According to sources from Youth Against Settlements and B’Tselem with whom I spoke, the children were detained because settlers from the extremist Beit Hadassah settlement inside Hebron complained to the IDF that they had thrown stones. One of the children is only 10, the others 11 and 12 (the age of criminal responsibility is 12).

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist with Youth Against Settlements who has been arrested countless times for organizing and engaging in peaceful protests in Hebron’s Tul Rumeida area where he lives, told me that the arrest of children by the IDF has become a regular “phenomenon” in Hebron. He says the IDF is “pro-settler,” often arresting Palestinian residents, whether children or adults, simply because settlers tell them to – regardless of whether there is any evidence against them. He also points out that settlers are almost never detained after they throw stones, even when the soldiers are standing right there. Issa added: “These arrests do not stop violence, on the contrary, they feed violence more and more in the long term.”

According to Ynet, the Swedish activist was arrested because he tried to steal a soldier’s weapon and resisted arrest – however the first video below makes both those accusations appear false, although he clearly made an effort to stop the soldiers from taking the children. (It is also well known that the IDF tries to deport foreign citizens living and documenting life in the West Bank). I contacted the IDF Spokesperson several times in recent days to hear its side of the story, but have yet to receive a response.

According to B’Tselem, the children were investigated at the Kiryat Arba police station with an adult present, and released 3-4 hours later. The Swedish activist is reportedly still in Israeli custody and trying to avoid deportation.

The first video below, published by Youth Against Settlement, shows one of the children and the Swede being arrested. Below that is a video filmed by an member of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) showing the arrest of one of the other children at the same time. Needless to say they are very disturbing, and no one in Israeli media is giving it any attention.

Related:
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By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz

Jewish settlers in Hebron [illustrative photo] (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

As “I.” would later tell the police, he thought that “B.” would pass his house with a few curses – that he would “curse and go on his way, as usual,” as he put it. That’s life in occupied Hebron (Al Khalil) for you. Not this time. “B.” went into “I.”‘s yard, while the accompanying settlers stayed outside. “I.” Demanded “B.” leave, and in response the latter immediately punched him in the face, and kept on attacking him.

“I.” refrained from hitting the invader back: “Even though I know that by law, I may defend myself from an attacker who enters my yard,” he would say later, “I didn’t strike back because I knew B. would use it against me.” “I.” managed to push “B.” out of the yard, and shouted to the soldier in the nearby post.

As the soldier moseyed over, some of the settlers who accompanied “B.” began stoning “I.” and his friends. They knew, of course, they stood a snowball’s chance in hell of being indicted for attempted murder. They threw stones at the Palestinians with a soldier in plain sight, knowing this stalwart of the rule of law won’t do anything. They’re Jews, after all. As the incident unfolded, “I.” called the police and reported the stone-throwing.

As the soldier watched, “B.” kicked “I.”, while telling the soldier: “You see? He’s kicking me.” The soldier, naturally, arrested “I.”, and “B.” and his gang sneaked off. The detainees were suspected of throwing stones. When “I.” insisted that “B.” and the settlers must also be detained, since he reported the incident, the policemen shrugged: “It’s already Shabbat’” they told him, “We can’t take “B.” and the settlers.”

This particular incident ended relatively well. “I.” was interrogated under suspicion that he attacked “B.” – who, as you recall, didn’t bother to press charges but sauntered off – but told the investigator that his friends recorded the incident on video. Upon examining the video, the interrogator dismissed “I.” on bail, but even though he told I. he would not supply him with the number of the complaint.

The critical words here are, however, “It’s already Shabbat, we can’t take ‘B.’ and the settlers.” This is how a vanquished force, which lost all faith in its ability, sounds. In Israel, the police do work on Saturdays. If a noted felon in Haifa would have assaulted a man and escaped, it’s hard to believe the police would say “well, it’s a Saturday, we can’t detain him.” But coming to deal with B. on his home turf, the cops know they are moving in hostile territory, and that such an arrest would cause a huge mess, and who really needs all these troubles for the sake of some Palestinian who was merely assaulted and stoned in his own yard? The police know it is the settlers who set the rules in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, and that they themselves are there only to provide the façade of the “rule of law.”

The police know and understand this; the Israeli public prefers to stay blissfully unaware.

