Days 10 & 11 of the Delegation: Israeli Terrorism in Al-Khalil (Hebron) & the Zionization of Jerusalem

Day 10 of the Delegation: Israeli Terrorism in Al-Khalil (Hebron)

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Today, we visited Al-Khalil (Hebron) and met with representatives of Human Rights Defenders, as well as with one of the last remaining residents of the Israeli-controlled H2 area.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiated over control of Al-Khalil, which is the burial place of Abraham, an important figure in all three monotheistic religions. The result of the negotiation was that two sections were created in Al-Khalil, H1 and H2. H1 was placed under PA control, and H2, which includes the Old City, under Israeli military control, even though it is a Palestinian neighborhood.

Ever since that agreement, illegal Israeli settlers, with the support of the Israeli military and government, regularly attack the Palestinians in H2, and have evicted almost all of them from their homes. (The photo above shows the desolation of the streets in mid-day.)

Members of Human Rights Defenders told us that they document the crimes committed daily against the people of Al-Khalil, including attacks by settlers, as well as harassment and extrajudicial executions by the Israeli military. The organization trains people who live in H2 to use cameras to document abuses, in hopes that exposing the settlers and military will lead to some kind of international protection for the Palestinians.

This work, however, is very dangerous, and targets its members for attack. One of the men who met with us reported that settlers had stormed his house and beat him, his wife, and his children just two days prior to our meeting. The attack was so severe that his wife was still recovering, and needed to go back to the hospital for additional treatment.

The meeting with the Human Rights Defenders took place in the home of one of the last families holding out in H2, that of Abed Al-Muhtasim (aka Abu Muhammad, at left below). He and his family have a home and store in the Old City, directly in front of a military station, and across the street from a welcome center used by settlers and Birthright Israel participants.

The Israelis have tried everything to force Abu Muhammad and his family out of their home, including bribery, arrest, and physical attacks. Recently, Baruch Marzel, an ultra-right-wing Israeli politician, organized a gang of 20 settlers to attack Abu Muhammad and his family, smashing all the goods in their store. This happened directly in front of Israeli soldiers, whose sole job is to defend the settlers and their racist agenda in Al-Khalil.

We recorded Abu Muhammad live on Facebook, and despite Israel’s terrorism against the Palestinians in Al-Khalil, he expressed hope for the future, telling us that his family was chosen to bear this burden because they are strong.

“We were here before the Israelis, and we will be here long after them,” he said, making us promise to visit again after Israeli colonization is defeated. We, of course, accepted the invitation.

Until Liberation & Return,

USPCN
June 11, 2018

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Day 11 of the Delegation: the Zionization of Jerusalem

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Our last morning in the West Bank began with the steadfast Bedouin community within Area C. (“Under full Israeli civil administration and security control, Area C is the largest division in the West Bank, comprising 60 percent of the territory.”) Its local schools and homes currently face demolition orders from the Israeli occupiers, who want to force the Bedouins into a planned community called “Bethany,” to make way for more illegal, Jewish-only settlements.

A rally led by children as young as seven years old was recently organized at the Bedouin school, demanding that the Israelis halt their demolition plans immediately. Major press, including the New York Times, covered it, attracting UN and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials; but, as soon as the media left, both parties followed suit.

The Bedouin leader we sat down with expressed that he did not believe the officials were acting in good faith, and was also certain that, if Israeli bulldozers were to begin demolishing the village at that very moment, the UN and the PA would do nothing to stop it.

By the afternoon, we finally arrived in glorious Jerusalem, where we bore witness to some of the most ugly and intense faces of Israeli colonialism, including the apartheid wall literally dividing Palestinian property in half and separating families (image at right). Our local guide, Daoud, is from Jerusalem, and his family has lived in the neighborhood of Silwan for the past 200 years—long before there was even an idea called the zionist movement, let alone a “Jewish state” called Israel.

Daoud artfully explained how the Israeli government set out a strategic national plan exclusively for Jerusalem, using tourism as a tool to steal more Arab land for the illegal settlements. As we walked across the Old City, he told us that the streets were emptied of their original Palestinian small shops, which were not able to compete with the giant, multi-national corporations like Zara and North Face that had taken over. Israel set a goal of 10 million tourists per year to Jerusalem by 2050, which would vastly increase the global reach of its racist propaganda.

As Jerusalem is turned into a type of open museum for tourists, which will eventually price out Palestinian residents (similar to gentrification in the U.S.), the public transportation system is also designed to continue the zionization of the city. The train in Jerusalem currently links together eight settlements, and additional construction will eventually link all the illegal settlements in Palestine to the center of the city.

As Daoud brought us to an area, Sheikh Jarrah, of strong Palestinian resistance, we were met with the harsh view of giant Israeli flags lined up on the roof of a Palestinian-owned building stolen by settlers. Meanwhile, it is officially illegal to display a Palestinian flag in Jerusalem.

Daoud’s eyes glowed with anger as he described how the settlers in this area forced out several Palestinian families, attacking the elderly with dogs. He also exposed something we already knew, that reactionary Arab governments, such as the United Arab Emirates, help facilitate “fake deals” to trick Palestinian building owners into thinking they are selling their homes to Arabs, when they are actually being sold to settler organizations. (Image at left of illegal Israeli settlements in the Jerusalem area.)

In addition, Palestinian youth in Sheikh Jarrah are harassed and arrested regularly by Israeli police, and in general, the largest number of arrests of Palestinian children occurs in Jerusalem. (See our report from Day 6 for more on Israeli arrests of children.)

We ended our political tour of the Old City on an uplifting note, by visiting Al Bustan, the youth center Daoud co-founded to address the immediate social needs of Palestinian youth imprisoned by the Israelis. At the roof of the center is a skeleton of a tent, which the Israelis destroyed as part of their repeated attacks against Palestinian Jerusalemites.

The final thing Daoud emphasized was that the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem would continue to fight for their right to stay in their homes, and in their eternal capital Al Quds.

#JerusalemIsTheCapitalOfPalestine

Until Liberation & Return,

USPCN
June 12, 2018