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Friday, 28 October 2005 (Trans. from Hebrew)

We were a group of around 80 people, that set out in two buses from Jerusalem to pay a visit to Hebron. The visit was coordinated in advance with the IDF and the police. These are my subjective experiences, from my personal perspective.

Hebron - a city without law and order, lacking any semblance of humanity. A city with a massive military and police presence, hordes of settlers and violence in similar proportions. A city where the Occupation is most faithfully reflected.

On our way to Kiryat Arba, the terror wrought by settlers was already palpable.

A new outpost had been established the night before. Ten youths had built a hut, seized a small shoe-factory, and the army naturally immediately came to guard them, although the IDF spokesperson reported that the outpost had been evacuated (possibly a virtual evacuation). We saw those scruffy, brainwashed youngsters, full of hate for other human. Full of themselves.

The 'heroes' outpost' was alive and well. In the early morning, once they'd finished building the outpost, they took a break to carry out a pogrom among the neighbours whose shoe-factory they had expropriated. Their house was destroyed, windows smashed by stones thrown by those appalling young people. Graffiti was sprayed on the walls 'Muhammad is a pig', 'Kahana lives." and other repellent slogans. As we made our way up the dirt track from the bus towards the outpost, the youngsters noticed us and phoned 'their forces'.

We had told the police that we'd arrived. And of course, complying with our advance coordination, we had no plans to demonstrate against the situation, but just to express solidarity with the Palestinian population. We came to learn about Hebron.

The outpost is on the way to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Yet another step by the settlers to seize control of the land in Hebron. To 'purify" the road to the holy site.

The shops lining the route have been closed down under a military order, to avoid 'endangering' Jews who live there and 'must' use the street.the doors and windows of Arab-owned houses close to the settlements have been welded, and the Palestinians are only permitted to leave their homes via a 'detour'.

Absolute separation. Real apartheid. And ethnic cleansing, as well.many Palestinians have abandoned hope and left the city. Many residents remain without any source of livelihood because of the separation policy, and receive parcels from the Red Cross; it's only their source of food.

Teams of observers from Europe and Turkey are on the spot, writing reports that may not be published. As a condition for issuing authorisations for the observers' presence in Israel (the authorisations must be renewed every three months) the Foreign Ministry requires that the reports are submitted to it alone. (This set off a powerful longing to break into their offices, remove the reports and publish them.)

Neither the IDF or the police intervene in cases of settler violence towards Palestinians. It's always open season. A settler child who uses violence is a minor, so the police and the army don't touch him, while a Palestinian child who picks up a stone is a terrorist who may be immobilised or even killed.

The police blocked our approach to the Tomb of the Patriarchs site, detained us, and ultimately the army declared Hebron to be a closed military area. All because of the settler youth in their outpost, who threatened to attack us if we were permitted to continue. The army did everything to avoid a conflict with the settlers. It's much easier to spit at Arabs and simpler to remove the left-wingers because obviously they won't attack the soldiers.

While it overlooks youngsters who set up an 'illegal' outpost (which clearly the state allows and the army backs up), the army is incapable of confronting a population that breaks the most fundamental humanitarian laws, invoking the name of their god of vengeance, and refuses access to law-abiding citizens intent on visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

We weren't looking for a fight nor did we plan to hold a demonstration.

Possibly the only way to see Hebron is by taking on settler attributes - a long skirt, hateful slogans on a T-shirt, brainwashed, and clutching a Bible ..

The policeman announced that we had ten minutes to leave the site.

Once the ten minutes were up, they started removing us on the grounds of 'unlawful assembly'.while the ecstatic settler children looked on from the illegal outpost that had been (virtually) evacuated.

So they pushed us around a little, arrested three of us, and expelled the rest of us in a manner that insults democracy.

Most humiliating and hurtful of all was the fact that the army insisted on accompanying us as we left. Why this concern?

The population with whom we wanted to show our solidarity had to stand to the side, so we could walk in 'safety'. A soldier with a cocked rifle facing off a group of small children, causing them to freeze in place, just not to disturb the Jews walking by. It was appalling.

On our way out, we met a group of Palestinians and started talking to them. We told them the meaning of the situation, that our military entourage was forced on us. One of them plucked up courage and spoke to us openly about the bleak situation. Within seconds a police photographer appeared and took a picture of his features. Afterwards two army officers turned up, took the man to one side and made him stop talking.

In fact we underwent this humiliation so that - heaven forbid - we wouldn't arouse the settlers' anger by walking past their homes. The army knows that the settlers are violent and don't think twice about using force. It is also aware that in terms of the prevailing policy in Israel, it is "permitted, possible, and advisable" for the Palestinians to be oppressed. While the settlers are lords and masters, left-wingers are widely known to be 'worse than the Arabs', so why waste effort on them?

Naturally, as we were pushed along (they pushed the people who didn't keep pace), the attitude of most policeman was violent and repellent: they seemed to have forgotten their original task.

And all because of a group of violent youngsters.

Conclusions:

It's vital to go to Hebron as much as possible, to demonstrate our presence in the face of the power-driven settlers.

It's vital to go to Hebron so we become 'facts on the ground' for the police and the army.

It's vital to go to Hebron to support the Palestinian population that lives out an unending horror film, with a screenplay written by someone with unlimited powers for generating evil.

And it's vital to alert Knesset members - their intervention does wonders.

c. Lizi Sagi 2005.