Day 5—October 17

Hebron

Before departing for our scheduled visit to Hebron, we were told that another part of Bethlehem was annexed by Israel to Jerusalem today.   Many Palestinians live in the annexed area, and may technically be allowed to stay in their homes, but since they would not receive Israeli citizenship or have freedom of movement, they will, in reality, likely be forced to leave.

On our way out of Bethlehem we drove past Bethlehem University, which the Israelis had shelled many times.  We saw several damaged buildings, including the library, which had a large missile hole in one of its walls.

We would have to pass through a checkpoint in order to leave Bethlehem, and when we reached it, we found out that the Israelis had decided to close all the roads in and out of Bethlehem today on account of the Jewish commemoration at Rachel’s Tomb.   They were even refusing passage to pedestrians.  George commented that it looked like our day might be ruined.  A convoy of Red Cross vehicles trying to enter the town was stopped for at least half an hour while a Red Cross official argued animatedly with the soldiers guarding the checkpoint.  At one point the IDF was going to allow one of the vehicles in, but not the others for some reason, making the Red Cross official furious.  Finally, all the Red Cross vehicles were allowed entry.  

Issa took our passports and went out to talk to the soldiers.  After waiting several minutes to get their attention in all the commotion, he told them we were headed for Jerusalem (he didn't dare mention that our real destination was Hebron).  They told him several times that we would have to go back—that we could try again tomorrow.  He finally convinced them to let us leave by insisting that we would otherwise miss a scheduled flight from Ben-Gurion Airport.  They allowed us to leave after carefully matching all of our faces to our passports.  We were very thankful to have such an experienced and resourceful driver!  George and Ramzi again had to find a way to walk around the checkpoint so they could join us on the trip to Hebron.  We weren’t sure how they got through—they apparently knew a route where the IDF wouldn't see them.  We picked them up a ways down the road past the checkpoint.  Related photos

The main road into Hebron was blocked with piles of dirt and boulders in order to keep the Palestinians off a nearby bypass road to the Kiryat Arba settlement.  Over time, other vehicles had managed to pack down a narrow path over the top of the roadblock, and Issa managed to drive the van over.  At another roadblock a little further down, we had to get out and walk so that the van would have enough clearance to get over.  Many other people—everyone from young men to elderly women—were slowly picking their way over the roadblocks on foot to get to jobs or just to go about their daily lives.  

Under Oslo and prior to the reoccupation, part of Hebron (the H1 region) had been designated “Area A”, meaning Palestinian control of civilian and security matters.  As we entered Hebron, Issa pointed out a sign in Hebrew, posted by the Israeli authorities, warning other Israelis that the area they were about to enter was under Palestinian control, and recommending they not proceed.  The sign also stated that, regardless of the area's designation, Palestinian police were not allowed to arrest Israelis.   Related photos

Christian Peacemaker Team

Even though Hebron, along with other major Palestinian population centers, was originally slated through the Oslo agreements to come under Palestinian control, the Israelis insisted on retaining control of 20% of the city.  This area, designed "H2", is home to a few hundred settlers and 30,000 Palestinians.  The settlers are some of the most militant in the West Bank, and there are frequent clashes between them and the local townspeople. Before reaching the H2 district, we encountered yet another roadblock, which Issa said did not exist the last time he was in Hebron..  As this one was not passable, we left the van and hired taxis on the other side to take us to our scheduled meeting with the Christian Peacemaker Team, an ecumenical organization whose members live in Hebron and attempt to shield local Palestinians from settler and IDF violence and other harrassment.

After the taxi ride, we walked a short distance through the souq (Arab market) and met up with two CPT members wearing their trademark red baseball caps.  One was Bourke Kennedy, a UU from Syracuse, NY, and the other was Donna, an Episcopalian from Durham, NC.  Bourke said she was very happy to see some U.U.s finally getting involved in the Palestinian struggle.  They walked us to their apartment in the H2 district, which was next to a rooftop IDF post.  The IDF just takes over whichever Palestinian houses or roofs they wish to use as security posts, and the residents are forced to accommodate them.  The posts are easily recognizable by the military netting draped around windows and rooftops,  in an apparent attempt to prevent the activities and movements of the soldiers from being seen.

