Some good news

But first, went from Ramallah to Jerusalem today and a journey that should take 45 minutes unhindered took about 2.5 hours. The wait at the checkpoint (outside in the cold) was absolutely huge and the queue moved ridiculously slowly. Its a mix between an airport (please keep this area tidy, please wait patiently) and Bentham and his idea of the Panopticon. Voices over the PA system (almost always female, always aggressive) as you trudge forward obediently. Not wanting to appear annoyed or flustered in case they hold you longer.

But on a much better note Tel Rumeida residents had a rare victory today in that they are allowed to walk through the main road which connects the city. Previous entries in this blog describe how this road has been shut for about six years changing a 5 minute walk into a 45 minute walk and stopping the city from functioning effectively. I'm unsure if they will be able to reopen their shops down this road but it is a victory and a big one. Of course there are many more battles to be fought but the resistance is alive still and it stops the settlers from continuing to cement their position.

Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah has passed off without incident here! Thank goodness, was worried about it for a while but apart from the usual it was OK.

A few police tried to move us on and a few soldiers told us we weren't allowed to be here and a few got annoyed when I attended a detainment but it has been fine. The weather was also bad which perhaps kept them inside!

Am excited to be going to Bethlehem and Jerusalem tomorrow, sit down and have a drink and spend time with people who aren't liable to throw stones and shoot at me will be welcome. A proper hot shower as well!

If you discount the flight here I think my carbon emissions are much lower here without having to do much at all. Although there is a lot of litter and no recycling available (it still breaks my heart to throw glass in a bin etcetera) life here is much better. Apart from one or two things like lack of my own room etcetera Iits much easier to live a sustainable lifestyle without even really noticing. It certainly doesn't impact much on how I see my quality of life.

Back in Hebron

I'm back in Tel Rumeida for a few days, not sure for how long but they always like a larger group for Saturdays as this is often a day that the settlers kick off. As I turned up at the end of the street to watch the children out of school a few apples were thrown at the kids from the settlers house. As I went to look at what was thrown (it wasn't obvious at the time) a soldier shouted at me but I didn't understand, he translated saying get out go away you are not allowed here. But of course, we are and I told him that and stayed. So of course, my ID was checked, once, twice, three times within about half an hour, twice by the same guy. And there I stayed, watching the settlers go past, who incidentally argue that they are peaceful despite the fact that they often attack Arab children on their way back from school and spit at internationals. What I want to cover here is some things that have been said about internationals in Palestine and our reasons for being here.

Many call our presence here 'anti-Semitic', I allegedly am a communist or an anarchist, looking for trouble - etcetera etcetera. The internationals here are violent and support Palestinian violence, according to one or two websites, who often make fun of the death of activists out here. We deliberately set out to cause trouble etcetera etcetera. None of these things are true I'm afraid, I'm not a communist or an anarchist or anti-Semitic. I'm pro peace and I'm not even necessarily saying that the Jews cannot live in Hebron. However I don't see why they should be able to live in Hebron at the expense of the Palestinians, forcing them to go through checkpoints to their own homes, shutting down the main street of shops and constantly questioning them.

If I hit a settler with anything around here then I would be, quite rightly, would be arrested. If I had spit at someone or used terms such as 'nigger' in front of my parents then I would have been in deep trouble. I don't imagine the child here today will get punished. And yet as a Breaking the Silence document detailing parents often not disciplining their children is and not exactly caring. The people who wrote this document however aren't the anarchists or communists but soldiers who were posted in Hebron, detailing some heartbreaking stories of how they prevented a wedding from happening, stopping Palestinian children going to hospital when ill in emergencies and other such events. What happens here is despicable but most of those who disagree with me won't argue the relative merits of the Jewish population being able to stay here with army protection. I'll simply be called an anti-Semite, in favour of suicide bombings, working for a terrorist linked organisation, perhaps say I deny the holocaust (I don't incidentally but I equally don't see why the Palestinians should pay for the atrocities of my home nation). And that will be the end of the argument.

The reason I suppose is that there aren't very many good reasons for the Jewish population to be able to run amok like they do here, or in fact any reasons at all. If anyone can give me these reasons then I'd be happy to hear them. If a two-state solution is implemented this will become part of Palestine, I can't see any reason why this shouldn't be the case. I'm straying into dangerous territory here as I don't want to dictate how a peaceful settlement should be worked out but there seem to be some undeniable things. Yes there are some sites of Jewish heritage in the local area but this does not mean it needs to be part of Israel - I'm sure rights of access can be secured. That isn't to say that the Jews here will be forced to move out but Israeli soldiers would no longer be able to stand outside their settlements. That Jewish people who commit crimes against Arabs or other Jews (and vice versa) will be prosecuted fairly regardless of race or religion. Checkpoints would be shut and the main street here would be reopened.

hebron continued

Today the same soldier who threatened me yesterday was at it again outside the flat. He came up to me and threatened me again saying I obviously had no recollection of yesterdays conversation. It turns out the other week he threatened to beat someone up and slash their throat. he is a complete nutcase whose face was so close to me that I could smell his bad breath. Mary however was having none of this - she is a 70+ granny about 5ft 5 who stands up to the soldiers. she knows her rights to the letter and makes sure the soldiers don't prevent her doing whatever she wants within them. Some of the soldiers love her, others hate her. These ones today hated her - eventually they called the DCO and some officers arrived who eventually left. The soldiers repeatedly asked us if we thought there was terrorism here and laughed at our replies. They asked for every Palestinians ID and held them up, stopping people from going abut their legitimate business, and asking for people to lift up their shirts. They got bored and eventually started shouting and pretending to shoot which scared a few kids. Later I played football with Ronaldo and various other members of the Brazilian football side aka Palestinian kids 6-11. Saying I was England the best side in the world was met with laughter. needless to say I lost (though of course I let them win ;-) Its difficult not to dehumanise the Israelis. Te soldiers here believe that everyone is a terrorist ad see them as subhuman. I see every soldier as a potential murderer - normally with fingers on trigger- every action is seen as hostile. Whilst they see me as someone who prevents them from preventing terrorism (or allegedly). I must make sure that I remember to see them as humans often young scared kids who have been attacked on occasion by Palestinians, some of whom have been fighting in Lebanon. I came here wanting to promote peace and solidarity and I don't want to come across or become simply just anti-Israel, which I am not.