Written by Yossi Gurvitz in his capacity as a blogger for Yesh Din, Volunteers for Human Rights. A version of this post was first published on Yesh Din’s blog.

Activists demonstrate solidarity with Samer Issawi, on hunger strike in Israeli prison for more than 200 days, and other Palestinian political prisoners, Damascus Gate, East Jerusalem, March 12, 2013 (Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)

Doctors are concerned by the state of Issawi’s heart, which is weakening and losing rhythm, and are assessing that he might also be suffering from brain damage due to severe lack of minerals, in addition to partial failures of his lungs and kidneys. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Club attorney, Jawad Boulus, who visited Issawi in the Kaplan Hospital in Petah Tikva this morning, told +972 that there is a growing risk of sudden death.

Issawi, who was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap and then re-arrested based on covert intelligence which the army prosecution continues to withhold from him and his lawyers, has been on hunger strike since July 29^th. He has only been taking water with sugar along with intravenous food supplements. Recently, he has stopped accepting the latter in protest of the Israeli Prison Service policy of handcuffing him to his bed for 12 hours a day, which he says causes him much pain and prevents him from sleeping. Following a drastic deterioration in his condition, Issawi returned to talking mineral supplements on Tuesday morning.

Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi taken to his court hearing in the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem, February 19, 2013 (Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)

On Monday, the Hebron-based Youth against Settlements group published a “Hunger Speech by Samer Issawi”, addressed to Israelis. In the message, Issawi calls upon Israelis to break free from the “military camps of the mind” and to come visit him and see “a skeleton tied to his hospital bed, and around him three exhausted jailers.”

I’m looking for an intellectual who is through shadowboxing, or talking to his face in mirrors. I want him to stare into my face and observe my coma, to wipe the gunpowder off his pen, and from his mind the sound of bullets, he will then see my features carved deep in his eyes, I’ll see him and he’ll sees me, I’ll see him nervous about the questions of the future, and he’ll see me, a ghost that stays with him and doesn’t leave…

I will die satisfied and having satisfied. I do not accept to be deported out of my homeland. I do not accept your courts and your arbitrary rule… Listen to my voice, the voice of our time and yours! Liberate yourselves of the excess of greedy power! Do not remain prisoners of military camps and the iron doors that have shut your minds! I am not waiting for a jailer to release me, I’m waiting for you to be released from my memory.

Issawi and the three other prisoners on hunger strike have been at the heart of protests and clashes in the West Bank and Jaffa. In the past couple of weeks, two Israeli women have repeatedly tried to visit Issawi at the hospital. Yesterday, after several visitations in which they could only make it to the door and say a few words before IPS guards sent them away, a curtain was placed between the door and the bed to prevent them from seeing Issawi. Following the publication of the “Hunger Speech,” several more Israeli have been trying to gain access to Issawi but have been denied by authorities. A request by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) to send an independent doctor to examine his medical condition has been denied by IPS.

Palestinians demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners still on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, especially Samer Issawi (more than 245 days). Nablus, West Bank, March 23, 2013 (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

In the last couple of months, two Palestinian prisoners have died in prison. The first, Arafat Jaradat, was a young man who died during or after his interrogation. The second, Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, died of cancer. In the latter case, PHR claims that the prisoner’s complaints to the prison doctors were not taken seriously, and criticism was also leveled at the IPS for not allowing the man an early release from prison, which would have at least made it possible for him to pass quietly athome. Both deaths sparked demonstrations throughout theWest Bank.

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Israel Social TV is an independent media NGO working to promote social change, human rights, social justice and equality, and to mobilize its viewers towards activism.

Non-violent Palestinian activist with Obama mask arrested in Hebron (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

About 500 people rebuilt 15 tents on privately owned lands in the new village-outpost of “Bab Al-Shams,” located at the heart of the much controversial E-1 area, where Israel intends to build thousands of new settler houses, isolating Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and cutting it in two. Bab Al-Shams was originally set up a few months ago, and dismantled by Israeli police several days later. Activists in the new Bab Al-Shams held signs saying “you promised hope and change – you gave us colonies and apartheid.”

With the Israeli settlement Maale Adumim visible on the horizon, Palestinian activists erect a new protest camp in the E1 area, focusing their protest on the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, West Bank, March 20, 2013. All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. The action took place at the same hour Obama landed in Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. Photo by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org

Meanwhile in Hebron, Israeli army forces arrested about 30 schoolchildren, at least five of whom were between the ages of 8 and 10 and thus under the age of criminal responsibility, according to B’Tselem. The children were accused of having participated in acts of stone throwing.