There were several CPT volunteers living in the apartment we visited.  CPT members go out into the community when there is trouble and  try to defuse the situation—sometimes with words and sometimes by physically placing themselves between the Palestinians and the soldiers or settlers in order to shield the Palestinians from beatings and harassment.  They do not attempt to fight with or restrain anyone, or to resist arrest, but instead seek to reduce the level of violence with their presence. Sometimes they stay with families who are fearful of IDF or settler attacks, or to deter home demolitions.    They also document the various abuses they witness, such as the forced closings of Palestinian shops, as a way to inform the outside world about what's happening in Hebron, and as another form of deterrence.  CPT members are often arrested, usually for “interfering with law enforcement” or similar such charges, but Bourke says the Israelis must release them within three hours unless they are formally charged.   The Israelis fear the embarrassment from the publicity that would result from formal legal action against the CPT, so they usually just release them after a few hours.  Unfortunately, they feel no such deterrence where Palestinian detainees are concerned.

We could see the settler enclaves from the roof of the CPT apartment building.  Unlike other settlements in the West Bank, which are build outside of Palestinian towns, the Hebron settlements consist of heavily fortified compounds in the center of the city, and even share walls with adjoining Palestinian homes or businesses.  The settlers are heavily armed, and often harass or attack their Palestinian neighbors.  One shopkeeper said that the settlers throw “dirty water” out of their windows onto people in the streets below.  We noticed netting that was stretched over the market area to catch debris thrown down from the settlements.  The IDF will even order curfews to force Palestinian residents to remain inside their homes whenever Jewish settlers wish to go for a stroll.

The CPT volunteers showed us the area where many Palestinian shops had been permanently closed by the IDF because they were too close to the settlements—in fact the entire souq had to move further up the street because of this.  We were told that the settlements are constantly encroaching on nearby Palestinian buildings, sometimes knocking down adjoining walls and forcing out the occupants in order to expand further.

Needless to say, many settlers despise the CPT volunteers, and Bourke says many times she's been called a “Nazi whore”.  Many of the IDF soldiers also dislike them, referring to them as “red chickens” because of their distinctive red caps.   

We walked with the CPT members to a nearby Israeli settlement a little ways behind their apartment building.  The soldiers guarding it were reluctant to let us in and were rather unfriendly, but eventually allowed us through.  Bourke said the soldiers knew who she was and that we were on a tour, but were just trying to harass us.  We walked only a short way into the settlement, as Bourke says the settlers get “nervous” if outsiders get too close. 

On the way back to our van, Bourke was told by some shopkeepers that the IDF had forced them to shut down their shops just minutes earlier.  We walked on a little way and saw some of the soldiers standing against a wall, machine guns at the usual downward angle.  We notice one had a video camera on his shoulder, and we stopped to chat.  It turned out the cameraman and another soldier, a shy, baby-faced 21-year-old, were both Americans from Miami.  The cameraman, who said he was documenting the IDF experience in Hebron, asked us what our impressions were, and we ended up in a somewhat heated political discussion.  We told him that we were against the occupation and US government support for it.  He countered that the situation was "complicated” (a rather common response by Israel’s supporters), that we were naive, and that we didn’t understand the history of the region.  When asked, however, he refused to say what relevant pieces of history we might be missing.  At one point, he said that although he thought the occupation was justified because Israel was "attacked" in 1967 (which we pointed out was not the case), he did consider the settlements to be a bad idea.  Both the cameraman and the young soldier defended the IDF presence in Hebron, claiming they were merely “keeping the peace”, and comparing themselves to policemen in New York City.  What, after all, did we think New York would be like without law enforcement?   They even went so far as to claim that the Palestinians in Hebron welcomed their presence.   

Since we were already late for another meeting back in Jerusalem, we had to tear ourselves away from our little chat with the soldiers.  As we were leaving, I noticed some curious Palestinians had stopped to watch the argument.

George said later that although the CPT has no real legal clout and little success preventing home demolitions, the Palestinians in Hebron are grateful for their efforts and feel safer because of their presence.   Related photos

We walked back through the market to meet up with our van for the drive to Jerusalem.  Hebron is famous for its intricately painted pottery, so on the way out we stopped at a pottery shop to pick up some souvenirs.   The stacks of plates, bowls, and cups were covered with dust, as they had clearly been sitting on the shelves for some time.  Few tourists pass through the area these days.  We were able to see glassblowers and pottery painters at work in a warehouse next to the shop.  Related photos

Sabeel

We arrived at the Jerusalem headquarters of Sabeel, an ecumenical Palestinian Christian liberation theology movement.  We were too late for the service we were scheduled to attend there, but had lunch with Sabeel members, and afterwards met with some of the staff. Sabeel was organized to provide a theological voice and foundation for the experiences and suffering of Christian Palestinian under the occupation.  The purpose is to deepen the faith of Palestinian Christians, unify them, and encourage them to remain in the Holy Land (many Palestinian Christians have emigrated since 1948, at a much higher rate than their Muslims compatriots).  Another goal is to remind the world that Christians as well as Muslims are suffering from the occupation.  Sabeel stresses peace, justice, nonviolence, liberation, and reconciliation for all faith communities.  They've recently started a children’s program to provide leadership training and help strengthen the Christian community in Palestine.

