Hebron, Sansana (Meitar Crossing), Mon 27.8.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
07:15-12:45
We began our shift early in order to reach the Meitar crossing and insure that the residents of Susya and the surrounding area, who are coming to the checkpoint on their way to a day at the beach, will go through quickly and without delays.
They arrived organized and happy thanks to our dedicated members from Tel Aviv. And in fact, all those in charge at the checkpoint saw we’d arrived, heard explanations about the few people who had problems crossing, and ultimately all were permitted through. It was obvious that it was important for the crossing staff to treat everyone seriously and appropriately. We must thank Motti, the manager of the crossing, where the atmosphere is very humane even in his absence.
The EAPPI women who accompanied the residents also noted that their experience is that the staff at the Meitar crossing always behaves appropriately, unlike staff at other checkpoints.
Since there were more people than the bus driver was allowed to transport, we had to ask those two nice women to give up their places to Tel Aviv so that there would be room for everyone. Of course they fully understood and said goodbye to their disappointed comrades. As compensation we invited them to join our shift.
Anna and Liah were happy for the invitation; they’d only heard about Machsom Watch and wanted to see how we work.
At the Dura al-Fawwar junction we met a man who asked me to help him obtain a permit to work in Israel. He’s been blacklisted for ten years. His wife is Israeli and lives with their six children in Kseifa, but he’s not allowed to enter Israel and their situation is very difficult, in every sense, including a daughter who’d had open heart surgery in the Schneider Children’s Hospital. Sylvia helped me explain what could be done. He’ll provide all the relevant documents and we hope that, despite the apprehensions about family reunifications, the decision will be made on humanitarian grounds.
Hebron
Renovations seem to be underway all over town. Abed’s shop, opposite the Cave of the Patriarchs, is also receiving an impressive facelift, with Saudi financing.
The al-Ibrahimiyya school for boys is undergoing a major renovation for the start of the school year; we don’t know who’s paying for it. Houses near the Cave of the Patriarchs are also being renovated. “But the more they were oppressed…” [Exodus 1:12] – expressions of tsumud [steadfastness].
All this in the shadow of an additional guard post and soldier stationed on the worshippers route to the Cave of the Patriarchs.
On the roof of a house overlooking the route they’re still implementing the “grass widow” procedure. There don’t seem to be any soldiers at Beit HaMachpelah, but the settler women watch it from the protest canopy they erected across the street. We hope that’s not a foretaste of another attempt to take it over.
Tarpa”t checkpoint – Turmoil. An Italian member of one of the organizations told the soldiers what he thought of the harsh sight of armed soldiers facing children. He said that the soldiers got angry, and when he wanted to cross to Area H1 they asked for his passport. When he refused they took it by force. When we arrived he’d been detained; his companion kept photographing. The soldiers summoned their commander and told him the Italian had called them by derogatory names, and behaved in a manner that compelled them to take away his passport by force.
The officer called the police to investigate the tourist’s behavior.
More and more photographers began arriving; you could feel the tension and fear in the air, upsetting everyone. We could only hope they’d behave intelligently and end the incident without a riot, arrests, etc.
Happily, that’s what happened. The police officers spoke with the Italian, asked again and again what happened, another slight delay to return the passport, and the members of the organization, which is unfamiliar to us, crossed to the Palestinian side of the city.
The officer told us that the most important thing for him is to protect his soldiers from anyone making it hard for them.
At this point we parted from our guests, who returned from Hebron to Yatta where they live.
Machsom Watch – Monday August 27th, 2012
by L Levane; pictures by A Cilliers - Ecumenical Accompaniers with EAPPI
Today Machsom Watch (MW) had arranged for 55 (56) villagers from Susiya village to have day permits and visit the sea. Hagit, Michal and Mohammed were there to help ensure that the crossing went as smoothly as possible and the good relations that MW had built upwith the Manager at Meitar CP over the years obviously helped. Crossing Meitar Checkpoint was generally trouble free, and after some discussion even the one woman who had forgotten her ID was allowed through with her permit. The permits enable them to stay in Israel until 7 p.m.
The villagers had invited us Anna Cilliers (from South Africa) and Leah Levane (from the UK) to join them. We are participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI – a programme of the World Council of Churches). We regularly monitor Meitar CP and so are probably also known by the CP staff.
