Behind the Wall - 'Two hours in Al-Khalil'

by Rich Wiles

Palestine is an Occupied country, of that there is no question. Within the
country, the Occupation manifests itself in many different forms and faces.
One of the most visually obvious aspects of the Occupation, in human form,
is in the city of Al Khalil.

Al Khalil is the only city in which Zionist settlers have actually succeeded
in 'permanent' residence actually inside the Palestinian city. I say
'permanent' not because I believe they will always remain, or because they
have any right to be there, but because they live there currently, and have
done for many years. They have Occupied large parts of the city and both
forcibly and violently chased Palestinian residents from their homes and
workplaces.

In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a radical American Jewish Zionist from New York,
walked into Ibrahimi Mosque during Ramadan prayers and opened fire on
Palestinian worshippers killing twenty-nine as he shot them through the
back. Goldstein was also a qualified physician. He was eventually beaten to
death by survivors of the attack before he could escape. Goldstein was
buried in a 'shrine' in the Zionist settlement of Kiryat Arba in Al-Khalil,
and his 'shrine' is visited and worshipped by many of the Settlers.

Goldstein's massacre is one of the most famous examples of Settler attacks
in Al-Khalil, but in reality it is simply one of many hundreds or thousands.
I used to work in the Tel Rumeida part of the city were Settlers roam the
streets freely with M-16s or Uzis, and attacks against the Palestinian
population occur on a daily basis. We would walk with Palestinian
schoolchildren to and from school in an attempt to prevent attacks against
them. These children are regularly stoned, beaten, and verbally abused
whilst they attempt to carry out their right to education. Palestinians have
been murdered by Settlers in Tel Rumeida, children have had their teeth
smashed out with stones, the stories are endless. Many Palestinians have
been forced out of Tel Rumeida but those who remain tend to stay off the
streets, and inside their houses, all of which have cages over their smashed
windows, and other physical damage, caused by the Settlers. Al-Khalil's Old
City is much the same. What was once a thriving souk, reputedly one of the
oldest continuously inhabited souks in the world, is these days home to just
a few traders. Shop doors have been welded shut by the Settlers after they
violently evicted the Palestinian owners.

There are an estimated 4-500 Settlers in Al-Khalil and an estimated 2000 IOF
soldiers there to protect them, and protect their right to occupy land and
property, and physically attack or even kill the local population. These IOF
soldiers constantly patrol the city's streets and are visible every single
day. This is not the case in other Palestinian cities where soldiers
regularly invade but do not actually openly patrol the streets on a daily
basis.

We currently have some Greek guests in Aida Camp who wanted to visit
Al-Khalil but were somewhat reluctant to go alone. So knowing the city well,
I offered to take them. Driving south down the infamous Route 60 towards the
city the continuous Settlement block of Gush Etzion provides the clues as to
what lays ahead. This Settlement block now stretches for almost the entire
24kms of the country between Bethlehem and Al-Khalil. Endless amounts of
land continue to be stolen as this block grows at a frightening rate. Upon
reaching Al-Khalil the service stops in the bustling Palestinian marketplace
where Palestinian life looks to be thriving. It doesn't take long to reach
Beit Romano, the deserted square where Ibrahim's Pavement Café has recently
opened, becoming the only one of nineteen shop units that is currently open
in the Square. I took my friends to meet Ibrahim and hear his remarkable
story of a life of resistance. A friend of Ibrahim is also there, I had met
him a few years earlier and also visited what remains of their house, in
which their family has lived for hundreds of years. They were forced from
their house in the Old City years ago:

"The Settlers from Avraham Avinu destroyed much of our house. The Israeli
Army then sealed it off to us, saying this was to 'protect' us from the
Settlers. We took the case to the Israeli Supreme Court and they said we
could move back, but we are still waiting..."