Later in the afternoon a group of some 25 Palestinians, internationals and Israelis marched on Shuhada Street in Hebron, where freedom of movement has been restricted for Palestinians, and the street has been open only to Israelis for the past 12 years. The activists, who were following up on a Saturday workshop on civil rights in the U.S., wore “I have a dream” T-shirts and masks with the faces of Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., and carried signs connecting the fight for civil rights in the American South to that of Palestinians against apartheid. Activists sang “Woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom,” when a group of settlers started to attack them. Soldiers who swiftly arrived on the scene reportedly zoomed in on the prominent local activists, arresting four Palestinians, three internationals and two Israelis, who were later released.

Hebron demonstrators were calling upon Obama to remember the civil rights movement in the US (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

The approaches Palestinian activists took to Obama’s visit were varied. Demonstrations in Ramallah (and Bab al-Shams) called on Obama not to come at all, and many blame the U.S. government for its cooperation with the Israeli occupation. The demonstrators in Hebron employed a more “welcoming” approach, asking that Obama remember the history of racism in the U.S. and implement the lessons learned there, for the benefit of Palestinians here today.

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Still life with horse, boy and soldiers (Haggai Matar)

But this is Hebron, and the dramatic horror is very much real. In front of us is a small landing at the top of a hill overlooking the old city, with the Cave of the Patriarchs in plain view. On the landing, a Palestinian youth guide is taking children on two-minute horse rides, one at a time. Watching the horse and its successive little riders are the kids whose turn is coming up, a group of settler girls in the same age group, and five soldiers in full combat gear.

The group of girls, encouraged by the recent arrival of the soldiers, is starting to heckle the horse riding group. “You’re ugly,” shouts one girl at another child looking her way. “You’re all heathens and I want you all to die,” laughs another 7-year-old, meaning every word. “Why are we afraid? Let’s tell the soldiers to kick them and their horse so that we can play,” calls out a third as a challenge to her friends while holding a football in her hand. No one moves. Two older women pass by and one girl spits in their general direction and half-whispers “fat whores!” Nothing happens. The soldiers stand on the side, talking to each other, and the other kids keep going on and off the horse, looking timidly at the girls. They know that they cannot possibly talk back without the soldiers intervening. In the background, loudspeakers are blasting a song into the air. “We shall overcome…” No. Seriously? Yes. This is Hebron.

Two groups watching a horse. West Bank Story (Haggai Matar)

I came here after being invited by Youth against Settlements (YAS) – a local group dedicated to work with Palestinian youth and promote popular nonviolent protests against the occupation – in the one city which, more than anywhere else in the West Bank, has “apartheid” written all over it. The city where 500 Jewish settlers get to rule the H2 quarter, making the lives of more than 10,000 Palestinians miserable; where entire roads are closed for any Palestinian, including for those living on them, and who are forced to enter and leave their own homes through the rooftops. The city where even joint roads are segregated by walls so as to keep Palestinians out of the settlers’ way. The city where racist graffiti was previously sprayed all over Palestinian shops that have been closed down, until the Israeli Ministry of Education started sending schoolchildren there on tours and made sure the graffiti would be wiped clean. The city that countless soldiers have left after serving the settlers in ways that scarred their souls (and where a friend of mine, served as a soldier after having planned to refuse, committed suicide).

Anti-occupation chanting workshop (Haggai Matar)

Here, in this city, YAS decided to plan a special welcome for American President Obama. Dozens of children gathered today to learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., and to write the first black President personal letters. The younger kids enjoyed games and learned demonstration chants in English (“1, 2, 3, 4 – occupation no more!”), while the older ones heard a short lecture about the history of racism and segregation in the U.S. South, watched a film about Martin Luther King and his nonviolent outlook, and wrote Obama messages under the titles “we have a dream” and “yes we can make a change.” At the end of the day, while some were riding a horse outside, others stayed in to learn the words of “We Shall Overcome.”