However, once through Meitar Checkpoint, it was clear that there were two (three) too many people for the coach licence and so we willingly got off when told that this was necessary by Hagit. We found it most heartwarming that so many of the villagers were disappointed that we could not come with them but we firmly and swiftly resisted Abed’s offer to go back and find another way to get to Tel Aviv with them. We waved them off and gladly took up the generous offer to spend the morning with Hagit, Michal and Mohammed.
The ease with which we can get to the sea compared with Palestinians is one more stark reminder of the injustices of the Occupation. Perhaps not so serious as the poverty, army incursions, settler attacks and more, but nonethless pernicious in relegating people to second, if not third, class status and designated a permanent role as potential terrorists.
(As usual, in coming back into the West Bank, despite being in a vehicle for the first time, we were waved through without passport or baggage checks. Are there not security risks for Palestinians or for the 350,000 Israeli citizens (the Settlers) who live there?)
The morning was fascinating and we were honoured to hear Hagit and Michal’s views on the situation, saddened by their pessimism and sympathetic to their tiredness. So for us quite a contrast from the beach but very interesting and, of course, harder for us to arrange than a day at the beach! (Sadly our lack of Hebrew and extfremely limited Arabic meant we could not share Mohamed’s perspective).
We went first to Dura where Michal talked to a man who has a Bedouin Israeli wife and 6 children but cannot get permission to travel to Israel, let alone liveand work there, which is what he wants. We are not sure what they can do to help, but it is clear that they will try and we hope that he will be at least comforted by the knowledge that there are some Israelis on his side and that also he will be less likely to hate Israelis.
As we travelled, we discussed the dilemmas of participating in an organisation to oppose the Occupation (both MW and EAPPI) and yet could be seen to be making the Occupation more palatable. Hagit told us about a Palestinian woman who considered MW worse than the right wing as their interventions could be disguising the worst brutality of the Occupation. She also told us about other Palestinians who were very happy to be with them.
We then drove on to Qiryat Arba (QA) (which we had not been able to visit before) and Hagit showed us the garden and grave that had been laid out in honour of Baruch Goldstein, a Israeli physician and terrostist, who murdered 29 Palestinian Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque. The plaque at his grave reads: "To the holy Baruch Goldstein, who gave his life for the Jewish people, the Torah and the nation of Israel”. It mentioned that he was murdered, and that he was a man with clean hands and a clean heart. The garden also has a monument to Meir Kahane,an American-Dutch Israeli Rabbi and ultra nationalist. He founded the Jewish Defence League and Kach Party, a hardline Israeli militant group advocationg for all Arabs to be expelled from the Biblical Lands of Israel. This really helped to highlight what we are up against in terms of these Settlers views.
The slight good point is that while the residents of QA hold Purim and other parties in the garden, there was lots of broken glass there and so it may not be that all hold the space as one to be revered. (perhaps this is clutching at straws, however.)
From there we went into H2 and visited Abed’s shop (which we had been to before, with the same warm welcome). We walked there through more of the old city and Michal and Hagit were able to tell us more about the area being emptied of Palestinians, other than the poorest of the poor who cannot afford to go. At the Pharmacy CP, Michal talked about David and Goliath, saying that Israel is now Goliath and needs to remember who won that battle. She said that nowhere in the world do these situations go on forever. Leah said that one of the problems is that Israel still tries to portray itself as the David, as the victim.
Hagit and Michal pointed out the loud music as we came closer to Abed’s shop and we noticed, as we had on previous visits, the soldiers, and the closed shops, the pilgrims and the checkpoints. We spoke to some Italian pilgrims and they concurred that while fascinating, they were aware that life for Palestinians was not good. A few of them bought things from Abed’s shop, which we pointed out to them.
Mohammed kindly dropped us at the other end of Shuhada Street from which it was a short walk to the Checkpoint (Jewish Access denied) and our Service to Yatta.
It is noteworthy that the sign saying ’Jewish Access denied’ for the other side of the CP into H1, did not say ’ by order of the Israeli Military, and so people are left with the idea that it is the PA that does not want Jews on its territory. One of us (Leah) is a Jewish EA, but, of course, we had no problems anyway, indeed, no one even stopped us to look at our passports or check our bags.
While hardly a day at the beach, it was a fascinating day and an privilege to spend the day.
Disclaimer: The views contained in this report are that of L Levane and A Cilliers and do not necessarily reflect those of EAPPI or Machsom Watch. If you would like to publish the information contained here, or place it on a website, please first contact the EAPPI Communications & Advocacy Officer ([email protected]) or Machsom Watch [email protected] for permission. Thank you