so yesterday i went on an alternative tour to bethlehem and hebron in the west bank to get an idea of what life is like on the other side of the security fence/separation barrier/really big wall. i'll post some reflections in a bit, but for now i'll just do the photo portion. the experience was intense, moving, sad, exciting and hopeful all at once...on to the visuals. above is the mosque (ibrahami) portion of where the tombs of abraham, sarah, issac and rebekah are thought to exist (also called tomb of the patriarchs). it is split exactly in the middle; on one side a synagogue and the other a mosque with equal viewing of the tombs (the acutal ones are thought to be 20ish meters down, but there are large tombs above each site).
this is the tomb of abraham. sadly, the mosque side is also the site of Baruch Goldstein's brutal massacre of 29 Palestinians (and injuring of 100 more). The israeli settler entered with a machine gun, waited until the worshipers had their heads to the ground in prayer, and then opened fire on them. There are still bullet holes in the walls, and the local imam lived to tell us the tale. the view of the locals (palestinians) is that the holy site used to belong to the Hebron Palestinian population. After the Goldstein massacre, Israel split it into two, in essence re-punishing the Palestinians whose population had just been massacred. a good article on the reopening:
http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N55/hebron.55w.html (its worth noting that there was also violence against israelis but not to the outright massacre during prayer like goldstein)
gorgeous carpets in the mosque...
male jews at daily prayer on the synagogue side, looking at the tomb of sarah.
displaying the torah.
a young man wearing tfillim (in english, phalacteries - ugly word) the prayer box on his head and strap wrapped around his left forearm.
sitting outside the mosque/synagogue watching the checkpoint out of the area. residents are not allowed to drive into the area and what was once a thriving commercial district is now an empty area with only a few families left and a couple souvenir shops. settlers (zionist israelis) are given tax incentives to live in these areas either buying out or pushing out via violence the palestinians that live there. large sections are off limits to palestinians where israelis go where they please. there are also two types of settlers i learned from our guide samer. some live in the separate/new city areas around hebron and bethlehem and do so almost exclusively for monetary reasons (cheaper already and tax breaks built in) and also do not usually feel any animosity or sense of forceful occupation against the palestinians. the other kind of settlers move purposefully into palestinian neighborhoods like hebron, building on top of old palestinian homes and participating in near daily acts of torture against the palestinians themselves; throwing trash out their windows onto their market place, stabbing holes in palestinian water tanks (ruining them completely) and whatever else they can think of. this is all justified under the guise of zionist judaism, that god promised them this land and it is their's to take by whatever means necessary.
the children of the shop owner where we hung out listening to their stories and watching everyday life.
this is looking up from the palestinian market street. the barbed wire and fencing has been put over the street to prevent the garbage and refuse from dropping onto the people as they buy food and other necessities. settlers here always mark their homes clearly with an israeli flag, purposefully inciting feelings of cosmic war.
we were able to visit one of the only remaining palestinian homes above the first level. they are constantly warding off settler violence, as they have been told that because of the location of their home (settler level) they are not allowed to have locks on their doors; allowing for things like the above photo to happen. one night when no one was home, luckily, a settler set fire to their upmost bedroom where the men of the family used to sleep. now they all (2 parents, 5 children) sleep in one room in the middle floor of the home in an attempt at security.
this is samer and the youngest girl in the family. from their roof they are watched by an israeli sniper post only 100ft or so away. he said a couple things to us and didn't even have to yell he's that close. (he didn't want us taking his picture). samer, like most men his age, participated in the first intifada, which he summarizes as: a bunch of us throwing rocks...just out of frustration and only out of the oppression from the army, never a hatred of jews/israelis themselves. their parents didn't want them involved, so their code when going out at night was "let's go drink wine"...
a comic in the hebron community sustainability and development office. it says: from israeli boy: "my father told me that you are evil terrorist animals!" from palestinian boy: "my father told me nothing! he was murdered by yours..." it was a contest from a chicago newspaper to bring awareness to the civil rights violations and violence that plague the west bank. the community organization works to help palestinians stay in their home and preserve the hebron culture in any way they can so it is not lost to settlers.
near the entrance to the dheisheh refugee camp. started in 1948 after the triumph of israel in establishing statehood it is populated by all the palestinians kicked out of jerusalem and surrounding areas to make way for the jewish immigrants. in the 50s the UN funded the building of one room, one level houses (one per family) thus making the area a permanent housing 'solution' for the palestinians. it was always very difficult to find work from the camp but after the second intifada (and during a period of 10 years in the 80s/90s when a complete fence encircled the area with no cars allowed in and only one entry/exit) it became impossible. palestinians are not allowed to travel into jerusalem (the largest job market) and around 70% of the refugees are regularly unemployed.
a community activist from the ibdaa cultural center giving us the background of the refugee camp and the work the center does to empower youth and advocate for the community.
an example of the original 50s housing that has been updated and expanded. entire families still live in this amount of space.
the west bank is also the site of bethlehem and the church of the nativity above where jesus was born.
touching the marker of jesus' birthplace
inside the manger area.
a poster in samer's office that i thought was hilarious: drink palestinian: taste the revolution.
the view from samer's deck of the settlements on the other hill.