We were informed that 90,000 Palestinians have recently been displaced by the “separation wall” that’s being constructed, and that Nablus in the north has been under curfew for 120 consecutive days.  We were also told about the “Christian Zionists”—evangelical Christians who zealously back Israel out of a belief, stemming from one interpretation of Christian prophecy, that the Jewish state will play an important role in the return of the Messiah.  Sabeel says the Christian Zionists have now become an important source of financial, as well as political, support for the state of Israel.  At least one Israeli rabbi who fundraises in the US apparently no longer bothers to visit American synagogues, since he can raise far more money in fundamentalist Christian “super churches”.  He claims he can raise millions of dollars in these churches, compared to mere thousands from synagogues.  

Sabeel says that Palestinian Christians are devastated by this Christian show of support for Israel, with their religious faith severely shaken as their suffering is dismissed and ignored by fellow Christians.   Sabeel estimates there are between 50 and 100 million Christian Zionists worldwide, most in the US.  There are apparently a few evangelical Christian groups who do sympathize with the Palestinians and do not support the occupation, and Sabeel believes it is very important to reach out to them.   While the Christian Zionists in general have been very resistant to any direct dialogue with Palestinian Christian groups, Sabeel feels the non-Zionist evangelicals have a better opportunity to influence the Zionists in their ranks.

On the way to our next meeting, this one with LAW, a new checkpoint has suddenly appeared.   This unpredictability is one of the most distressing and disruptive aspects of the occupation for the Palestinians.  We later passed by another checkpoint that Issa said had been set up by settlers.   The armed and uniformed men there were clearly much older than the usual teenaged IDF soldiers.   Related photos

LAW—Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment

Arriving at LAW, we met with the executive director, Shawqi Issa, and two other staff members.  LAW was created in 1990 to help Palestinian victims of Israeli land confiscation.  Private lawyers had not been defending the victims of the confiscations, so LAW began to offer their services pro bono.  They later began working on behalf of the victims of Palestinian Authority human rights violations as well. With the current Israeli closures and travel restrictions, LAW has found it very difficult to carry out their objectives and function effectively. 

We heard how Palestinians in the occupied West Bank live under Israeli military law, and while Palestinian lawyers are allowed to represent them before the Military Objection Committee, if the cases are referred to the Israeli Supreme Court, only Israeli lawyers can argue the cases.

LAW says that the military courts almost always find a military statute to back their actions, and if they can’t find one, they will issue a new one (a large number have been issued over the years).  Until 1986, Palestinians had never won a case in Israeli military court, and the Israelis realized how farcical this appeared to the international community, so they   implemented some cosmetic changes to make it appear that they are evenhanded.  For example, if the Israelis want to confiscate 1000 acres of Palestinian land, they will order 1200 acres confiscated instead.  When the Palestinians appeal the order, the government will “compromise” and return 200 acres.

We also learned that, even within Israel proper, Arabs are just as vulnerable to home demolitions and land confiscations as they are in the occupied territories.  With no written constitution to protect the rights of the minority, any law passed by the Israeli Knesset takes precedence over previous laws.  Thus, civilian law affords Arabs little or no protection from the tyranny of the majority.

In the West Bank, Palestinians are required to obtain permits in order to build on their own land, but since the Israelis rarely grant such permits, thousands are forced to build without them.  The IDF will then often demolish the homes, but are more likely to do so if they were built near Jewish settlements, usually ignoring those built in the center of Palestinian towns.

LAW reiterated what we had already been told—that Palestinians were faced with more restrictions after Oslo than before.  Under Oslo, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C, and Palestinians were prevented from moving between the areas, causing great disruptions in their lives.  In fact, Palestinians found they could do little without an Israeli permit, whether traveling, working, or building homes, and this created a great deal of frustration with the progress of Oslo.  Sharon’s visit to the Haram el Sharif was simply the last straw and while it triggered the second intifada, it was not the sole cause.

In the first months of the second intifada, Palestinians were staging demonstrations and the IDF was shooting indiscriminately at the crowds, killing many juveniles.  However, rather than reporting this fact, the Israeli and American media wrote that “Palestinians were intentionally sending their children to be killed”.  It was only after this situation had gone on for quite awhile that the suicide bombings began.

From 1967 to 1993, Palestinians living in the West Bank under Israeli occupation used many nonviolent methods to try to counter the occupation and effect change, such as strikes, elections, and demonstrations, but the Israelis thwarted them with arrests and deportations.  The international community provided little or no help during this time, but now strongly criticizes Palestinian violence, claiming there are better alternatives.

