It happens so that situation in Hebron (West Bank) is quite a hot one at the moment. Willing to see it for ourselves and meet with one organization, we set out for a day to Hebron .
Hebron is not far away from Bethlehem, normally it is around 20 minutes drive by bus. Now, it can take a few hours if the soldiers at the checkpoints wish so.
We sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery, hills rising up and valleys in between. It is a poor scenery, as far as our eyes can reach, it's sand and rocks, vegetation is a rare sight. Definitely not a farmland.
We pass by the first checkpoint, soldiers do not stop us, though there are plenty of them, with brown-greenish uniforms, bulletprooved jackets and huge automats (what the hell are they doing in Palestinian teritories?)
We slowly drive by, succesfully!
Arriving to Hebron I scan the news in my head what I have read about Hebron the day before. The day before, there has been again an attack of Israeli settlers towards the Hebron citizens. The headline of the newspaper "Israeli youth severly hurt by the stone throwers in Hebron ". So, when Izraeli settlers go in the town with guns and attack the civilians for fun, if you do not have any guns, there is not much else to do in the act of defense, but to throw a stone. Definitely, not out of pleasure.
We don't reach the final stop in Hebron center, because the street is jammed with vehichles and people. We get out to see what is happening and soon enough we get to know that it is a group of university students protesting against the Israeli settlers attacks. I can feel in my fingertips, that situation is hot and the tension is huge.
We proceed towards the center, looking for a phonebox to call. A friendly passenger from our bus guides us through the crowed, from which every second step we are being stoped by children and youth and questioned where we are from and "you are very welcome" in return.
Not long after we end up in a fairly fancy shopping mall, in front of the computer shop. Appears that the friendly passenger is working here and we can call from here. We say hello to the smiling colleagues of our guide and before we know, they have already called our contact Anas. They show us to follow them. We try not to miss any opportunities and obidiently follow the two computer shop workers. Soon enough we are in their car and they are driving us to meet Anas. With broken English they explain us a little about the situation in the town, give us company pens and phone number "If you need anything, call me".
We find Anas well busy in between different projects. He has a very short time, but quickly describes what the organization "International relief. School online" does and what he is busy with at the moment. Now, together with the Yellow Pages, they are trying to make the map of the Palestinian territory (which is ever changing), because there is no map which would represent the real area left.
We also see many bags with clothes, that is the project, where the Palestinians give their unnecessary old clothes and in the organization they clean them and give it to the poorest in the city.
Anas invites us for a short trip in the Old town of Hebron , where the whole situation between the Israeli settlers and Palestinians is boiling.
We walk on a small street, which not long ago has been one of the busiest markets in the town, but where there are only few sellers left by now. The majority has left (or were killed) due to the horrible treatment of Israelis.
We walk, and it is not the sun which is shining on us from the top of the narrow street, no. It is a metal fence covering our heads, protecting from the piles of garbage laying on it. The street and the ground floor is still a palestinian market, if we can call it so anymore, on the first floor it is the Israeli kingdom. Down you can only see a few still struggling to live there, in their homeland for generations, but on top it is a different world.
It's hard to explain, but imagine that you have a two floor house. One day someone with the guns come in your house and tell you that the second floor is their now. They humiliate you, mistreat, kill your brothers and sisters. What's left? Either run or fight while knowing that you are right. It is not possible to understand where the whole world looks and why the international community is supporting this, even when it is clearly illeagal according the international law.
And so we walk on that street, covered with the fence which holds piles and piles of garbage, thrown there by the Israeli teenage soldiers and settlers. Locals tell us that it is worse when they spill waste water on their heads or pee from upstairs.
In one house we get to know there is still a family struggling to live and we get a possibility to go up on the roof and look around to the side which is Israeli now(all the roofs here are horizantal and connected with each other).
Anas translates the story of the boy who lives here.
"One day Israel soldiers came and proposed money, that the family would move out. When the family disagreed, the soldiers put all the family in one tiny room and kept them for two days not letting anyone out, not even for the bathroom. They killed 2 brothers of the boy and left... There are all kind of attacks and humiliations ever since, its their daily life now, and there are hundreds of stories here alike... (Is it still amazing, that living like that you are full of anger and hopelessness, is it still a wonder why there suicide bombers appearing once in a while?). While on the roof we are warned not to show our cameras and not to take pictures, they are afraid of security and omnipresent eyes of Israeli soldiers and settlers. They make a "joke" - "they will photograph you". True enough, downstairs we see 2 teenager Jewish boys taking pictures of us and angrily shouting something. We can feel something coming up and get down from the roof. At the end of the street there is Abraham mosque.
