On Saturday the settlers in Hebron were celebrating what they called Sarah's Day. Masses of tourists were here from other parts of Israel, because Sarah is buried here. When we went on our usual morning school patrol, accompanying Palestinian children to school here in Hebron, settlers and tourists were streaming to the synagogue, and there were at least triple the number of Israeli soldiers and military police present. What I noticed was that the Palestinian kids who would normally have to cross the street that the settlers and soldiers were using, were simply not coming out. They skipped school that day because it was too threatening.
As I was standing on the corner monitoring the situation, I noticed a few young men wearing prayer shawls and machine guns coming out from the synagogue. I have learned that this is common dress for many young settler men. One of them walked by me and said "fuck you bitch," in perfect American English. This was a religious Jew, with earlocks, a prayer shawl, and a machine gun, coming home from synagogue.
This was a change from the usual. Most of the Hebron settlers refuse to speak to us at all or even look at us when they walk by.
I had another illuminating encounter with settlers and machine guns in West Jerusalem on Thursday. I was there for a meeting with the US Consulate about holding the Maon settlers accountable for the beatings. Another CPTer and I were standing in line at the central post office to pay my ambulance bill. In order to go into the post office, as with other public buildings in Jerusalem, one has to pass through a metal detector and be frisked by armed security guards. Two young settler men walked in, dressed in prayer shawls and machine guns, and stood in line with us. Apparently settlers with machine guns are exempt from security precautions. The rules really only apply to Palestinians.
Later on Saturday, the settlers continued their celebration of Sarah's Day by organizing a march to some holy stone located outside of their settlement compound. In order to facilitate this, the Israeli army, police, and civil administration shut down the street where the march was to take place, forced all the Palestinians off the surrounding streets, and closed all the shops in the busiest market area of the city. There were six or eight military, police and civil administration jeeps with six people each, plus an armored personnel carrier with a bunch more soldiers enforcing this. I saw two military police officers fire shots into a crowded market, and I saw a jeep drive into a crowd in order to get them off the streets. The street they closed is lined with Palestinian homes and shops. Things remained closed for about three hours. No notice was given.
After they got all the Palestinians out of the way, the settlers lined up behind the military check point that separates their compound from the Palestinians. About 250 of them marched out, singing and clapping. They were all dressed as religious Jews. They were escorted by this large contingent of soldiers to their holy stone where they were to pray, and then escorted back. Many brought their own machine guns as well.
One man stopped to talk with us. He was not from this settlement, but from Tel Aviv. He basically blamed the whole situation on Palestinian terror. I asked him what he would do if the village his family had inhabited for 500 years was destroyed, his home bulldozed, his family herded at gunpoint to a refugee camp, and his land confiscated in order to create a new country. This is what happened to half of Palestinian villages in 1948. He said I was condoning terror. I do not get it. Obviously, I do not think that violence gets anyone anywhere, but one can imagine the desperation that has led to it. I can also imagine the desperation that has led Jewish people to want their own state. What I cannot understand is what they have done in order to get it.
And what they have done in the name of holy sites. My attitude toward holy sites is a bit different. I did see the place in Bethlehem where Jesus supposedly was born, but it is not the actual site that matters to me. They could destroy the site, and it would not affect my faith a bit. It is the spirit of the site that matters, not the actual place. Control over the place is not so important as is the way we live our lives.
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