During my time in Tel Rumeida, there were many mornings I stood on Shuhada Street as children walked past on their way to the Qurdoba School. If you look at the photo above, the school stands just around the corner of the buiding on the right side of the street. In the center of the photo, and across from the school, is the Beit Hadassa Settlement and just before the settlement is a military outpost. It’s hard to see the outpost in the photo, however it’s the square structure after the row of closed shops on the left. The metal grating on the second floor windows and balconies of the Palestinian homes offer protection from the rocks thrown by settlers. In a picture below, you can see that fabric also used for protection.

Beit Hadassa was set up in 1980 after the Palestinians who had lived in the building were expelled. The neighboring Palestinian stores and buildings were demolished by the Israeli military. In 1999 a new five story building (the whilte building in the picture) was built and several family were brought to live there. I believe there are 21 families living there now.

The Israeli government, the settlers in Hebron and their supporters in Israel are trying to make Hebron’s Arab Old City and adjacent neighborhoods into a Jewish Israeli city. They are doing this by tyring to force Palestinians from their homes by creating horrible living conditions and by expanding the settlements. I often heard stories about how Shuhada Street used to be the social and economic center of Hebron. I had the opportunity to talk with three families who used to have shops there. Now, it feels like a ghost town.

The street is lined with Isreali flags and settler graffiti.

Despite the curfews and setter violence a few Palestinian families continue to live on Shuhada Street. This little girl called to us from her balcony. It took me a moment to see her dangling feet.

Back in Jerusalem, where, once again, I have access to the internet. It’s nice, but also daunting. There’s too much to write about. Tomorrow I leave for the US. Tonight I have been listening to interviews from the past weeks. I keep coming back to my interview with Rachel Back, an Israeli poet who lives in a small Jewish village in the north of Israel, in the Galilee. Specifically I keep coming back to her reciting her poems. Below, I have attached I live on the ruins of Palestine.

Though born in the US, Rachel Back is the seventh generation of her family in Palestine. Her grandfather left there in the 1920s to seek his fortune in America, and she returned in the 1980s and lives not far from her ancestors village, which was destroyed in the Druze revolt of 1850.

She talked about living between the ruins of two villages. The village where she lives, Ya’ad, where we sat and drank lemonade and ate walnuts and raisins, used to be a Palestinian village. In 1948 the people of that village, Niyar, were evacuated from their homes in what Palestinians call the Naqba, the “catastrophe” of Israeli independence. The village was destroyed, but there are still remains of the old cemetrary. After our interview, before Rachel dropped me off at the train station in Acco, we went there. It exists on the land between the former village and the new Jewish village. Rachel told me descendents of Niyar still come to tend to the graves.

Here’s the poem:

I live on the ruins of Palestine

Slow to speech thick
of tongue quick
in anger ancient
parched
fear

In the ruins on a land
through a night
ignited

By a single
singed vision
and another
single spark

Cradled close in a charred palm
chiseled in a stonedream
carried across history

Through the dark beneath our bare
feet

Strangers all

On the ruins of Palestine

Internet access has been sporadic and slow this past week. I will attempt to upload clips of interviews later. Below are reports I wrote with my friend Astrid tonight, regarding attacks on us by settlers.

5th May 2007
Tel Rumeida Hebron Region

At approximately 3PM this afternoon two Human Rights Workers (HRW) were walking through the Tel Rumeida olive grove. They noticed settler movement inside the house and on the property of Issa X which is currently a closed military zone and access forbidden to both its Palestinian owners and Israeli settlers.

They sat approx 50 feet away under the trees to document the illegal trespassing. Three settler boys, aged around 10, moved up to the HRWs. Yelling at them to ‘turn off their camera’ (which was off), ‘go home’, ‘get out of here’ shouting ‘Nazi’ and threatened physical violence. The soldier posted in the house came down into the grove and intervened. Telling the HRWs “they are just children, I’m sorry”, and “you can video here if you want, you can do whatever you want.” The children returned to the far side of the house (away from the HRWs) and the HRWs moved back a further 50 feet to avoid provoking further attacks, but maintain a presence in the grove.

Five minutes later the same three settler boys, accompanied by a further 2 two pre teen boys and two adults (aged early twenties) advanced towards the HRWs. The boy in the front was carrying a length of thick plastic pipe, approximately 4 feet. They continued the same verbal threats whilst surrounding the HRWs – and lifting the pipe into a ‘strike position’. Some of the other boys picked up sticks and prodded the HRWs as the boy with the pipe hit and pushed at one HRW as the other shouted for the soldier to intervene.

The verbal threats and physical violence was increasing when the soldier arrived and attempted to deescalate the settler attack. At this point the women of the Abu Talal family moved onto their stairway overlooking the grove to film the attack. When the settler boys noticed their filming they became instantly hostile with one of the boys running at them and throwing stones, causing them to take shelter. The rest of the boys yelled taunts and made obscene gestures.

During the entire attack the adult settlers had stood aside laughing – it was only at this point, when the HRWs requested the presence of police to the soldier that they then ushered the young boys away. No further action was taken by the HRWs or the soldier.

Some footage of the latter part of the attack was captured, primarily the stone throwing towards the Palestinian woman filming.

———-

At approximately 5pm this evening 3 HRWs went to aid 2 other Internationals who were being attacked on the stairway and path overlooking the Beit Hadassah settlement. They were alerted to the incident taking place by shouting and yelling and the sudden movement of soldiers and police running up the stairs.

As they approached they saw from the bottom of the stairs a group of 20 young settler boys ranging in age from 8-15 surrounding the 2 Internationals, and soldiers and border police attempting to intervene as the boys physically and verbally attacked them.

The 3 HRWs filmed from the bottom in an attempt to capture evidence of the settlers assault on Internationals.

A large group of adult settlers then rushed the 3 HRWs. Pushing and grabbing at their cameras and shoving them up the street away from the incident. As they shoved the HRWs away they shouted “go home” “this is your fault” “we’re not the terrorists” “you’re ugly from the inside and out”. The adults were joined by a group of young teen boys (from the earlier attack on HRWs in the olive grove) who used a large sheet of cardboard to block the video cameras recording the assault, and joined in yelling abuse and threats at the three female HRWs.

Soldiers attempted to intervene and were shoved away by both adults and children before more soldiers and police managed to move the settlers away from the HRWS who had still managed to capture a large amount of the verbal abuse on camera.

No further action was taken by these three HRWs.