This morning I watched a settler boy beat on a Palestinian girl as she was making her way home from school. There were six border police close by that did nothing to intervene.

Since Monday I have been in Tel Rumeida, a small neighborhood in the H2 area of the city of Hebron. The designation H2 means it is under Israeli control, which means the IDF (Isreali Defense Forces), the Israeli Police and the Border Police are the formal authorities. (H1 is officially under Palestinian control.) There are military outposts throughout the neighborhood. Palestinian residents are only allowed to travel by foot and are often stopped at the outposts where Israeli soldiers check their ids and bags. A checkpoint with metal detectors stands at the border of the H1 and H2 area.

There are two settlements in the immediate area, Tel Rumeida settlement, and the Beit Hadassah settlement. One of them, the Tel Rumeida Settlement, is just down the road from the apartment building where I am staying with other human rights workers (HRW). Internationals are not allowed into the settlement area, and there is a military post just before it, which they won’t let you get close to. Settler violence and harassment toward Palestinians often happen in and just around the settlement areas, which was the case this morning. I was standing near a military post beside the apartment. The military post beside the settlement is only a block away. The settler boy was sitting on a curb on the opposite side of the second military post when he attacked the girl. As an international I couldn’t go very far, however an Israeli HRW was standing beside me when the attack happened. As an Israeli he is allowed in the settlement zone and ran forward, however he was stopped by the border police and threatened with arrest.

A couple hours later I was standing near the Beit Hadassah settlement just across the street from the Qurtuba Girls School where around 100 Palestinian students from the area go to school. Settlers sometimes throw stones at the kids as they are going to and from school, so a few human rights organizations put folks in the area in an attempt to protect the children as well as document human rights abuses. I was standing not far from the checkpoint when border police pulled up beside me and the HRW I was standing with. We were asked what we were doing there. We described our work, telling him we were there to help protect the safety of the children. Our passports were briefly taken and we were threatened with arrest.

Below is a picture of four kids from Tel Rumeida and the military outpost I was standing near when we saw the attack on the Palestinian girl. Palestinians get their bags checked as they go past the outpost.

This weekend I talked and shared food with four Palestinian families who live near the wall that snakes in and around Jerusalem. Because of the wall two of the four families have been forced to close their businesses, two have been forced to move from their homes, and one of the families fears losing their Jerusalem IDs. I will write more, later, about the wall and how it is affecting people. And how it felt to see it for the first time.

I did not record anyone in these past two days. I was meeting friends of friends and I wanted to be in their company without recording equipment. Also, I am discovering how different it is to wear headphones and hold a microphone than to paint someone’s portrait while hearing them tell their stories. I will be going to Hebron tomorrow and meeting with folks who expect to be recorded. And I will also be bringing watercolor paper and paints and hope there will be time for painting.

This is a picture of an old overpass that forms part of the the wall around the small town of Jaba. For some time the only entrance and exit to Jaba was this tunnel, blocked by the IOF as a form of collective punishment. The sign in blue says “Jaba Welcomes You.”

I bought a plate of hummus for dinner, however when I came to the table Meiko offered me some octopus. It was my first time eating octopus and I loved it.

There are a lot of interesting and generous folks here at the Faisal. Pictured with Meiko is Mordechai Vanunu. Many of you will have heard of him. He is a former Israeli nuclear technician who leaked to the press that Israel had secretly developed an extensive nuclear program. He was subsequently kidnapped in Italy by the Mossad (the Israeli spy agency) and then imprisoned for 18 years. 11 of these in solitary confinement. He was released in 2004 under strict restrictions, like not being able to leave Israel.

Writing from the Faisal Hostel in Jerusalem, just near Damascus Gate of the Old City.

Tom and Claude took me out to dinner before my flight and then to the airport. I slept a good part of the 12 hours on the flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. None of the airport taxis were going to East Jerusalem, so I got dropped off at a bus stop in West Jerusalem and after waiting a half hour took a taxi from the second cab that stopped by. The first said he wouldn’t drive into the East side and the second dropped me off a block from the hostel because he was afraid to go any closer. I got a bed at the hostel then went downstairs to buy hummus from one of my favorite hummus/falafel restaurants in Jerusalem. I don’t know what it is, however you cannot find hummus in the US that comes close to the hummus here. I enjoyed talking to the guy behind the counter. My Arabic is coming back ok.

Now, I’m feeling tired, which is good because it’s almost 11pm, a normal time to go to bed.

So. Good night from here.

Ellen.