Letter to Obama. Probably won’t get there (Haggai Matar)

The workshop was taking place in the “Sumud” house in Tel Rumeida, home of the YAS movement. Opposite, less than ten meters away, is the house of settler leader and former Kach activist Baruch Marzel. Throughout the hours of the different Palestinians workshops settler kids from the neighboring house, heavily guarded by armed soldiers, came out to see what the fuss was about. Every now and then they’d shout out a curse, but for the vast majority of the time they were talking between themselves or trying to figure out what was going on. Several times kids from both sides would just stand there, staring at each other for long minutes in complete silence.

Palestinian children writing the US president. Settler children watching (Haggai Matar)

One could only try to imagine what was going through their heads. On the one hand, they see a child just like themselves – the same age, laughing just the same at the funny gestures of the bunny-clothed clown. On the other hand, they all see the other as the enemy. The Arab heathens. The Jewish settlers. The dissonance that all people have to find ways to live with in a country of apartheid was three times intensified in the experience of these young people – neighbors, not entirely aware of the greater politics in which they all are pawns. And already, at these young ages, they all knew their place. The knew not to talk to each other. They knew that the settler kids can fling curses freely and ask the soldiers to accompany them wherever they go, while the Palestinian kids only have a bunch of YAS activists, Israeli and international journalists with cameras around. The settlers still have the upper hand.

No communication. Settlers on left, Palestinians on right (Haggai Matar)

Both groups couldn’t quite figure us lot out. The Palestinians found it strange to have Israelis standing with them, and some whispered to others that we were settlers. The settlers, meanwhile, could not possibly accept us as Israeli, and regarded us as foreigners. In a city where divisions are so clear cut and extreme, and of such vital importance, there’s little room for anything outside the strictest of definitions. Feels like the West Bank version of West Side Story.

Holy City of our Fathers (Haggai Matar)

At the end of the day the guide promised the kids that their letters would be given to President Obama, the purpose of whose visit was described as “coming to help us get the settlers out of here”. But Obama will never receive these letters. Nor will he ever come to Hebron, or care much about the youth’s plans for nonviolent civil rights marches. Nor does he intend to do anything about the settlements. Speeches and declarations aside, the current U.S. administration, like all those before it and like its European counterparts, will go on supporting Israeli governments and apartheid policies with military aid, financial support, trade etc. Settlements in Hebron and the entire West Bank will continue to expand with those very funds, channeled through the supportive government, pushing Palestinians into smaller and smaller enclaves under military rule. The children of Hebron will demonstrate nonviolently and sing “we shall overcome,” but after being attacked one too many times by the neighbors and the IDF, with its U.S.-manufactured weapons, some will inevitably turn to violence. And on we go.

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WATCH: Demonstration to open Shuhada Street in Hebron

Join the discussion:

Watch this B’tzelem video to see what’s going on not far away, on the road near the Tomb of the Patriarchs:

For more context on this video and the area, see here.

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PHOTOS: In Hebron, demonstrators demand reopening of Shuhada Street
The market square is empty in Hebron
PHOTO: Settlers dress as Arabs for Purim in apartheid Hebron

By Hillel Cohen

Funeral of a victim of the 1929 Hebron Massacre. (photo: Wikicommons)

The 1929 events have become symbolic of Arab murderousness, at least in Jewish eyes. It’s the proof that even without the 1967 occupation and the 1948 Nakba, Arabs have massacred Jews mercilessly; that Muslims are thirsty for Jewish blood. But things are never that simple. At least not if we examine them thoroughly. A detailed examination reveals that during the disturbances, Jews murdered innocent Arabs while other Jews saved Arabs from being lynched in Jerusalem, and there were also Arabs who saved Jews. And it does not take long to realize that, like in any historical event, the conventional wisdom hides more than it reveals. Nevertheless, a true understanding of the riots must concentrate on tackling the murders head on. It must face up to the axes that Arabs landed at the heads of young and old Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. It must face up to houses being set alight while their frail elderly inhabitants were still inside; it must deal with the moments of horror and blood. And the question that needs to be asked is why. Why did people kill their neighbors, their regular houseguests, those with whom they have mingled for dozens of years? (And needless to say, the purpose of asking  “why” is not to excuse the actions, but to seek some understanding.)

