We walk
down the narrow dusty alley and stop when we come to a pile of
water tanks blocking our path. The tanks have obviously been put
here as a barrier between the Israeli settlement in the middle
of Hebron and the rest of the city. Israeli settlers entered into
Hebron in 1967. The approximately 500 settlers that live in Hebron
now are accompanied by over 1,000 soldiers. Since 1967, the settlers
have continually expanded the settlement, taking over Palestinian
houses by force. Last Sunday, on July 28, Settlers went on a rampage,
injuring four Palestinians, killing a 14 year old girl, and occupying
two homes. We turn back from the alley and check our directions,
we are trying to find one of the houses that was occupied and
damaged during the settler rampage. As we walk up the ally a man
opens his door and invites us inside, “Welcome” he
says motioning us in.
The small
door opens into a large patio. Plants and broken plates, vases,
cups, and other assorted ornaments scatter the ground. A woman
in a blue hejab leads us into the home. She speaks to us assertively
in fluent English, “Look, look at what they have done.”
She points to the ground and the rubble left scattered about the
house. She leads us into a dark room where the smell of fire still
lingers in the air. Settlers started a fire here to destroy part
of the house; the military entered the building with them. They
just stood by and watched.
Inside,
it is hard to distinguish much in the suit. Its hard for me to
imagine that this was once a sort of home made museum with handwritten
books and artifacts dating back over a thousand years. The house
itself is over a thousand years old. “This is the home of
our grandmothers and grandfathers…. They want to destroy
our history. This is our history.” Afifah, the woman in
the blue hejab tells us. The room is still hot from the fire,
thousands of years of history destroyed in a few minutes.
Afifah
turns to us, knowing that the majority of our group is from the
U.S., “America doesn’t want to hear what is happening
to the Palestinians, they don’t want to see…. nobody
wants to hear, but in the future everyone will hear.” I
can tell she is not just saying these words, but she means it.
Her eyes have an intensity to them that lets you know that she
is serious. “If the Israeli wants to make their home over
the blood of the Palestinians this is a dream.”
We continue
up to the second floor, broken plates and ceramics crack under
my feet as I walk up the steps. An older woman and two children
huddle on the ground, a broken T.V. and assorted house belongings
cover the floor. Walking to the back of the house, we see how
the settlers entered. Behind a chain-wire fence lie the barb wire
walls of the Israeli settlement. Despite the wreck that the settlers
have caused, the house is still amazing, probably the most beautiful
house I have seen in Palestine. We comment about the beauty of
the house, but Afifah disagrees with us. “When you have
neighbors like the settlers nothing is beautiful. You are always
afraid.”
We walk
into another room that the settlers were unable to enter. Inside,
we see a humble yet elegant living room. The room stands in stark
contrast to the other rooms in the house, which have been ransacked.
The contrast reminds me of how violating this must be to the family.
I remember how I felt when my apartment was broken into in the
U.S. and how difficult it was for me to even be in the apartment
after it had happened. I know that they must have this same feeling
hundredfold; the fear, the sadness, the anger.
We start
back out of the house, stepping on the broken remains of this
family’s life. Matt, one of the other internationals, looks
in disgust, “What kind of people would do this?” Jerry,
another international turns and responds, “The kind of people
who have experienced the same thing before.”