To get there, there are several checkpoints. Check point is nothing else but metal bars, metal detectors and definitely Israeli attributes - armed to their teeth teenage soldiers.
Abraham mosque is important for 3 main monotheistic religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In 1994, here happened one of the most cruel assassinations. During the prayer time one Israeli came inside the mosque and started shooting and throwing bombs at the praying defenseless people. He killed 36 Palestinians. After investigations he was called as mentally sick and that's it. Yahoo, let's wait for another attack and if Palestinians will try to defend themselves, we will all stand to fight against "terrorism". Now, Abraham mosque is divided into two parts, one (the small one) is for Palestinians and tourists, the other for Israelis, where they play loud music during the prayer time, again to humiliate and disrespect the Muslim prayer house.
We walk in the Palestinian side and count the bullet marks in the walls... we lose the number and leave...
On the way back, the same boy, whose roof we had visited, runs to us and says "come, see, they are burning my house right now". (It was 30 minutes at max, since we have left the roof).
We climb and smell the strong smell of burning (which has already become usual during the visit in Palestine, just not as strong). From the roof we can see the burning ground floor, where the family lives. It was those 2 boys, who were taking the pictures of us. They put it on fire, because noone there likes that Palestinians bring internationals there, they do not need the witnesses of the horrible conditions that they have made for Palestinians there. Internationals have the power to go back to their countries and spread the word of what is really happening.
It made me sick to see the result of our being there. Can't imagine the feeling of the fault, of knowing that someones house burns because of you. But the boy doesn't show any hard feelings to us, it has become his daily life, he even encourages us to take pictures now, because we are his only hope. Only hope of all Palestinians, that one day the international world will say "enough is enough".
Unfortunatelly it is 60 years now that occupation is living and blooming with the blessing of International community.
Depressed we walk towards the car, situation is getting more and more tense... now in the street there are plenty of soldiers, who were not present just an hour ago...
We drive a few meters and are stopped by the soldiers, ordered to turn the engine off. In front of us we see a small girls school and all the girls are put in the yard and "secured" by the soldiers with pointing guns. Something is going on... The girls are screaming and its difficult for me just to see and hear that.
At the same spot there is already a group of journalists armed with helmets. Have you ever seen a journalist with a helmet to secure themselves from shots in head???
Deep inside we know that all this is connected to the fire just a few minutes away and the conflict there...
We are allowed to drive.
After this short and shocking visit in the Old town Anas is in a hurry to his projects, so we get off in the center and look for a place to eat. We have some time before the meeting with the "Palestinian children art center".
We walk in the street until we find a bakery. Here, once again we are greeted with amazing Palestinian hospitality. We buy soft drinks and they give us buns for free. Respect to Palestinians, so far we have only received the best treatment, hospitality and helpfulness. We have a lot to do back in Europe, to let people know.
Again we look for the phone, in need to contact Salih, the member from PCAC, who we have the appointment with. Again, with the help of local people, we get someones mobile, this time in the firefighters office. Again, no one understands english, and we don't understand arabic, but friendly and helpful atmosphere is omnipresent. A few minutes later Salih picks us up from the firefighters station.
While driving through the city, he explains us that the situation is veru difficult in the city now and that part of the roads have been closed suddenly, that's why the jam of the cars and the traffic which is not understandable by human brain has now filled the rest of the open streets.
Once in the organization, he welcomes us as the ambasadors abroad and suggests us shawrmas and tells more about the Hebron situation and finally about the organization. I won't go in details what they do, but we got an impression that it is a very open organization which is making many great projects with the kids and teenagers. Salih himslef is the best example of the devotion to the children education and will to give them back their childhoods. Salih is also a profesional artist and he suggests us his drawings exhibition, which we should exhibit in Europe. It's called "100 ways to Peace from Palestine". We have a duty now.
3 hours talking with Salih pass as fast as 3 seconds and we need to head back to Betlehem. This time it takes us much longer to make the same road, due to the car accident.
We come home in Bethlehem filled with various emotions. Happy to realize what it means to be free. I realized how many times I spit the phrase "I live in a free country, I can do what I want" without understanding the real value of it.