Herein are the fundamental insights arising out of my research into the 1929 riots (the subject of my forthcoming book). Those murders committed by Jews do not change the overall framework of the events: an Arab attack on the Jewish communities. The overall framework of the events does not change the broader historical picture: Jews came to this land since the late Ottoman period under European (and especially British) tutelage in order to turn it Jewish, and consequently turn the Arab inhabitants into a minority in their own country. The ethical discussion of whether there was justification for the Zionists’ activities is outside the scope of this study. Sufficient to say that in my opinion persecuted Jews had the right to come here to seek asylum. But this right does not extend to disenfranchising the right of the Arabs to Palestine, and it certainly does not justify the full range of maneuvers carried out by the Zionist movement.

Offering asylum to fugitives does not necessarily run contrary to the spirit of Islam: those Jews who were expelled from Spain were welcomed here during the early Ottoman period. However, in 1929, things were different — it was after nearly a century of Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel/Palestine under the protection of foreign powers. And of those, the most recent 50 years or so involved Zionist activities in which the Jews were not merely seeking asylum but demanding sovereignty. This brought about radical change in social and political relations in Palestine. Many members of the older, long-established, Jewish community who had initially aspired to equality with their neighbors rather than to establish Jewish state in the spirit of European Zionism, began to adopt the nationalist concept including the lure of the possibility of a Jewish state in this land. The Arabs of Palestine recognized that, thus the distinction between Zionists and non-Zionists Jews in the Palestinian discourse started to become blurred. The distinction had not completely disappeared: in both spoken and written Arabic, and in everyday life, the old lexicon had been preserved and distinguished between “Arab Jews,” who were part and parcel of Middle-Eastern culture, and the “Zionists,” who came from Eastern Europe with their foreign customs, as well as the “Sknaz’ –  Ashkenazi Haredim.

But at the height of riots, these distinctions evaporated. Jewish communities were attacked, regardless of political affiliation or length of time in the land. The Cohen and Afriat families of Safed, and the Kastel, Abushdid and Capiloto families of Hebron screamed “Surely we are brothers!” to their friends and neighbors but the way their screams fell on deaf ears is a clear proof of that evaporation. The disturbances made it clear that the distinctions between religious and secular; between the old established community and the newcomers; between Ashkenazim and Jews who hailed from Muslim countries; between the various currents within the labor movement and between them and the Revisionists – distinctions that divide up segments of Jewish/Israeli society – now as in before the establishment of the state, were just about meaningless for the Arabs. That wasn’t because in the eyes of Muslims all Jews should equally be put to the death – that’s not the idea – but because at the end of the 1920s the Arabs felt very strongly that what all these currents held in common was more significant than their differences. All those groups believed in the existence of the Jewish people, i.e. that Judaism is not only religion but rather nation. They all believed in the right of Jews to immigrate to their ancestral homeland. They all strove for a Jewish state in the Land of Israel/Palestine (whether it is established by human beings or thru the coming of the messiah, whether it be liberal or socialist). All those groups believed in mutual Jewish surety. These beliefs were clearly counterpoised to the aspirations of the Arabs, and they turned all the Jews who subscribed to those principles into a single amorphous mass. And therefore, during the 1929 murderous riots, the Arabs in their own view were not killing their Jewish neighbors, but their Zionist foes who were trying to take over their country.

The Arabs, it seems, recognized the potential for Jewish unity under Zionism before it came to pass, and their attack hastened the process of turning it from theory to practice. Jews who lived for generations in the country, whether of Middle Eastern or another origin, whose attitude to the Zionist movement was unenthusiastic, who felt  rejected by the socialists or the Zionist leadership, who wanted to maintain their traditional lifestyle alongside the Arabs; who spurned politics, preferring to leave the decision regarding the sovereignty of the country to the one above; who felt more comfortable with the Palestinian Arabs  than with the libertine pioneers; who eagerly waited for each new song by Umm Kulthum (whose fame had just began to flourish) – all realized following the bloody attacks that Jews have no political home other than the Zionist home. They could participate actively or just shelter in its confines during a storm, but they could not offer a real political alternative in the form of union with the country’s Arabs, because those Arabs were not interested.

