Southern Hebron Hills, Heron, Sansana (Meiter crossing)
.Translator: Charles K
Meitar crossing
The crossing is crowded with trucks. The laborers have already crossed. Relatives of prisoners who arrived in two buses wait their turn.
Route 60
The road to Hebron looks like it usually does up until the turn to Samu’a. Once again, a flying checkpoint is causing a delay. Soldiers inspect the cars and taxis going in.
At the Dura Elfawwar junction, at the entrance to Dura, soldiers inspect the vehicles going in.
Below Beit Haggai, next to the locked gate to the southern entrance to Hebron, they’ve added a razor-wire fence and a patrol of soldiers.
At the Kvasim junction soldiers are again in the area of the quarries in the industrial zone at the outskirts of Hebron.
Hebron
A post manned by a soldier has been placed at the entrance to Kiryat Arba. Nor is this unimagineable. The civilian guard looks like a settler. A sour expression on his face, he investigates and interrogates us, and our reason for coming. It seems he’d be happier if he could keep us out. The roadworks on the grandiose entry road to Kiryat Arab are nearing completion, as is the construction of the Nofei Mamreh neighborhood rising above us.
It looks like the settlement of “Mizpeh Avichai” has been rejuvenated.
In town, the usual Occupation routine, though we saw no detainees
at any of the checkpoints. CPT members tell us they, and the residents, are under less pressure than last week.
On the way back we saw a group of Kiryat Arba security guards and local residents, right outside the Palestinian houses opposite the army base at the entrance to the city.
We stopped to find out what was happening. The guard said rocks had been thrown at a passing vehicle, breaking its windows. The residents are very upset, claiming that no such thing happened. In answer to my question, the security guard says that it doesn’t make sense to him, since the neighborhood is normally quiet, but he has to check it out. The residents are yelling, saying their child was only sweeping, and threw no stones. The army arrives, the police arrive, and it looks to us that they’re starting to “cook up” a provocation in order to have a reason to remove them. Urban development is more important that human rights in “Abraham’s city.” We’ll follow up. It’s important to know what will happen to the families – hopefully it won’t develop into another conflict.
On our way back, the soldiers had disappeared from all the locations where we’d seen them in the morning.