At the Meitar checkpoint  and on road 60 all is routine. Except for the entrance to Deir Razak and Abda all is open. We dedicated this shift mainly to the kindergarten of Shuhada which stands near the Cordoba school. This is because before a day before our members visited there, and Um Yazen, the kindergarten teacher, told Rachel Afek that the women would like to learn Hebrew and English in the afternoons when the kindergarten is empty. We met the neighborhood activists who run the kindergarten and struggle daily against the harassment of the settlers. They also gave us videos which show the rampage of Anat Cohen and the children of the settlers who, under the protection of the soldiers, attack Palestinians and the soldiers do not interfere.

We spoke also to people who live near the settlers and  who told us hair raising stories about their experiences.  Two of them have become invalids because of the violence of the settlers (we reported this some time ago).  Zeidan lost and eye and Mofid has had platinum put in his back and is severely handicapped. Of course the authoritiet do not recognize their responsibility and do not recognize their responsibility of treatment and of compensation for them. Mofid told us that two days previously Anat Cohen arrived and photographed them while being protected by a soldier. She also measured the area which had once been a garden and has been set on fire by the settlers who are making every effort to take control of the area. This has been going from the beginning of the existence of the garden.

Col. Avi Balut himself , the former Division Commander arrived in his full glory to inform them that it was forbidden to hold a kindergarten there just as they are forbidden to build or renovate anything else in the area which is near Beit Hadassah. Children of 4-5 are also a threat to the security of the state. Mofid showed us his house which is near there and some years before he had asked to add two rooms and this was refused. He was ordered to come to the nearby base where he was beaten cruelly by the soldiers who claimed that he had attacked one of them. After he lost consciousness and was badly hurt they refused to take him to a hospital in Jerusalem and  he was sent to Jordan and after that underwent a series of operations and then lay for 6 months at home. He cannot and is  also not allowed to lift anything. In addition he told of what had happened that morning when his 11 year old son had been beaten by settlers on his way to school  and although there are soldiers there who must have seen what was happening they claimed claimed that they had seen nothing. This is a place which is full of cameras which see everything 24/7 and if anything happens to a Jew the area is within a moment filled with security forces. 

We spoke with the teachers of the kindergarten but on the advice of Zeidan and Mofid will wait to do anything further about the lessons because there are different steps being planned and expected from the army.

They will be glad to receive computers or i-pads for the children’s games.

In a sidestreet which leads to routes which have been marked by the nature society this is what they wrote

After that  at the request of Ronit, we met with people who gave us documents so as to remove their prevented status (not allowed to enter Israel)
 

This is the way we met and did what was required. They are  not allowed to get to the road which is next to the base at the entrance to Kiryat Arba
 

To see the face of Ariela Slonim as the day went on is to understand what we ourselves no longer pay enough attention to (which is maybe better for us) and which we call the routine of the occupation.