Translator:  Charles K.

09:30-12:30

Meitar crossing. 

The usual.  No prisoner visits today; the laborers have already gone to work.

Highway 60. 

Light traffic, and almost no security forces visible.

Hebron. 

The main entrance to Kiryat Arba is still closed for renovations.

We went to meet B.

who’s fighting for his right to build a second storey on his house.  We didn’t meet last week because he was at the municipality.  He shows us the plans and the approvals he received from the Hebron municipality, but now, under pressure from the army and the settlers, they forbid him to continue.

The photographs show why.  We went up to the roof to see how the work stopped in the middle of construction.  He says the concrete blocks aren’t yet held in place solidly and could fall on passersby below

.  If that happens, God forbid, he’ll be responsible, but he’s also forbidden to dismantle them.  He’s forbidden to touch them before a final decision.

That’s the fate of people living so close to places important to Judaism.  They automatically become dangerous enemies and have no right to a normal life.  Am I the only one who hears the tocsin ringing, reminding me of other times, other places?

B. is desperate, but says people fro

m Yesh Din came and they’re dealing with it.

Will justice be done?!  Meanwhile, evil and violence reign in Hebron. 

All the checkpoints in town are quiet; there are no detainees.  Although it’s 11 AM, everything’s sleepy.  The summer camps have also ended, because vacation began here at the beginning of June.

We drove to A’ta Jaber, whose home and vineyards are spread in the valley below Kiryat Arba.  Much of his land has already been expropriated; he apparently “hinders” the desire of Kiryat Arab to create a contiguous strip of territory connecting it to the “city of the patriarchs.”

But, meanwhile, he’s glad to tell us that the disagreement over water is over and the Civil Administration is now treating him properly.  New drip irrigation lines have been installed everywhere.

The fields of cucurbits and tomatoes are green again; soon he’ll also have green beans, and he’s happy.  Is there a reason for optimism?  Maybe for now.