It's conspicuous that two ethnicities can't co-exist in the Old Quarter of Hebron
Another trip to Hebron aimed at providing a legal support to a known non-violent activist has been leading campaigns to back up the Palestinian residents' resilience in their struggle against the systematic policy of evacuation.
This episode came to add a new experience on previous ones had been garnered in the same city to delve more into the applied Israeli legal system in the Occupied Territories. The organizer, as usual, is an Isreali leftist NGO devoted to defending Palestinian rights which prompt many people within my society to wonder whether there are really impeccable Jewish groups with institutionalized efforts stand up against the Israeli policies? Legal session with Essa (Nasser)
My intuition stirs up this inquiry about what do people think on our side, too. I haven't had the chance to sit down with a lot of people to ask them what do they think about the idea that there are Jewish groups calling for removing the occupation and illegal outposts. For instance, B'Tselem has been outspoken in this field.
Anyhow, this trip to Hebron took place in the Old Quarter where a holy site the "Ibrahimi Mosque" which considered the core of conflict there. This quarter has passed through many phases of fluctuations. The most notorious event occurred in 1994 when an Israeli ultra-orthodox settler broke into the Mosque and opened fire gunning down 29 Palestinian worshippers.
Shortly aftermath, the International Community especially those who had patronized Oslo Peace Accords decided to find an immediate solution to the city by sending an international group of observers called (TIPH).
TIPH's car where the staff on their duty.(Nasser)
Consequently, the entire Mosque was divided up into two parts, one for the Israelis and the other one for the Palestinians. However, the fighting over the entire area hasn't ended up until then. Israelis still claim historical and religious rights which push them to wipe out what's non-Jewish. As a result, many Palestinian residents have moved out seeking safer resort in other parts of the city.
TIPH's car where the staff on their duty.(Nasser)
The general situation inside the old quarter doesn't indicate to a stable status of human coexistence among two ethnicities as long as the atmosphere requires military personnel to stand up in every corner.
The entire historical site is enclaved by a long series of Israeli modern-styled dwellings called (Qaryat Arva) settlement, a well-known of its ultra-orthodox residents and right-wing proponents.
Although I have been residing in Hebron for almost three decades, I have never been to this settlement. The access to it is available and, moreover, it's not walled off so we can't access from the direction of the holy site where it's allowed for us green ID bearers to get into without required permits. There are fenced checkpoints to check pedestrians out.
I have been to only the holy site for several times accompanying my foreign friends in recreational and exploratory trips.
Therefore, my work for this human rights organization has illuminated me about new things I would have never explored in my city, otherwise.
We headed into the settlement after a short stop at the checkpoint installed at the main entrance, we got off to head up to a hill called (Tal Romeda) where a nonviolent activist resides. The first impression I came up with in the mixed neighborhood is the scene of Aleppo in Syria though the situation here is different in terms of no military confrontation with another armed side or guerrilla fighting.
Soldiers are stationed in every corner watching out pedestrians 24 hours, the sensation of hostility is visible, watching towers, metal detectors or other electronic censorship appliances, revolving gates installed at every passageway inside that tiny stifling area featured by tension and precariousness which undoubtedly make the image of the other as a potential assailant at any moment. Thus, the military protection is out-of necessity, because there is no trust in the neighbors who are from the other ethnicity and won't ever be such trust.
Discussing Essa's suit (Nasser)
Essa Amro hosted us, the session was kicked off highlighting his lawsuit at the military court, he is charged with different issues like incitement against the Jewish community there, surpassing the rules, disobedience, and so on and so forth. Our lawyer gave him some legal tips warning him of the compromise had been offered to him by the prosecutor to leave abroad to pursue his master's degree for two years, then all the charges will be nullified. "No doubt, you will be arrested when you come back after finishing your degree," said the lawyer.
It's the shrewdness of the military prosecutors who apply a military law in the (Opt) that we keep speculating about its repercussions. Not because most of us aren't well-educated enough to figure the whole process out. But, I assure that we are still ignorant because we aren't willing to learn the Hebrew language intellectually. How much percentage of Palestinians in the (Opt) understand it from the intellectual perspective? I'm concerned to say that it doesn't overstep 2%, most of them are workers speak only the street language or slang to handle their businesses with their Israeli employers. Furthermore, I have never seen a Palestinian worker carrying a Hebrew written flyer or Haaretz newspaper trying to learn strong Hebrew words. I don't know why there is no initiative to do so. What are they doing in the free time? How do they deal with innumerable legal issues they are exposed to in Israel where everything is in Hebrew? It seems to me the situation is lucrative for the Hebrew-Arabic translators.
My father, for instance, has been a worker there for almost four decades, he only speaks the language street, he can't read and can't write either.
