Hebron, South Hebron Hills

Hebron. I had not been here for a long time because of the activities at the kindergartens.  At every visit there are new checkpoints. It is hard to believe how many checkpoints can be put down in such a small parcel of land. It is Memorial Day for the fallen and also the first of May.  Hebron – the Jewish area looks like a dead city with many soldiers and checkpoints. There is no school as we are explained to by a father with his three children (who are the only family outside) it is the “holiday of the workers” and also a Jewish holiday so people do not venture out of their houses. In the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs preparations are being made for the ceremony…many seats have been put out and there is a considerable amount of traffic from Kiryat Arba to the Cave. We did not go up to Tel Rumeida as we did not want to encounter the  residents of Beit Hadassah and the Home of the Six (all are at home today and maybe slightly bored).

The checkpoint at the chemist’s shop looks terrible…threatening and intimidating. Especially if one remembers how the street was 10 years ago. There are many soldiers around the House of Contention. At  the grocery shop at the Zion route the seller tells us that there are many of those who come to buy from Kiryat Arba and that he will probably lose them once the new checkpoint is built.  This is  the hallucinatory embroidery of life here. While we are there M. receives an sms about the demolition orders for the  destruction of houses in the area of his family at Lakiya. Dafke today when the feeling of solidarity should be encouraged there  are those who decide to exaggerate the different identities! Later, he will receive similar messages, and this as we pass the chain of illegal outposts in the southern Hebron hills, and next to the farm of the settler from Tene-Omarim.

At Umm al-Kheir there were also no classes and we could not meet with the kindergarten teachers. The same at Tuwani.