Looking through a scope/Al Khalil/Hebron/ 23 October 2009 from Donna Hicks (co-convener, EPF Israel/Palestine Action Group
A friend said that visualizing life in Hebron is “a bit like looking through a powerful telescope – I can see a lot, but different events and scenes are either crushed together or separated so one can’t see more than one at a time.”
Sometimes the events of the day move so swiftly that I think of a kaleidoscope and its ever-changing patterns.
A teammate suggested a microscope – we often talk of Hebron as being a microcosm of the Israeli occupation.
So pick your instrument and join me looking through its eyepiece.
On Wednesday 7 October, the fifth day of Succoth, when Jewish visitors were still flooding the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron, two hundred sixty children passed through a container checkpoint and metal detector to face soldiers who pawed through their bags with their hands or poked through them with a hand-held metal detector.
The next day started out the same. A teacher from the nearby school watched with us. He made a phone call, and the principal came out and lambasted the Israeli military and explained that the children would now move through the side of the checkpoint for people leaving the area. The children streamed through, and the Israeli military could do nothing. The principal turned to us and said, “Did you see that?”
On Monday 19 October I stood outside Hebron’s Old City at the Ibrahimi Mosque gate to see how many Palestinians would have to submit their bags to the Israeli border police to be searched. I alternate between this checkpoint and the Qitoun checkpoint I described earlier. In this very conservative Muslim society, some of the men passing by every day have begun speaking to me – not a usual thing. One stopped, and asked, “Are you an observer?” “Yes.” “Where are you from?” “From Amrika,” I replied. “What do you think of our situation?” “I’ve been coming here for eight years, and it is worse.” “How is it worse?” That was hard to put into a few words. I tried: “It is more entrenched.” Then he shook my hand and touched his hand to his heart and moved on.
On Tuesday 20 October, Tony Blair breezed through the Old City. After meeting with local government leaders, he visited the Ibrahimi Mosque, entering through a gate not normally open to the Palestinian community. He walked around the block in the Old City afterwards, but hardly had the opportunity to speak with shopkeepers or residents of the Old City about what they live through every day. I know because we followed him on the walkabout.
As you look through your instrument of choice, acknowledge and celebrate the steadfastness of the children, women, and men of the Palestinian community living in the forty-second year of the Israeli occupation. Remember the Palestinians in Hebron and throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem who are nonviolently resisting this occupation. Remember the Israelis and internationals standing with them and supporting them in their nonviolent resistance. Remember the practitioners of violence on every side. Hold them in the light and strive to see that which is of God in each and every one. And pray for a peace with justice. Soon.