We were told that in the name of security, both Israel and the US encouraged the human rights violations of the PA under the Oslo accords.  Now that demands are being made on the PA to reform, any real progress on reform is simply out of the question because of the impossible conditions caused by reoccupations, closures, and draconian travel restrictions.  If officials of the PA aren't even able to meet with each other, how are they to go about achieving this momentous transformation?

Additional information we learned included:

• Israel claims that the Fourth Geneva Convention protecting the rights of people under military occupation, as well as other human rights laws do not apply to them, because they have turned over control in "A Areas" to the Palestinians.  John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, wrote a report rejecting this argument and detailing Israeli military actions that constitute a de facto occupation in areas purportedly under Palestinian control, including tank invasions, shelling, missile attacks, roadblocks, closures, and curfews.

• A California lawyer recently wrote an article describing Israel as the worst violator of all countries of UN Security Council resolutions.

• Recent polls reveal that 63% of Israelis now approve of forcible mass transfer of Arabs, and a bill before the Knesset would provide subsidies for the emigration of people who “don’t conform to the Jewish character”.

• There is much documentation of Israeli war crimes in the recent incursions into and reoccupation of Palestinian territory, including:

  • Willful killings of civilians

  • Point blank executions

  • Denial of medical care

  • Use of human shields

  • Wanton destruction of property

  • Looting from homes

  • Torture

• Other documented violations reveal that people were rounded up and forced to strip and stay outside for days without water, blankets, or other supplies.  

• There is prima facie evidence of apartheid.

• Israeli TV once broadcast pictures of the IDF rounding up and torturing people, so now Israelis are barred from entering Gaza and Ramallah, and Sharon made himself head of the Israeli TV regulatory agency so that he could control what was reported.  However, some members of the IDF later contacted B’Tselem and reported that the toes of Palestinian detainees were being systematically broken, and B’Tselem publicized it and the IDF was forced to stop.

• The Israeli government initially agreed to a UN investigation into the Jenin attack, but later changed its mind when it received a report from its own military and realized the seriousness of the IDF violations.  Daniel Bethlehem, an international law expert at Cambridge University and external advisor to Israel on the UN inquiry, reported that if the allegations of the Jenin crimes were substantiated they could trigger a war crimes tribunal.  At this point the Israelis asked for a delay of the inquiry, and ultimately refused to allow it to occur at all.

• The number of dead in Jenin cannot be reliably established, in part because the IDF admitted to burying a number of bodies but has refused to say how many.

We found the staff at LAW to be extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and clearly very dedicated to their work.  They provided us many value reference points for further research.   Related photos

Jennifer Moorehead—Save the Children

Had dinner back at St. George’s with Jennifer Moorehead, an American who works for Save the Children and is married to Shawqi Issa.  She didn’t really have much interest in discussing her work at Save the Children because the conditions due to the closures and roadblocks were making it impossible to actually do the work.  She stressed that the most important thing the international community can do for the Palestinians now is to end the closures as soon as possible.  She says that she knows of families who cannot feed their children because they can’t go to work, and that the situation has become extremely dire.  She says the Kalandia checkpoint just keeps getting bigger and more restrictive every time she sees it.

Jennifer also reported a rumor that was going around that had been reported in the Russian media.   The report says the Israelis are buying thousands of desert-ready tents so that they can “transfer” the Palestinians to Jordan once war in Iraq begins.  The US is supposedly making a deal with King Abdullah of Jordan that specified that once Iraq is defeated, it will be incorporated into the Kingdom of Jordan, but only as long as Jordan accepts all the Palestinian transferees.

She also referred to the US-brokered Egyptian-Israeli peace accords as the ultimate betrayal of the Palestinians, since previously Arab states had insisted on resolving the Palestinian issue before there could be any peace agreements.  When Egypt abandoned this position and negotiated a separate peace with Israel—without tying it in any way to the Palestinian cause—the Palestinians lost their best hope for relief and their main protection against Israeli predations.

Also at St. George's this day, we met an American woman named Anne who works for an international medical organization and has spent several months in the Palestinian territories.  She told of seeing IDF soldiers taunting teenaged Palestinian boys today by taking their I.D.s and holding them out of the window of their vehicle while driving away, forcing the boys to run alongside to retrieve them.  She also described her own experiences of verbal abuse and harassment at the hands of the IDF, saying she has never been treated so poorly in any of the other countries she’s worked in.  She's had her passport thrown down on the ground while being asked, “Do you think your American passport will protect you?”  She told of a petite female African colleague who had two teargas canisters fired at her by an IDF soldier after she had passed through a checkpoint.  While her organization reported this incident to the Israeli government and the US embassy, they got no response.   Related photos