Picture: Boarded up house in Tel Rumeida

Reasons for going and first days

My reasons for wanting to travel to Palestine were quite varied. Obviously there is the injustice of the situation, my main reason for going. Having spoken to others who had been I felt that the presence of westerners could make a difference rather than simply going on holiday for a bit or a 'life changing' gap year style project in Kenya where you get pissed, dig a hole every now and again and say how you changed the world. Aka New White Mans burden. I don't usually fly due to environmental reasons but I thought this was a good excuse

Secondly I really wanted to see it for myself how the whole system worked. its very difficult to find objective reporting on this area even if it is honest. And I realise this blog will be subjective.

Thirdly doing various political and sociological papers at university thought it might help that out!

Anyway arrived in Ben Guiron airport and was let through quickly - some activists get sent away but normally people who are returning. But I did not pack any pro Palestine literature. Then spent a day or two in Jerusalem seeing the old sights and going to a few churches. My tour guide was interesting and showed how deep the problem is. She is on the board of an interfaith group who meet to promote understanding between Muslims, Christians and Jews but even she felt that although they could coexist they would never mix. Which is a shame - Jerusalem is full of invisible boundaries that Jews, Muslims and Christians do not cross but which I, and other tourists, are oblivious to most of the time.

Following a few days here I moved onto Ramallah for training, and got shown a frightening array of the various instruments used by Israelis - sound bombs, tear gas canisters (often fired at people with great potential for injury and death) rubber bullets (which again can kill). Taught how to protect oneself, how ISM is a non-violent movement (which it is, despite what some might try and tell you.

After training we moved onto a demo . the wall has been built across these peoples land and so they have little access so every Friday they demonstrate and ask for internationals to go and document any Israeli Occupation force abuse. The march went up to the top of the hill with no problem and at the fence we were told we were here illegally, stating this was a controlled military zone - something which an officer can declare at anytime. We did not leave but protested by trying to remove barbed wire at various points of the wall. Israeli soldiers roughed up one Palestinian man who had not done much - they don't bother arresting international and Israelis as these people come up under Israeli law and it takes an age to prosecute.Eventually they arrested this man, a few people tried to hold on to this man to stop them taking him away (they can be detained for 8 days without seeing a judge and then held for 6 months in order to prevent them committing crimes, although they have a right to a defence they are not told what crimes they allegedly might have committed so its obviously a little difficult - 2,000 people are held like this). they pulled people off often by the neck or hair and then held the man blindfolded him and took him away. After a while the demonstration finished but there were running battles between youths throwing stones and soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets. We followed the soldiers and kept asking them what they were doing, which means we narrowly missed the odd stone.

I travelled from there t Tel Rumeida where there is an Israeli settlement, these settlers are nutcases, there are no other words for it. Very few of them work but they are funded by Israeli Jews who basically believe that they are reclaiming the holy land and they constantly attack Palestinians. two weeks ago they bottled one of my colleagues and almost blinded her, her vision is still not perfect. ( http://www.telrumeidaproject.org/Proposal_Background.html for info about another group working here). Our job is to make sure that they let the children get to school and back and generally be a presence to make the Palestinians feel safe. the street I am on was deserted but was once the main street, a checkpoint and the forced shutting of all shops (for security obviously). Many shops have been grafittied by pro Israel support. Although there was little trouble today when the children left school, one settler got a little close, I was threatened by Israeli soldiers.

They were on a patrol and one of them walked towards me but was called off, he then proceeded to kick stones and make remarks, he then came over to me and asked what i was doing. i said i was looking around, he then said that's a lie, we went on and he searched my bag of oranges (3 times!) and asked what was in my pocket (a video camera) - he then said it is dangerous here for you, you leave tomorrow. He kept repeating this while getting closer and closer to me and repeating this saying look into his eyes, its not safe. he then asked what I thought of Jews, what my Jewish friends thought of me and then kept repeating its not safe. its very threatening and with 4 soldiers with guns its not particularly nice. I had been intending on doing that but now I'm going to bloody stay.

Settlers continued to spit and shout a little but there were lots of foreign ones (come to see how their millions are spent) who would say hello to us and were quickly told not to - obviously we don't look like the devil we are made out to be! The settlers hate us and i feel little compassion for them, i saw one bitten by a dog and didn't feel much compassion. I can see how easily the Palestinians can see these people as subhuman, most of the soldiers dislike then. this settlement is guarded by 4 soldiers to every one settler ! One soldier when questioned by a friend said he didn't want to pull out of the west bank as even though they should never have invaded it would destroy the fabric of Israel. when questioned a bit more essentially his views are: if we pull out these nutters move back to Israel!

Many Palestinians who I talk to ask what people in England think of them and almost beg me to make sure you all know that they are an intelligent, articulte group who feels their labnd has been taken and feel they have the right to resist. But they are not monsters, whatthey want is justice and peace