In this sense we can assert that the riots established the Yishuv and shaped the ethos and values of the future Jewish State; ethos of defense and warfare. The massacres that occurred in places where there was no countervailing Jewish defense force, and the success of the Jewish defenders in repelling attacks in places where such a force existed, provided the proof to the extent that Jewish fighters, and no one but them, mark the dividing line between the survival of any Jewish community and its annihilation. In consequence the military realm became far more attractive to the more able members of the community, Mizrahi Jews joined the Haganah in much larger numbers than before and military commanders have become national leaders. Moshe Behar has already shown us how the persecution of Jews in Arab countries in the ’40s reinforced the Zionist movement. A similar process occurred here two decades ago.

Hillel Cohen specializes in the study of relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel/Palestine and teaches Palestinian and Zionist history at the Hebrew University. His book 1929 Disturbances: Year Zero is to be published soon by Keter in Hebrew. This article, first published in Hebrew on Haokets, is based on a précis of the book.

This text was translated by Sol Salbe.

By Leehee Rotschild

During a protest against the continued closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinians, demonstrators climb a fence, bulit by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Hebron February 22, 2013. Hundreds of demonstrators, including foreign and Israeli activists, gathered to mark the 19th anniversary of the closure of the street by the Israeli army in 1994 following the massacre by Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler, who went on a rampage inside Al Ibrahimi Mosque, killing 29 Palestinian worshipers. (Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

On the Friday before last, Palestinian protestors accompanied by Israeli and international solidarity activists wanted to mark “Open Shuhada Street Day” in Hebron. Shuhada Street has been closed to Palestinians since the Baruch Goldstein massacre in 1994, including residents who live on the street and have to climb onto their rooftops to adjacent streets in order to leave their houses. Meanwhile, settlers living in the area come and go freely. Shuhada Street, which used to be the market place of Hebron, has turned into a “ghost street,” with a checkpoint at its entrance.

On that Friday we gathered by the street’s entrance. Palestinian youth hung flags and signs on the checkpoints and the drums beat loudly with slogans against the injustice, on the street, which above all else is the embodiment of apartheid. But the Palestinian residents, who are punished with the closure of their street for a massacre committed against them, whose private and public space is torn from them, have no right of protest under the laws of the occupying army. The protest chants were drowned out by the explosions of stun grenades and whistles of tear gas canister. The smells of the market were overwhelmed by the stench of skunk water. I had planned to write a proper post about this demonstration, with accurate reporting from the ground, but it is hard to maintain accuracy when the protest spreads all over town. It is hard to remain organized when your head echoes with explosions and your heart beats rapidly from running and fear. And I gave up.

And then I saw these photos. Taken by Activestills, they show Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir – the first wearing a Kahanist T-shirt, the later in mock Palestinian prisoners uniforms – marching in the heart of Shuhada Street; the same street in which the Palestinian protesters were prevented from entering, heavily guarded by Israeli security forces, the same forces which dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets the Palestinian demonstration, marking the anniversary of the Goldstein massacre, the same massacre for which the Palestinians are continually punished. So I decided that something must be said, even if nothing more than a summary.

Israeli settlers at the Hebron Jewish settlement’s Purim parade on the city’s Shuhada Street. Itamar Ben Gvir (L), is dressed as a hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner. February 24, 2013 (Activestills.org)

There are many injustices under the occupation: small ones and big ones. There is theft and murder and never ending oppression. There is Shuhada Street, and they all exist there.

I conclude with the Facebook status I published upon my return from the demonstration that day, which still feels most appropriate:

At the end the of the day I’m angry. I’m angry with the Israeli soldiers, and with the PA collaborators. I’m angry with the international community that remains silent. I’m angry at the occupation and apartheid, and the checkpoint blocking a street in which people have homes and families and lives. I’m angry with the Israeli media, according to which “things are calm now,” which means that apartheid is back in order and the resistance has subsided for the day. I’m angry because I’m now back home, safe and sound. But when I left there was still tear gas in the air and the explosions of the sound bombs were still echoing in the streets of Hebron. I’m angry because no one should live like this and still people do, and because for the people of Hebron, for those who live in Shuhada Street, things are “back to normal” now. There is nothing normal about the way things are. I’m angry and sad, and as we sit down for dinner, I go and to wash my hands and my face, and some teargas leftovers leak into my eye. It stings and burns, and the tears are bitter with the taste of tear gas, and with the taste of rage.

Leehee Rothschild has been active in the Palestinian struggle for over a decade. She currently works with Anarchists Against the Wall and Boycott From Within. She writes about activism and political struggle on her blog, Radically Blonde and other publications.