DAY TRIP: HEBRON
Ahmed took us on a tour of the Old City of Hebron. The area was heavily guarded with checkpoints and military personnel. The streets of the Old City were full of merchandise for tourists and food for the locals. Our tour began with Ahmed explaining that local merchants had to install fencing on top of the market corridors because of settler violence. Settlers live on top of the markets and occasionally throw rocks or garbage down to the streets of the market. We were able to stand on the roof of one of the buildings and see where Israeli security forces were posted and divided the land. There are a couple of settlements that surround the area. Our group was then able to shop before heading to lunch. We had lunch at Ahmed’s home before heading out to meet with Youth Against Settlements. This organization is a non-partisan activist group that seeks to end Israeli colonization activities in Palestine through non-violent popular struggle and civil disobedience. Issa, their director, explained to us that their headquarters is between two settlements and most of the anger towards the group comes from the fact that the government cannot expand the settlements because they need Issa’s land to do so. The YAS building has been the target of much settler violence such as having their trees uprooted, home burned, and recently was shot at. Issa himself has experienced beatings and unfair arrests by settlers and the Israeli police. We then met with a member of the Christian Peacemakers Team that aims at building partnerships to transform violence and oppression. We went south of Hebron to look at firing zone 918. This firing zone is being used by the Israeli military for training purposes, in spite of that fact that there are Palestinians living on the land. They pointed out to us that the Israeli military training zone is well within the green lines and therefore should be condemned as illegal. Once again, defenseless Palestinians families are having their human rights ignored and living in a dangerous situation.