the next day i visited the yad vashem holocaust memorial, a stark contrast to the day spent in the west bank. this is the exit to the street, inscribed with a quote from ezekiel: i will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and i will set you upon your own soil... (37:14)
so yesterday i went on an alternative tour to bethlehem and hebron in the west bank to get an idea of what life is like on the other side of the security fence/separation barrier/really big wall. i'll post some reflections in a bit, but for now i'll just do the photo portion. the experience was intense, moving, sad, exciting and hopeful all at once...on to the visuals. above is the mosque (ibrahami) portion of where the tombs of abraham, sarah, issac and rebekah are thought to exist (also called tomb of the patriarchs). it is split exactly in the middle; on one side a synagogue and the other a mosque with equal viewing of the tombs (the acutal ones are thought to be 20ish meters down, but there are large tombs above each site).
this is the tomb of abraham. sadly, the mosque side is also the site of Baruch Goldstein's brutal massacre of 29 Palestinians (and injuring of 100 more). The israeli settler entered with a machine gun, waited until the worshipers had their heads to the ground in prayer, and then opened fire on them. There are still bullet holes in the walls, and the local imam lived to tell us the tale. the view of the locals (palestinians) is that the holy site used to belong to the Hebron Palestinian population. After the Goldstein massacre, Israel split it into two, in essence re-punishing the Palestinians whose population had just been massacred. a good article on the reopening: http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N55/hebron.55w.html (its worth noting that there was also violence against israelis but not to the outright massacre during prayer like goldstein)
gorgeous carpets in the mosque...
male jews at daily prayer on the synagogue side, looking at the tomb of sarah.
displaying the torah.
a young man wearing tfillim (in english, phalacteries - ugly word) the prayer box on his head and strap wrapped around his left forearm.
sitting outside the mosque/synagogue watching the checkpoint out of the area. residents are not allowed to drive into the area and what was once a thriving commercial district is now an empty area with only a few families left and a couple souvenir shops. settlers (zionist israelis) are given tax incentives to live in these areas either buying out or pushing out via violence the palestinians that live there. large sections are off limits to palestinians where israelis go where they please. there are also two types of settlers i learned from our guide samer. some live in the separate/new city areas around hebron and bethlehem and do so almost exclusively for monetary reasons (cheaper already and tax breaks built in) and also do not usually feel any animosity or sense of forceful occupation against the palestinians. the other kind of settlers move purposefully into palestinian neighborhoods like hebron, building on top of old palestinian homes and participating in near daily acts of torture against the palestinians themselves; throwing trash out their windows onto their market place, stabbing holes in palestinian water tanks (ruining them completely) and whatever else they can think of. this is all justified under the guise of zionist judaism, that god promised them this land and it is their's to take by whatever means necessary.
the children of the shop owner where we hung out listening to their stories and watching everyday life.
this is looking up from the palestinian market street. the barbed wire and fencing has been put over the street to prevent the garbage and refuse from dropping onto the people as they buy food and other necessities. settlers here always mark their homes clearly with an israeli flag, purposefully inciting feelings of cosmic war.
we were able to visit one of the only remaining palestinian homes above the first level. they are constantly warding off settler violence, as they have been told that because of the location of their home (settler level) they are not allowed to have locks on their doors; allowing for things like the above photo to happen. one night when no one was home, luckily, a settler set fire to their upmost bedroom where the men of the family used to sleep. now they all (2 parents, 5 children) sleep in one room in the middle floor of the home in an attempt at security. 
this is samer and the youngest girl in the family. from their roof they are watched by an israeli sniper post only 100ft or so away. he said a couple things to us and didn't even have to yell he's that close. (he didn't want us taking his picture). samer, like most men his age, participated in the first intifada, which he summarizes as: a bunch of us throwing rocks...just out of frustration and only out of the oppression from the army, never a hatred of jews/israelis themselves. their parents didn't want them involved, so their code when going out at night was "let's go drink wine"...
a comic in the hebron community sustainability and development office. it says: from israeli boy: "my father told me that you are evil terrorist animals!" from palestinian boy: "my father told me nothing! he was murdered by yours..." it was a contest from a chicago newspaper to bring awareness to the civil rights violations and violence that plague the west bank. the community organization works to help palestinians stay in their home and preserve the hebron culture in any way they can so it is not lost to settlers.
near the entrance to the dheisheh refugee camp. started in 1948 after the triumph of israel in establishing statehood it is populated by all the palestinians kicked out of jerusalem and surrounding areas to make way for the jewish immigrants. in the 50s the UN funded the building of one room, one level houses (one per family) thus making the area a permanent housing 'solution' for the palestinians. it was always very difficult to find work from the camp but after the second intifada (and during a period of 10 years in the 80s/90s when a complete fence encircled the area with no cars allowed in and only one entry/exit) it became impossible. palestinians are not allowed to travel into jerusalem (the largest job market) and around 70% of the refugees are regularly unemployed.
a community activist from the ibdaa cultural center giving us the background of the refugee camp and the work the center does to empower youth and advocate for the community.
an example of the original 50s housing that has been updated and expanded. entire families still live in this amount of space.
the west bank is also the site of bethlehem and the church of the nativity above where jesus was born.
touching the marker of jesus' birthplace
inside the manger area.
a poster in samer's office that i thought was hilarious: drink palestinian: taste the revolution.
the view from samer's deck of the settlements on the other hill.
the next day i visited the yad vashem holocaust memorial, a stark contrast to the day spent in the west bank. this is the exit to the street, inscribed with a quote from ezekiel: i will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and i will set you upon your own soil... (37:14)
I really can hardly believe that you're actually doing all this... that you're experiencing all of this! Your words and pictures are incredible! I can't wait to be back together and hear more abotu it... in person!
ReplyDeleteLove you much... stay safe!!