11/24/2009
The last day of my week in Beit Ommar started with promise: last visit to the kindergarten and a visit to Hebron escorted by our new Palestinian English students..this would be a field trip of 'English only' as these two university students understand pretty well but are reluctant to practice in front of the older more experienced Palestinians...

I was thrilled to visit the kindergarten and find that the teachers and children were increasingly comfortable taking on the yoga, rhythm and 'parachute' activities I brought with me and had been practicing with them during the past mornings..my goal was for them to continue the routine after I left, especially if the promised translation of the program material into Arab materializes,,,

However, back at the house I was told that during the night the Israeli military had come into the town and occupied the top floor of a house under construction. I had noticed an Israeli jeep driving up that particular street the day before so the occupation was clearly well planned in advance. That this is AREA A, supposedly under complete Palestinian control makes no difference when the military decides to move in, proclaiming a new security zone. This was of concern as a common scenario is for the military to take a house and then turn it over to settlers who then fan out to take neighboring houses and on down the hill to establish an entirely new expanding settlement.

The three of us' internationals' joined Palestinians to go to the House, determine what was happening so a plan could be made. The owner, a doctor who speaks excellent English, said the soldiers had come at 4 am and prevented him from entering when he arrived soon after. It was clear why this would be an important house as it was high on a hill overlooking the main road and on a dead end with only several other houses nearby.

We accompanied Mouse up a rickety ladder leading to the second floor asking to speak with the army officer in charge. Long story short is that based on my earlier experience in Palestine I knew that when an area is proclaimed 'closed for security purposes' the army is supposed to have supporting documents. So I repeatedly asked for the documents, was told they would arrive shortly, was suitably outraged which didn't seem to matter a great deal. The soldiers said Higher Ups with explanations would arrive shortly which after 30 minutes clearly wasn't going to happen so were told to go ahead with our Hebron trip and return to the house later.

Hebron with our Palestinian students was amazing..very different than the Tours I had been on earlier in that Wael and Amir took us in to the Last Stand homes of Palestinians surrounded by Israeli settlers who have moved in to top stories of many of the buildings leaving ghost areas below. One man showed us his windows, which the Israelis had boarded up, and introduced us to his son who had eye injuries from "bad water' thrown by the settlers. In fact, settler children, in a top story school threw mud and other refuse on us walking below. This is commonplace and the Palestinians have erected overhead screens to catch the garbage and whatever thrown down. Despite being a garbage target we were thoroughly enjoying our tour until we ran into Israeli soldiers who gave our Palestinian students a very hard time. This happened repeatedly and gave us a thorough sense of what young Palestinian men routinely experience..Our friends humiliated in front of us, their guests in their city, were pretty crushed.

Back in Beit Ommar the military continued to occupy the house and plans were underway for a nonviolent protest the next day. As I was rapidly coming down with a cold and no voice I decided to opt for a warmer night in Bethlehem ( too many kids with runny noses, too cold in the stone-house, and too much cig smoke) and that I would return the next day. The next morning I was informed that the military had occupied a second house during the night, evicting a family but then early in the morning packed up their gear and left the area. These house occupations were most likely, I am told a training exercise, no matter that it severely disrupted and frightened very real Palestinian families who simply have no recourse. I have also been told more than once that such training activities happen routinely inside the Bethlehem Aida refugee camp which is boarded on two sides by the Wall with its guard towers from where Israeli soldiers often shine strobe lights and fire live ammunition into the camp at night.

Several days later in Jerusalem I returned to the families who had been evicted by the settlers to find a large party of internationals, Palestinians and Israelis in the street in front of the occupied house drumming, chanting, singing. This effort apparently has been so successful that the settlers have not been able to engage in their (in your face) public Friday prayers on the street, today even the Israeli soldiers and police are keeping the settlers from provoking the Palestinians. A satisfying experience in nonviolent solidarity!

Take care,

Ridgely