based. We reach what appears to be a pedestrianised area but is in fact a ghost town in recession.
This part of the old city has been closed to Palestinian traffic since 1994, when settler Baruch Goldstein, acting on a message from God, fired a machine gun into a congregation of men and boys praying at Ibrihimi mosque, killing 29.
Jewish settlement Tel Rumeida towers squeaky clean above the deserted central street, which lies shrouded beneath an iron grid erected to prevent injury from the heavy objects and refuse dropped from the settlement.
As we pass under the mesh I notice it is dented from the impact of great lumps of concrete thrown down, along with fibre glass roof insulation, bricks and plastic bottles. The new ISM apartment sits one street up from this demonstration of brotherly love.
As we near the apartment a contingent of Israeli soldiers on maneuver training with their guns pointing in front of them cris-cross the street ducking in and out of doorways. They point their guns straight into the faces of people on the street. They also push their guns into my face and those of the other internationals, then into the faces of four small boys playing outside the bakery.
Later on we go out for groceries, cutting through ancient twisting passageways to avoid the main army check point guarding the central settlement of the old city.
As we trek up hill towards the market we hear concerned shouts, a woman runs towards us in much distress indicating that we go with her to the check point.
Four boys aged between 12 and 14 years old are lined up in front of a border police jeep about to be arrested. There are also four younger boys aged between 6- 8 years kept squatting on the ground under the guard of another soldier.
TIPH - Temporary International Presence in Hebron are present. I ask one of them what is going on as he starts to explain the other TIPH person rudely states that “TIPH cannot speak to tourists”
We then try to speak with the soldiers who respond by throwing the older boys into the back of the jeep and driving around in circles. A crowd of older men and women have gathered, we all try to prevent the jeeps exit. I ask the driver if I can travel with the boys to wherever they will be taken but the jeep skids away leaving the four younger boys alone with the soldier.
They had all been playing football in the street; one of the older boys threw a stone at another boy nowhere near the soldiers but this was enough for them all to be placed under arrest. Their distressed relatives took us to their nearby home, to discuss what to do out of ear shot of the soldiers. While we were away the detained younger boys were also taken.
It is common for children under the age of 14 are often arrested in Hebron and held over night without their parents or guardians being notified. I cannot imagine the outcry if Palestinian police arrested settler children for the serious offence of playing out in the street, held them over night without informing their parents.
Article 31 of the convention of the rights of the child states:
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.
Occupation is not just the violent deaths and bloody incursions into the west bank that often fill our news but is also about the routine humiliations and psychological tortures that occur. When children go missing it is traumatic for any parent but considering the amount of Palestinian children killed in this Intafada, to take young people away without informing their loved ones is utter cruelty. Things that are taken for granted in western civil society simply do not exist for Palestinians.
On the Shabbat the (Jewish Sabbath), it is usual for settlers to parade the old city taunting the Palestinian community and vandalizing homes. On this Saturday the internationals witnessed soldiers running into houses, and standing guard on roofs as a pro Zionist settler tour processed through the old city. They stopped outside our apartment, one activist, heard the tour guide say “This is the home of a European group that supports Arab terrorists!