I recall his legal case with some other workers who found themselves stuck with the legal system after they had been tricked by a greedy permit broker who extorted workers to get them working permits in return for a big amount of money covertly which the Israeli Labor Authority didn't have reports about. Those workers ended up being charged with fraudulence issue of fake permits are registered at the customs office that supposedly the Israeli broker had already paid the required taxes.
I had to struggle to find a fluent in Hebrew to explain to us the complicated court's protocol because the whole case was questionable. To overcome this complication, the Palestinian Authority must design curriculums to teach the Hebrew Language at our schools.
A soldier watching out the place around.
At the end of the session, we finished off heading back home. I was a bit surprised to see that settlers on the way back raising cattle in a barn installed within a Western-styled neighborhood. I wondered, did our Palestinian rural lifestyle or peasantry invade those Western inhabitants to raise cattle within inhabited civil area? We Palestinians raise different kinds of cattle and even poultry within residential neighborhoods where the demographic irregularities are remarkable. Thus, questions began hovering over because we have some stereotypes towards Jewish settlers who live in settlements are westernized, if they have livestock business, they set it up at places away from inhabitable areas. I really felt that my curiosity prompts me to come up to that Jewish lady and her son were watering their cattle to ask for their permission to take a picture for them inside the barn. But, I wasn't brave enough, the facial expressions of the soldier who was watching out inside the kiosk installed in front of, made me terrified. The situation has been precarious over the past years we Palestinians are conceived as a potential risk at any moment.
Indeed, the reality in the Old Quarter of Hebron isn't promising at the moment as long as the conflict there can be described as a matter of ethnic existentialism of one group over the other.
The entire historical site is enclaved by a long series of Israeli modern-styled dwellings called (Qaryat Arva) settlement, a well-known of its ultra-orthodox residents and right-wing proponents.
Although I have been residing in Hebron for almost three decades, I have never been to this settlement. The access to it is available and, moreover, it's not walled off so we can't access from the direction of the holy site where it's allowed for us green ID bearers to get into without required permits. There are fenced checkpoints to check pedestrians out.
I have been to only the holy site for several times accompanying my foreign friends in recreational and exploratory trips.
Therefore, my work for this human rights organization has illuminated me about new things I would have never explored in my city, otherwise.
We headed into the settlement after a short stop at the checkpoint installed at the main entrance, we got off to head up to a hill called (Tal Romeda) where a nonviolent activist resides. The first impression I came up with in the mixed neighborhood is the scene of Aleppo in Syria though the situation here is different in terms of no military confrontation with another armed side or guerrilla fighting.
Soldiers are stationed in every corner watching out pedestrians 24 hours, the sensation of hostility is visible, watching towers, metal detectors or other electronic censorship appliances, revolving gates installed at every passageway inside that tiny stifling area featured by tension and precariousness which undoubtedly make the image of the other as a potential assailant at any moment. Thus, the military protection is out-of necessity, because there is no trust in the neighbors who are from the other ethnicity and won't ever be such trust.
Discussing Essa's suit (Nasser)
It's the shrewdness of the military prosecutors who apply a military law in the (Opt) that we keep speculating about its repercussions. Not because most of us aren't well-educated enough to figure the whole process out. But, I assure that we are still ignorant because we aren't willing to learn the Hebrew language intellectually. How much percentage of Palestinians in the (Opt) understand it from the intellectual perspective? I'm concerned to say that it doesn't overstep 2%, most of them are workers speak only the street language or slang to handle their businesses with their Israeli employers. Furthermore, I have never seen a Palestinian worker carrying a Hebrew written flyer or Haaretz newspaper trying to learn strong Hebrew words. I don't know why there is no initiative to do so. What are they doing in the free time? How do they deal with innumerable legal issues they are exposed to in Israel where everything is in Hebrew? It seems to me the situation is lucrative for the Hebrew-Arabic translators.
My father, for instance, has been a worker there for almost four decades, he only speaks the language street, he can't read and can't write either.
I recall his legal case with some other workers who found themselves stuck with the legal system after they had been tricked by a greedy permit broker who extorted workers to get them working permits in return for a big amount of money covertly which the Israeli Labor Authority didn't have reports about. Those workers ended up being charged with fraudulence issue of fake permits are registered at the customs office that supposedly the Israeli broker had already paid the required taxes.
I had to struggle to find a fluent in Hebrew to explain to us the complicated court's protocol because the whole case was questionable. To overcome this complication, the Palestinian Authority must design curriculums to teach the Hebrew Language at our schools.
A soldier watching out the place around.
Indeed, the reality in the Old Quarter of Hebron isn't promising at the moment as long as the conflict there can be described as a matter of ethnic existentialism of one group over the other.
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