Whilst talking with Ibrahim and his friend I noticed an IOF patrol entering
the square from the Old City direction, I pointed them out to the visitors
although this is nothing unusual here. However, as the patrol neared their
watchtowers I noticed that the seven or eight heavily armed soldiers were
surrounding, and dwarfing, three small Palestinian children. They noticed us
watching and quickly whisked the boys out of sight into the watch-posts and
through the heavy metal gate that leads into one of the areas now solely for
Settlers. These three children looked terrified as they were led away. There
are International groups working in the city to document Human Rights
abuses, such as the arrest of minors, and to intervene if possible, but
nobody is present when the children are led away so I made some phone calls
to contacts in these groups. Members of one of these groups managed to catch
sight of the boys being led into the IOF military camp. She reported that by
that time all three had been blindfolded and were taken into a small metal
cell in the military base. Phone calls were also made to the IOF to let them
know that people were aware of the situation and that they were being
monitored, there is little else that can be done other than to hope that the
exertion of this pressure offers the children some sort of protection. The
groups continue to monitor the situation and make phone calls to various
Human Rights organizations and the Israeli Authorities. I knew there was
little else I could do so I took my guests, one of whom was by this time in
tears at what she had witnessed, down into the Old City, to help them to get
an understanding of the situation down there.

Above the Old City wire fencing has been placed to act as a net which
catches many of the things Settlers throw down onto passers by from the
Palestinian houses they have Occupied on top of the mostly closed shop
units. The streets were as quiet as always, metal shop doors barred and
welded shut.

We stopped at one open shop to talk to an old friend of mine. Jamal used to
run his souvenir shop from near Beit Romano, but moved back down into the
Old City last year in a show of resistance. His family had been chased out
of this shop, their original shop, many years earlier:

"I'm happy to be back in the Old City. This is our real shop and it feels
good to be back. My children are older now, I used to hate them being down
here as young children because it was so dangerous for them to be with me."

Jamal offered us coffee but I explained that we were heading down towards
Ibrahimi Mosque.

"You won't get in there, they (the IOF) have closed the checkpoint again for
the Jewish feast.."

Since Baruch Goldstein's massacre, half of Ibrahimi Mosque has been actually
turned into a Synagogue for the Settlers, it almost seems like a reward for
his actions. On Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and during Jewish religious
holidays, the entire Mosque is closed to alestinians. Only Settlers are
allowed into the area during these times. I took my friends down anyway, at
least to help them to nderstand some of the restrictions enforced on
Palestinians in the city. As Jamal had said the huge iron checkpoint gates
were all locked, no-one could pass through. The Settlers don't have to pass
through checkpoints and can access the Mosque (their Synagogue) from another
route.

Reaching Beit Romano again, we saw a small group gathering, in the midst of
it I was relieved to see the three boys arrested about one and a half hours
earlier. We go over to them and begin to talk to one of them. It turns out
he is the youngest of the three, he is just ten years old: "Our house is
next to the soldiers' camp. They came to our house and said we had been
throwing stones and took us all away. We weren't throwing stones."

The other two boys are eleven and fifteen. The youngest boy continues to
explain what had happened:"When they took us through that gate they took us
to the soldiers' camp. They blindfolded all of us."

I asked him if the soldiers had beaten him. He said they hadn't but that
they had grabbed his head from behind and shaken it very hard. He also had a
deep scratch across his cheekbone which had been caused by the blindfold
being pulled very tight:

"This is the third time they have done this to us."

The young boy then pulls at his hair:

"Look, my hair is starting to fall out."

I asked if the soldiers had pulled his hair, but he said no. He explained
this was just from stress. The boys didn't want to hang around in Beit
Romano, we all knew we were being watched as we stood there. They were eager
to get home again and soon disappeared.

My two friends had wanted to come to Al-Khalil to get a better understanding
of different aspects of the Occupation. As we boarded a taxi back to
Bethlehem I asked them what time it was. We had only been in the city for
just over two hours, during this time they had heard Ibrahim's story of a
life time in and out of Occupation prisons, and seen the physical damage it
has caused him. They had also heard Ibrahim's friend explain about his
family being chased out of their family home of hundereds of years and still
being unable to return. They had seen patrols of heavily armed Occupation
soldiers patrolling the city and the devastation the Settlers have caused to
the Old City. They had seen children being arrested. We also found out that
a resident of Tel Rumeida had had his car set alight the previous night by
Settlers. And finally, we had spoken with this ten year old boy. This boy
whose hair is now starting to fall out because of the constant fear which
dominates his life, and who had just been released after his third arrest
before even reaching his teenage years. They had witnessed all this in just
two hours in Al-Khalil. Imagine how it must feel to have lived there for
your entire life.

(April 2007)

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