Today two guests accompanied me, Sue and Polly, lecturers from York University in Britain.

It was important to me that they meet people who’ll tell them about the occupation, and not only that they see it.

We began at the Meitar checkpoint – it’s hard to view the architecture of evil.

It neither looks like nor recalls any other border crossing in the world between two countries.  It reminded Polly of a cage for animals.  We met the prisoners’ relatives before they left to visit prisons in Israel.  Four buses left today.  Small children and mothers.

We drove to the outskirts of Dahariyya to visit the family the walls of whose home in Dahariyya had been vandalized by “Price Tag” – the Jewish terror organization that sets cars on fire and sprays graffiti on walls.  We spoke with family members who wanted to learn the results of the trial of those who burned the cars.  One of them felt wonderful about his court testimony in Beersheba – a taste of freedom (we drove him there to testify).  I didn’t know what to tell him.  While we talked, Khalil Namora arrived who told us that the day before yesterday, at three in the morning, the army entered his home and upended it (the family had already cleaned some of it up):

They were looking for the 48-year-old father, claiming he’d thrown rocks.  They caught him; he’s now jailed at the Ofer base without trial.  The trial that had been scheduled for Thursday was postponed.  The entire family surrounded us.  The young children didn’t believe Jewish women would arrive unarmed – some were actually afraid of us.  The army simply doesn’t understand what happens to people as a result of these night raids, and how much irreversible damage they cause.

We asked Khalil whether his father is a member of Hamas…no, of course not.  And I don’t understand why they jail a 48 year old man without a trial?  Polly and Sue didn’t understand either.

We went to the grocery in Dura al-Fawwar and spoke to the people who were there.  They also told about raids of homes at all hours of the night and arrests of 11 and 12 year old children.  How much more can you pressure us..you’re sentencing yourselves to death.  Your soldiers must kill ten year olds.  The despair and anger are obvious everywhere.

Someone goes to Hebron on errands and finds himself waiting at least three hours or more each day at a checkpoint?  Don’t you think we’re human beings?

I’m already accustomed to these stories.  But to hear them with new people is jolting.

The gate at Kvasim junction is closed and traffic from Yatta to Hebron must find alternate routes.  A journey that usually takes ten minutes will now take two hours.

We entered Hebron via Giv’at Gal to visit the Tamimi family.  We discovered that yesterday the IDF closed the usuall route from this neighborhood to the rest of Hebron.  I asked Tamimi how they get to Hebron.  Via Kvasim junction.  He doesn’t yet know it’s closed.

That’s how you maintain control – by hiding information and arbitrary closures from one day to the next.

Polly and Sue talking with Tamimi:

The new closure:

We concluded the tour with the Tamimis because Polly didn’t feel well; we returned to Beersheba.